Termite Fisher..
I wanted to do my fifth sculpture in honor of my biology mentor, Dr. Jane Goodall. I had followed her research ever since I was a little girl. I still possess all of the original National Geographic magazines from the 1960s of her work. I had shown my parents "See here's a blond lady doing what you say only men do."
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When I found out that her research institute was based in Tucson, Arizona not far from where I lived, I excitedly called them and said I wanted to do a sculpture that would help Jane; maybe by raising funds from the sale of the sculpture. |
They were excited. It was the first time a sculptor
had called them and made that proposal.
It took me about four months to execute the wax and when I called to say I was done, they
said, "Boy, Jane's going to be here next week. Why don't we have you meet her?"
It was such an exciting meeting for me. With tears in her eyes, she told me she loved the
"Termite Fisher." I modeled it after her hallmark discovery that
chimpanzees do fashion tools. Until Jane's work it was thought that talent
belonged only to
man.
