George Shean, a disabled veteran living on Rhode Island Avenue in Ellwood, encourages all in the area to come by and view the replica T-Rex skeletons he has designed and displayed on his front lawn.
There are currently two replicas, one is a large T-Rex which stands six feet tall, four and a half feet wide, 23 feet in length and took roughly eight months to complete, then there is a smaller T-Rex, reaching a maximum length of nine feet, that stands guard over their replica T-Rex nest.
Shean showing the difference between the 36” model of his saber-tooth tiger vs his life size one
In order to create the replicas, Shean stated that he starts out with a 36 inch model and then manually recalculates the size to scale for free-hand sculpting of the larger models. He forms the skeleton with insulation wrapped in cheese cloth, then he proceeds to cover it in liquid rubber and paint. The whole process is very time consuming and tedious, but Shean said he loves doing it.
When asked where he got his inspiration from, he responded, “I have been doing this for years. I used to work at the Museum of Fine Arts and I graduated from the Fine Art College in Boston, class of ’86. I am a professional sculptor, but I just make these for fun.”
Shean said he specifically enjoys making dinosaur skeletons because “everybody likes dinosaurs and they’re challenging to make.”
We can look forward to some other dinosaur projects he’s currently working on. He’s got a full sized Saber-Tooth Tiger in the making that should be done some time within the next year. He also has plans on creating a Velociraptor.
Photos by Cassandra Douglas/EllwoodCity.org
exploring replica of prehistoric animal for children dispaly in out museum,