Daily Chores 
by artist Michael Tizzano
 

The Daily Chores sculpture was inspired by Dublin’s historic town water pump that sat in the middle of the intersection of what is now Bridge and High streets in the early 1900s. While the pump was a primary source of drinking water for the town, it was also a community gathering place where residents would come together to share news and connect with one another.

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Michael Tizzano lives and works in his art studio in Westerville, Ohio. A former middle school art teacher of 23 years, Tizzano retired in 2010 to pursue sculpting full time. Throughout his tenure as a teacher, Tizzano worked as a freelance graphic designer specializing in lettering design for clients such as Mid-Ohio racing. He also completed post-graduate coursework in architecture, art history and bronze casting at The Ohio State University in 1993 and 1994. Tizzano has created numerous commissioned public and private sculptures for clients over the past 22 years, including ballet dancers for Dublin Dance Arts, Kayla Reading at Blendon Middle School media center, and The Chase for Westerville Parks and Recreation.

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A keen observer of his surroundings, Tizzano draws his inspiration from the world around him. He works from multiple sources, including visual memory, photographs, drawings and sketches when creating a sculpture. Sculptures are three-dimensional works of art, so Tizzano created a ¼-scale model, called a maquette, to have a sense of the final work. For Daily Chores, Tizzano used historic photos of the pump at the intersection of Bridge and High streets along with current photographs and sketches of local children to create the initial maquette that served as a model for the full-scale sculpture.

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Daily Chores tells the story of a different time through art. Featuring two barefoot children dressed in period clothing, the sculpture shows a six-year-old boy struggling to operate the pump while his 13-year-old sister sits on the edge of the horse trough, holding a pail to collect the water. As Tizzano describes the scene,  “… she loses her focus and allows the pail to overflow, spilling its contents into the trough, creating the fountain feature.”