Immigrant Rock Honors Cityhood of Solana Beach

Millions of years ago, an igneous immigrant crossed what eventually became the border between Canada and the United States. Carried slowly, relentlessly southward by the inexorable forces of a huge glacier, the 9.5-ton boulder ultimately lodged in the rocky hills of Poway.

Tuesday, on the first day of the immigration legalization process, a sculptor chipped, cut and sawed away at the 19,000-pound chunk of granite and began putting the final touches onto a bas-relief that commemorates Cinco de Mayo 1987.

Called “Las Flores, Los Angeles” (the flowers, the angels), the work also commemorates the first year of cityhood of Solana Beach. The glacial rock, plucked out of Poway, will serve as the cornerstone of La Colonia Park, said Solana Beach artist Tom Emery.

Emery, 64, whose bronze and stone sculptures adorn several cities across the country, said the five bud-like figures on the granite are like “flower-people that are angels looking after our children. They also represent the budding city of Solana Beach.”

Searching For the Right Rock

To find his igneous medium, the artist spent three weeks searching through the craggy countryside near Poway for just the right rock. “This is not native California stone,” he said. “We don’t have pink granite. We have gray and green.”

Emery chose a relief rather than a sculpture, because brittle granite tends to break easily.

The artist’s fees and the cost of moving the massive stone to Solana Beach--about $3,600--were underwritten in part by volunteer contributions and the city. Transporting the stone required the use of an 18-wheel truck.

Sweating each day for 2 1/2 weeks under the midday sun, Emery has romanced the stone into yielding bit by bit. He sketched the design after first examining the rock in its glacial resting spot.

Using a variety of hand, air-driven and electric chisels and saws, the sculptor chipped out the figures.

Shaking and Breaking

“My hands were shaking so much (from holding a chisel and 5-pound hammer), when I got home, my wife asked if I had the delirium tremens,” he half-joked. In the process of sculpting the relief, the granite chewed up more than a dozen carborundum saw blades, Emery said.

Emery has started the final process of polishing the rock, using a fine abrasive sander. “It will be a beautiful pink when it’s finished,” he said, but cautioned: “You can polish too much. It doesn’t need to go too far.”

Tuesday, the day of Cinco de Mayo, there was little festivity in La Colonia Park. The unveiling had taken place Sunday during the official city celebration, when mariachis had played while people danced traditional Mexican folk dances and parachutists dropped in with a display of aerial skills.

Instead of celebrations Tuesday, people stopped to talk with Emery as they’ve done all during the time he has been working on the rock.

“I’m not a famous artist,” Emery said. “I don’t think I have a single piece in a museum. I do see people looking at a work, caressing it with their hands. That’s all the fame a guy needs.”