by Luke Voogt
On a prominent Gold Coast rock lurks a massive tree frog that’s no ordinary amphibian but the work of Corio sculptor Jay Sikora.
The boilermaker-by-trade watched with his wife and two sons as a crane moved the steel frog onto the coveted rock.
“We made a little family holiday out of it,” the 29-year-old said.
“Everyone wants to be on that rock – that’s what I gathered talking to the other artists in this festival. Seeing it go up there was a proud moment.”
The frog was Jay’s first entry in Currumbin’s Swell Sculpture Festival and probably the only one from Geelong, he said.
“It’s a bit of a privilege to get in, and the frog really stands out.
“People walking past will ask, ‘Why’s this frog on a rock?’ Well, why not?”
Jay spent more than 150 hours designing, laser-cutting, folding and welding the weathering steel sculpture every weekend for the past few months, he said.
“I only managed to get it finished a week before the exhibition.”
The frog’s “geometric” shape, designed with a computer program, gave the sculpture a shape-shifting effect, Jay said.
“As the sun comes overhead it hits the different polygons and it looks different at different times.”
Jay has made sculptures for seven years and turned his skills to larger works two years ago.
“I’ve always been artistic,” he said.
“Being a boilermaker gave me the skills to bring my ideas to life.”
