Ted Fullerton
Achilles
On Monday, October 31, 2005 the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre unveiled Achilles, a bronze and steel sculpture by Canadian painter/printmaker/sculptor Ted Fullerton. It was the 32nd. permanent installation for the centre's Donald Forster Sculpture Park.
Achilles takes the form of a roughly hewn human leg that stands over seven feet high on a steel platform painted in a vibrant red. Fullerton is interested in the timelessness of myths that explain the elemental rhythms and patterns of nature. The artist reinvigorated the ancient myth of Achilles, the mightiest of the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War and was the hero of Homer's Iliad. Son of the goddess Thetis and the mortal Peleus, Achilles was born mortal. Fearing her son's death, Thetis held the young Achilles by the heel and bathed him in the river Styx. The sacred water made Achilles invulnerable, except for his heel which remained dry and unprotected. at Troy, the noble warrior was killed by an arrow to his heel.
Fullerton is a graduate of the Ontario college of Art and Design (Toronto) and studied contemporary and Pre-Columbian art in South America. He is a visual arts educator who has taught throughout Canada including residencies in Cape Dorset (Nunavut) and Canadore College (North Bay). Fullerton is the Program Coordinator of the fine art department at Georgian college in Barrie. He is represented by Bau-Xi Gallery (Toronto/Vancouver), Canadian Art Galleries Ltd. (Calgary), James Baird Gallery (St. John's), and Joan Ferneyhough Gallery (North Bay).
Achilles was purchased with funds raised by the Art Centre Volunteers with support from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2004.