Sandy Springs’ big brick dragonfly is rising alongside Abernathy Road.
Artists Alexis Gregg and Tanner Coleman have started work on a “playable” sculpture of a dragonfly they designed for the playable art park in the Abernathy Greenway Linear Park.
The two spent part of the day July 18, the first day of construction, laying out maps for the first level of custom-made bricks that will be used in the sculpture.
When completed, the sculpture will stand 52 feet long by 12 feet wide and 8 ½ feet tall and contain about 12,000 bricks, Gregg said. The dragonfly statue will have a 42 foot wingspan.
The statute – one of six planned for the playable art park being pulled together by Arts Sandy Springs — will contain wings made of climbable rope and seven slides, the couple said. Gregg said construction likely will take a couple of months.
Why a dragonfly? “When I look at the site, there was a space that had that shape,” Gregg said.
“And it’s a very significant insect to the South,” Coleman added. “And it has all different types of colors.”
Besides, they said, they’d already built a 35-foot-long brick crocodile in Australia.