1977

This winter visitors to the Boston Common have been walking into Andy Moerlein's sculpture. "Drawing on the Sacred Circle," a series of seven sapling pods forming a circle 35 feet in diameter, was on display through February. Like his other recent installations at the Franklin Park Zoo in Dorchester and the Fuller Museum in Brockton, Andy's latest creation features structures big enough for an adult to walk into and admire from the inside out. A Boston Globe reviewer compared the experience to standing in a long-lost fort in the woods or peering through an intricate spider web with a magnifying glass.

Andy builds his pieces by layering thin young trees in intricate patterns tied together with malleable wire. This technique creates naturally rounded and arched pieces. Andy harvests trees from overgrown areas of New Hampshire, then designs and constructs his pieces in his back yard. Each takes approximately 100 hours from start to finish.

Andy, his wife Susan, and their 12- and 14-year-old sons recently moved to Bow, N.H., after 17 years in Ithaca, N.Y. After receiving his master's degree in 1982 Andy taught and lectured at Cornell, and developed a local reputation for his sculptures that incorporate a variety of natural elements and materials. He and Susan, a dancer, also established their own school of art and dance in a renovated turn-of-the-century firehouse.

Andy now teaches art at the Derryfield School in Manchester and is building his reputation anew through shows at local galleries, as well as his larger outdoor pieces. He's pleased to observe how people enjoy exploring his sculptures. "As an artist," Andy says, "it's always a reward to see people reacting to your work."

14102 Beckley Trace, Louisville, KY 40245;

Maxwell Anderson '77leads the Whitney Museum, p.28

'77 art history players George Shackelfordand Robert Dance, p.31