ART
Stuart artist Geoffrey C. Smith’s huge sculptures
celebrating marine life have become part of the
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Treasure Coast landscape
BY CATHERINE ENNS GRIGAS
Geoffrey C. Smith pulls his black Jaguar into the
busy traffic circle that funnels most of the cars
that pass through downtown Stuart, but his
eyes aren’t completely on the road. There, in
the center of the circle, an 18-foot-high bronze
sailfish seems to propel itself up from the frothy water of
a fountain, its lustrous body glistening in the sun, its bill
pointed toward the blue spring sky.
It is a spectacular sight, and Smith can be forgiven for glancing
over at it with pride. That sailfish, centered in the heart of
the city that proudly proclaims itself as the sailfishing capital
of the world, also symbolizes nearly two full years of work for
Smith, 48, the man who sculpted the traffic-stopping landmark
at Sailfish Circle. “It’s pretty amazing,” he says when he
is asked how it feels to have thousands of viewers drive by his
sculpture every day. “I have been very fortunate.”
Smith’s bronze sculptures, many of them monumental
pieces, dot the Stuart and Jensen Beach area like charms on a
bracelet. A powerful 16-foot-tall work, “Blue Thunder,” depicting
a blue marlin as it strikes a school of tuna, sits at the
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entrance of the Harborage Yacht Club and Marina. At Martin
Memorial Hospital, “Dolphin Trio” is a pod of dolphins arcing
over a fountain, providing the serene focus of a garden
seating area. In front of the hospital’s Weissman Cancer
Center is another sculpture, “Shell Boys,” of two young boys
at play, drenched in the fountain’s water. In Jensen, a mother
and baby dolphin in “Life’s Journey” appear to leap more
than 12 feet high through the spray of a fountain in front of
the Children’s Museum at Indian Riverside Park.
PARADE OF SEA LIFE
At the Florida Oceanographic Society, a parade of sea life
and marine creatures spirals up in a precise balancing act that
is topped by loggerhead turtles and manatees in a bronze
piece that is entertaining, educational and interactive. It is
one of the few of his public works that is within touching
distance. Smith laughs when he considers that in a few years
the bronze on the manatee’s snout might be polished by the
affectionate pats of a thousand tiny hands.
Jensen Beach High School has another of Smith’s works, a
12-foot-high falcon representing the school’s mascot. At Willoughby
Golf Club, the smiling countenance of golf legend
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