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An Interview with Sculptor Sheila Coultas

12/8/2023

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Recently, we sat down with artist Sheila Coultas at the Newfoundland Bronze Foundry to get an update on the progress of the statue, and learn about the process.

Coultas is an artist and welder who started her journey as a textile artist.

“I am passionate about work that gets me dirty and allows me to create,” says Coultas. “I love to explore new mediums and enjoy the creative energy I experience in learning how to do something new.”

Something new indeed! In 2020, PerSIStence approached Coultas to become the first woman to design a piece of public sculpture in the province and the first statue of a singular, named woman in the City of St. John’s - the Armine Nutting Gosling statue.

In 2022, at the project launch, we unveiled Coultas’ maquette of the statue - essentially a smaller version, carved in clay, that served as a design guide for what the full statue in bronze might look like.

“We very much wanted this statue of Armine to be her “in action”, so to speak,” says PerSIStence producing artistic director and project manager Jenn Deon. “We love that Sheila’s design has Armine reaching out to ask you to sign her petition for votes for women!” 

For Coultas, designing a figure sculpture involved a combination of historical research and the careful study of anatomy.

“The process was very enlightening,” says Coultas. “And it’s a lot of fun to figure out the musculature and shape.”

Now that the design is finalized, Coultas has begun the process to make the full size statue of Armine that will be erected in Bannerman Park in 2025 - the 100th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote throughout Newfoundland.

For Coultas, creating this statue has a special personal connection, as she grew up in a home where Armine Nutting Gosling was a hero.

Coultas’ mother is Frances Ennis, a well-known feminist in our community who has walked a path very similar to Armine.

Ennis has also dedicated her life to women’s rights, and has worked tireless with related causes such as adult literacy and anti-violence against women, work for which Ennis has been awarded the Governor General’s Award in honour of the Person’s Case, and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador.

​“This project feels like a culmination of both my mother’s work and my own,” says Coultas. “It shows how these kind of things have a tendency to knit themselves together.”


THE PROCESS OF CASTING IN BRONZE
  • The statue is re-sculpted in clay in life size form.
  • From this, the clay is partitioned with metal shims and drenched in silicone to capture all of the intricate details from the clay.
  • The silicone mold is overlaid with an outer mold of fiberglass and resin.
  • Then the statue is cast again, this time in wax.
  • This wax copy is cut into pieces in order to create a plumbing system called ‘screwing’ that creates a channel for the bronze to flow through.
  • The next step is to dip the wax pieces in ceramic to create a shell, then the wax is burnt out of the ceramic creating empty space for the statue to take its final shape. 
  • Finally comes the bronze, which is melted and poured into the ceramic shell. Once the bronze cools, then the statue can be welded together.​

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    Project Members

    Dr. Margot Duley, chair
    Jenn Deon, manager
    ​Sheila Coultas, artist

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St. John’s is home to a rich, diverse, and vibrant urban Indigenous community. Located on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Beothuk, the lands and waters in and around the City have traditionally served as a gathering place for the Mi’kmaq. The broader region of Newfoundland and Labrador continues to be home to diverse Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. We honour and pay respect to the past, present, and future caretakers of these territories.

We also must acknowledge the labour theft extracted from people of African descent, used to build European wealth and economies globally, and in the Canadian nation state, including Newfoundland and Labrador’s shipbuilding and cod fishery industries, through the violence of trans-Atlantic enslavement.

We thank both First Light and the office of the Vice-Provost of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism at Memorial University for crafting and sharing these words that provide us with important perspectives.

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  • Home
  • Opportunities
  • Raise Her Up - The Gosling Statue
    • Statue Supporters
    • Armine Nutting Gosling Statue project updates
    • Purchase Statue Miniature
    • Project Newsletter Apr 2024
    • Donate to #RaiseHerUp
  • The Nest
  • About Us
    • About
    • Staff & Governance >
      • Board Bios
    • In The News
  • Donate
    • Join the Ceiling Breakers Circle
    • Donate to PerSIStence
    • Persistence Supporters
  • Past Projects
    • 2017-2018 >
      • Isle of Demons (Sept 2017)
      • Pink Tie Gala (2017)
      • Offensive to Some (Dec 2017)
      • Women Playing Hamlet (Feb 2018)
      • Isle of Demons (April 2018)
      • Play Workshops
    • 2018-2019 >
      • Pink Tie Gala (2018)
      • Original (Nov 2018)
      • Offensive to Some (Jan 2019)
    • 2019-2020 >
      • The Abortion Monologues (2019)
      • Pink Tie Gala (2019)
      • The Haunting of Margaret Duley >
        • Teacher's Guide
        • Workshops with Edward Daranyi
      • Working with Respect Conference
    • 2020-2021 >
      • Original (2021) >
        • Programme
      • Offensive to Some (2021) >
        • Programme
      • What Hangs in the Balance (2021)
      • I AM A GENIUS DOES ANYONE HERE KNOW ME? (2021)
    • 2021-2022 >
      • Votes for Women 100
      • Pink Tie Gala (2021)
    • 2022-2023 >
      • The Abortion Monologues (2022)
      • 2022 Pink Tie Gala
    • 2023-2024 >
      • Stolen Sisters
      • Rainbow Tie Gala
      • Precariously Placed: Pandemic Monologues from the Edge
    • 2024-2025 >
      • Today I...
      • Year of the Arts Women's Play Festival >
        • Reviews & Recaps
        • Opening Night
        • Night Two
        • Night Three
        • Night Four
        • Night Five
        • Night Six
        • Night Seven
        • Night Eight
        • Night Nine
        • Night Ten
        • Night Eleven
        • Closing Night
      • Goodbye Glass Ceiling - An Election Night Celebration
      • 8th Annual Pink Tie Gala >
        • Pink Tie Gala Programme
  • Blog
  • Contact & Location