Creating Sojourner Truth statue a healing, inspiring journey for Akron sculptor Woodrow Nash

The sculptor who spent years bringing the bronze, life-sized Sojourner Truth statue to life downtown is Akron's own son, Woodrow Nash .

The new, 6-foot statue of the legendary former slave, abolitionist and suffragist is the focal point of Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza , unveiled in late May at 37 N. High St. at the site of the Old Stone Church, where Truth gave her historic "Ain't I a Woman?" speech exactly 173 years earlier on May 29, 1851. Her speech, which she gave during the Ohio Women's Rights Convention, challenged the exclusion of women of color from the women's rights movement.

Who is Woodrow Nash, and how did he become involved with this historic project honoring Truth's legacy?

Nash, 75, began his artistic trajectory in Akron, leading him to become an internationally renowned artist whose work is sought after by galleries, art collectors and African-American celebrities.

The artist, born in the Rubber City in 1948, grew up on the south side and attended the former Miller School, followed by Thornton Junior High and West Junior High. He graduated from Buchtel High School.

Nash, who was always artistically inclined, enjoyed drawing throughout his school years. To this day, he sees people from grade school who remind him that he taught them how to draw Popeye.

When Nash was 10, he decided he wanted to go to a college that would teach him to draw and paint.

"There was this period of time when I wanted to be an artist. I thought to myself, 'I want to be an artist. I want to become an artist.' And then there was this time that I said, 'I am an artist,' and I knew that I was an artist. And it happened unconsciously, just over a period of time that I grew into it," Nash said.

He studied art for three years at the University of Akron before getting a two-year degree in commercial art at Pels School of Art in New York. Nash moved to New York when he was in his mid-20s and lived there for nearly 15 years, starting as a graphic designer for advertising agencies.

"I found it difficult to work in those agencies because it's such high pressure and you never really win your position," he said. "You're only as good as your last assignment."

He later became a freelance artist doing fashion illustration and designing and illustrating album covers for jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Cat Anderson and Arnett Cobb.

'I can do this...I'm gonna be in the show'

Nash returned to Akron in the 1980s where he met and married his wife, Wanda. He worked as a technical illustrator at Goodyear Aerospace Corporation and as an illustrator for American Greetings Corporation.

In 1991, the Nashes moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where they lived for seven years. Nash started out there working as a graphic designer in advertising.

His career changed after the couple happened upon the annual show Art Fair on the Square in Madison. At the time, Nash didn't know anything about art fairs but saw lots of people buying art.

"That was a defining moment for me, and I said, 'Well I can do this,'" Nash said, telling his wife: "Next year, I'm gonna be in the show."

Nash decided to create 3D work for the art fair, even though he hadn't done sculpture since his days at UA, where he had focused mainly on painting.

"At that time, I didn't know the workings of being an artist, the business of being an artist. I just knew how to create, and it was like jumping in the pool of deep water and not knowing how to swim. And I learned as I went along," Nash said.

When Nash began freelancing as a sculptor in Madison, opening his Creative Ceramics Studio, everything he had learned about sculpting and casting at UA came back to him.

For his first art show, he decided to use large fieldstones left behind by the glaciers in the Madison area to create molds for huge vases as functional pottery.

At an art show near Madison, a group of Black people asked him where the Black art was. That was the beginning of a big switch in Nash's artistic career.

"I started putting images of Black people on my vases, and that caused quite a sensation," he said. "People were just interested in it."

The work Nash does now, African nouveau art, evolved from that moment. His style combines his ancestry in African tradition with European art nouveau, a stylized, sensuous way of painting and sculpting.

How Sojourner Truth inspired Nash

Nash says clay talks to him. As he created the Sojourner Truth sculpture, he worked to bring to life her spirit of resilience, bravery and unwavering pursuit of justice.

Nash's Sojourner Truth statue, his first public work, is a realistic representation of the historic figure.

"As I sculpted, I felt a deep connection to her story, molding each feature to capture both her strength and the softness of her humanity," Nash reflected on his website.

Here's how Nash perceives Truth's strength:

"In her book ["The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave"], she talked about her ability to compare herself to men and her ability to eat as much as a man and work as hard as a man. And in that speech, 'I can do this, I can do this just like a man,' but 'Ain't I a woman?' It was a rhetorical question, and she talked about just lifting and pulling and working with her hands.

"I wanted to portray her strength in her hands, so we spent a lot of time designing her hands," Nash said. "Her hands are just gripping [the Bible]."

Truth, born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, changed her name after freedom, becoming an abolitionist and traveling preacher. She was illiterate but had a great command of scripture from memory.

"Her name was who she was. She was traveling, she was sojourning and she was speaking the truth, truth to power," Nash said.

On the softer side, Nash talked about Truth being a compassionate and loving mother who escaped slavery with her infant daughter in 1826 and later successfully sued for custody of her son in the New York Supreme Court in 1828.

"I thought that was interesting that a Black woman at that time would go up against the power structure, and she won," Nash said.

Inside Nash's sculpting process

As folks enter the Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza from the southwest, they see Truth's historic figure facing them. She's holding a Bible and wearing a shawl, dress, bonnet and spectacles.

Nash began work on the statue in 2019 at his Copley Road production studio, where he works with clay, firing, molds and glazing. Nash normally does his finishing work at his second, large studio downtown on Sweitzer Avenue.

Creating the clay Truth sculpture, Nash started with the legs. Once they were stable, he added the torso, then the face, arms and hands.

"I'm pleased with the likeness," Nash said of the sculpture's face.

Next, he added Truth's clothing drapery. He created that by rolling clay over cheesecloth and draping it. Once it's fired, the clay matures and the cheesecloth burns out.

The clay parts were then cut into sections to create numerous molds for Studio Foundry of Cleveland to cast in bronze for the finished statue.

Road to creating Sojourner Truth statue

Nash was originally tapped by Faye Dambrot of the Women's History Project of the Akron Area to create a Sojourner Truth statue in the 1990s. He created a small prototype at the time, but that project came to a halt after Dambrot passed away.

Years later, Nash was commissioned to create the Sojourner Truth statue in 2019 by the Sojourner Truth Project, which was formed from the Summit Suffrage Centennial Committee to honor Truth's legacy.

Nash was still in the design planning process in 2022 when his work was again halted after he suffered a stroke that left him hospitalized.

Unable to walk or use his left side, Nash went through physical therapy. He was concerned that he wouldn't be able to continue working on the statue, but his wife, who knew how strong-willed he was, urged him to continue.

"She encouraged it. I didn't think I could do it," Nash said.

"The actual progress came from the daily tasks in the studio using my arm," he said of his physical therapy.

Nash's assistant, Jeff Willis, worked side by side with him to get the Truth project done.

"He became my right hand. And I directed and he produced and then we were able to put it together," Nash said.

At the Sojourner Truth Legacy Plaza, Truth's statue is surrounded by her inspiring quotes as well as four pillars proclaiming the words faith, activism, power and identity.

To commemorate the historic dedication of the site, Nash created miniatures of his statues for donors. He also has created commemorative slates with images of the statue and quotes from Truth for others to keep a piece of her legacy. For more information on the slates, see woodrownashstudios.com .

Nash wants those who visit the Sojourner Truth statue to know how difficult her work was traveling and fighting for equal rights as a Black suffragette and abolitionist beginning in the 1840s. His goal is for others to understand Truth and her legacy to the nation.

"I want the children, the youth, to understand and just not take things for granted," he said.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Creating Sojourner Truth statue a healing, inspiring journey for Akron sculptor Woodrow Nash