By An artist that periodically shows up on these Flyover People pages is Alan Tollakson. I frequently run into him at the art events around town.
Right now Alan is working on a deadline, carving letters that spell “Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City” for the new building in KCMO. He’s carved a couple of eagles for the building as well.
He’s using Cottonwood limestone from a quarry in Chase County. Each piece of flat stone is, I think, 3’X3′ – a slab for each letter.
Cliff Dieker, a fellow stone carver, sweeps away shavings. He’s helping Alan with this massive project. They have about 10 letters left to carve before the stones are picked up next week.
Alan shows me a pulley system that iron worker David Edwards helped construct so they could move the 300 to 400-pound stones around more easily.
One of two eagles that is part of the project. “10-J” stands for the Kansas City branch of the Federal Reserve. Check your paper money and the letter/number will show you where the bill came from.
Stacks of stones.
Cliff Dieker and Alan Tollakson.
This photo essay was brought to you by the letter “C.”
Thanks Roger, for the tip to chase down this story.
I am so proud that Alan lives in Emporia and gets these over-the-top architectural commissions. He’s a modest guy to the point that we don’t really know the mark he is leaving on America’s building legacy.
The Federal Reserve project, when assembled, is over a hundred feet long. Cheryl, did you get the actual length of this commission?
He has 37 stones (7 are dots – surrounding each word) and if they’re each 3′ wide, then that ought to be 111 feet long. Oh- plus the eagles. And then he’s also doing a second set of smaller letters for over the entry door.
Rog you are correct———-we should all be so proud he is from Kansas— & all he does for our state!!!!!!!!! His work is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How many other towns across America today can say, “We have a stone carver in our town who makes America beautiful for many years to come?
Do you think we might have a new stone carver????????????
I’m sure she will be talened no matter what she may choose to do!!!!!!
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2007/aug/15/homeborn_baby_beats_calendar/
Home-born baby beats the calendar
By Scott Rochat
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Newborn Ellie Tollakson just couldn’t wait to join the family when she was born at home Aug. 4. Ellie arrived before the midwife did and was delivered by her father, Alan Tollakson. Also shown in this photo taken Tuesday at the Tollaksons’ home are, from left, Ellie’s mother, Deirdre, her 4-year-old sister, Anya, and, at right, family friend Shari Sippola, who helped with the delivery.
Deirdre and Alan Tollakson had planned to have their second child at home. They hadn’t planned to have her without their midwife.
Plans do go astray. And so, on Aug. 4, Alan Tollakson found himself delivering his own daughter. Ellie Ronan Tollakson came into the world four days early and after only an hour’s labor.
“It’s just amazing how fast things were happening,” said the new father, an Emporia sculptor.
Fast indeed. Deirdre Tollakson, a massage therapist, said she began feeling something around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 3. At 11:30 p.m. she sent her husband out for groceries, a trip he made reluctantly and as quick as possible.
Around 12:30 a.m., the labor began.
The Tollaksons had called the midwife, but she lives near Augusta. By the time family friend Shari Sippola arrived around 1:20 a.m. to help, the midwife still wasn’t there — but Ellie nearly was.
“It was very calm in the room,” Sippola remembered. “The lights were low and some really nice music was playing. No one was panicking.”
“I wasn’t relaxed or calm,” Deirdre Tollakson corrected with a grin. “But it was good for me. … It was a really relaxed atmosphere.”
Within five minutes of Sippola’s arrival, the baby had started crowning. Sippola quickly called the midwife and found she was still in Augusta — her assistant hadn’t arrived yet.
So Sippola stayed on the phone, relaying instructions from the midwife to Alan Tollakson as he waited to catch his daughter.
The head came out as far as the upper lip. He could see Ellie’s eyes facing him. Then the midwife wanted to know “Is the cord wrapped around the baby’s neck?” Unable to see, the sculptor felt around.
“I couldn’t feel a cord so it was ‘Not as far as I can tell,’” he said.
The midwife reassured him all was well, then told him to be ready to let the baby come out on the next contraction. Like everything else that night, it happened a little more quickly than expected.
“I’m sitting here waiting for the contraction and then in the next second, whoosh, she was flying out of there!” Alan Tollakson said. “It was like express delivery.”
The slippery baby went right through his hands. Thankfully, his wife was close to the floor so Ellie only had a couple of inches to drop.
“We checked her for carpet burns before anything else,” Deirdre Tollakson said.
No harm done. And it all happened so quietly, it didn’t even wake up their 4-year-old daughter Anya (who was also born at home). Usually a restless sleeper, Anya slept through to morning, when she got to meet her new baby sister.
Ellie was 8 pounds, 9 ounces at birth. The midwife afterward said that the two other Emporia births she had assisted at were also fast labors — one was 20 minutes, the other 50 minutes.
“I’m not going to go for the record,” Deirdre Tollakson chuckled.
Hi Cheryl, My sister from California sent this article to me re: Alan Tollakson (stemming from a google search). I’d never seen it and I’m Cliff Dieker’s wife. (Cliff is the other artist pictured in the article.) Maybe stone artists have more in common than their talent….like modesty. LOL. Well, naturally, I’m his most avid fan, so I couldn’t let this go by un-noted. In case you’re interested Cliff has some public works on display in Emporia as well, such as the Respect Life Memorial (Christ holding baby) at the Didde Catholic Campus Center, the stone sign post at William Allen White Elementary School, and more recently the Buck Animal Welfare sign at the dog park. Soon to come: a new sign for the Lyon County Museum. Cliff and Alan have enjoyed working together on several projects and are now working on the restoration of the state capitol bldg in Topeka. Cliff is a native Emporian.
Very interesting, Chris. It will be fun looking at these public works on display in Emporia knowing who the artist was. Thanks!