The 2020 People’s Choice Award winner is a sculpture by a Salina man who loved motorcycles and working with his hands.
Artist, Sunny Corbett of Salina passed away shortly after he completed the shiny rider aboard the scrap metal chopper. His boss at Pestinger Heating & Air suggested he enter the piece into the Salina Downtown Sculpture Tour.
Sunny’s wife, Ann Corbett shared his touching back story with the SculptureTour Salina board when she entered the work.
“Sunny began working at Pestinger Heating & Air in February of 1999. He started out working in the field installing, but once an opportunity opened for him to work in the Shop area, he started his fabrication career. He loved to work with his hands and could create just about anything with metal. He became an owner of an Iron Horse chopper in 2018 after arriving home from the Sturgis rally. A few months later he began to build a chopper from scrap metal he found in the shop. The project started in November of 2018 and was completed in May of 2019. He went to work early to work on it before he started his workday and even worked on it during his lunch hour. He measured his life size chopper and downscaled by 50 percent. After completed, his boss suggested to enter it into the Salina Downtown Sculpture Tour. He was in disbelief that this little project would be considered a work of art. Sunny aka “STEEL” was a selfless man and did the best he could to help others. He will be missed by many, but his chopper artwork will live on.”
People’s Choice Winner – For the Love of Steel by Sunny Corbett
Merit Award – 2nd Place – $1,000 – Out of Africa by Dale Lewis
Kids Choice Merit Award – NEW! FIRST TIME EVER – $500 – For the Love of Steel by Sunny Corbett
Other than purchasing the People’s Choice winner, SculptureTour Salina is entirely privately funded. Multiple sculptures are temporarily displayed in the downtown area for a year. Each sculpture is for sale, with the City of Salina purchasing the People’s Choice winner for permanent display.
The current sculptures on the tour will soon be coming down, to make way for new ones. New Sculptures have been selected for 2021, and will unveiled in May.
