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DESCRIPTION: approx. 60-inch high by 48-inch wide by 100-inch long cast bronze sculpture, mounted on a stone boulder
Coleman's highly dynamic sculpture depicts a hide drogher in the process of throwing a heavy cowhide down the 400-foot cliff to the beach below, by way of gaining spinning momentum in order to cast it well beyond being caught on the cliff edges. The early 19th century moving of cowhides from inland to the Dana Point headland where they were transferred to waiting ships was an astonishing feat described by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. in his historic memoir "Two Years Before the Mast." It would be historically accurate to believe the drogher depicted in the sculpture to be Dana himself: "Down this height we pitched the hides, throwing them as far out into the air as we could; and as they were all large, stiff, and doubled, like the cover of a book, the wind took them, and they swayed and eddied about, plunging and rising in the air, like a kite when it has broken its string. As it was now low tide, there was no danger of their falling into the water, and as fast as they came to ground, the men below picked them up, and taking them on their heads, walked off with them to the boat. It was really a picturesque sight: the great height; the scaling of the hides; and the continual walking to and fro of the men, who looked like mites, on the beach! This was the romance of hide-droghing!"Two Years Before the Mast, 1840, Ch. XVIII
See also Dana Point Arts & Culture
Coleman's highly dynamic sculpture depicts a hide drogher in the process of throwing a heavy cowhide down the 400-foot cliff to the beach below, by way of gaining spinning momentum in order to cast it well beyond being caught on the cliff edges. The early 19th century moving of cowhides from inland to the Dana Point headland where they were transferred to waiting ships was an astonishing feat described by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. in his historic memoir "Two Years Before the Mast." It would be historically accurate to believe the drogher depicted in the sculpture to be Dana himself: "Down this height we pitched the hides, throwing them as far out into the air as we could; and as they were all large, stiff, and doubled, like the cover of a book, the wind took them, and they swayed and eddied about, plunging and rising in the air, like a kite when it has broken its string. As it was now low tide, there was no danger of their falling into the water, and as fast as they came to ground, the men below picked them up, and taking them on their heads, walked off with them to the boat. It was really a picturesque sight: the great height; the scaling of the hides; and the continual walking to and fro of the men, who looked like mites, on the beach! This was the romance of hide-droghing!"Two Years Before the Mast, 1840, Ch. XVIII
See also Dana Point Arts & Culture
LOCATION: bluff-top trail, overlooking Dana Point Harbor, Dana Point, California, USA
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