On Tuesday, July 26th, early morning commuters and seaside walkers honked, shot photos and pointed at the now beloved Cardiff Kook sculpture.
Unlike the past, the kook’s decorator did not worked in the wee hours of the day, but was in plane view under the sun. This decorator was not just any local hoodlum looking to use the Kook as a canvas; he was the mildly mysterious artist who created the sculpture.
The Kook sculptor Matthew Antichevich and Encinitas resident and welding master Danny Salhandler climbed upon their scaffolding around 7am to begin necessary repairs on the portion of the sculpture representing the wave.
The damage to the scultpure came after dozens, if not hundreds, of decorators climbing on the Kook while installing decorations including a giant shark, cupid and Vincent Van Gogh. The city contacted Antichevich before the damage became unrepairable.
“It was a short notice,” Antichevich explained. “I had to cast each part, but I think the city wanted it done quickly to fall within a budget deadline.”
With Antichevich carefully overlooking the repairs, Salhandler attached each addition with melted brass and reinforced preexisting pieces. He even managed to accidentally drip a pieces of brass on his wedding ring.
“Gloves are for wimps,” Salhandler answered with a grin when asked why he preferred to keep his hands bare.
A steady flow are onlookers stopped ask what was happening. “Is the Kook being taken away,” a woman asked during her morning walk. She, as well as the dozens of others who stopped inquiring information, gasped in relief when told that the Kook was not going anywhere.
Antichevich, who has been the target of some harsh criticism, politely answered questions from the media in his soft spoken voice. He described how he lived in Encinitas for a few years as a child and enjoyed seeing the ocean. He surfs now and has a wide range of surf history knowledge. Both his daughters surf and were even giving lessons down the road as he repaired the sculpture. He also has a thick resume of past surf sculptures and he makes his own boards, as seen in his personal surfboard logo on the face of the Kook’s board.
Antichevich may have made an error with the skill shown in the ameturish and akward stance of the Kook rather than one who is advanced, but the Kook represents nothing of what Antichevich truly is- an artistically accomplished artist, a surf history buff and one who loves surfing and the ocean.
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