Behind the Build: The Story of the Dale Hawerchuk Statue

The Dale Hawerchuk statue represents not only the impact the hall-of-fame forward had on the Winnipeg Jets organization, but also on the city and community that remained close to his heart until he passed away in August of 2020.
Creating a statue that personifies an icon, a role model, and an incredible human being isn't an easy task, but Josh Dudych - Director of Creative Services for True North Sports + Entertainment - felt he was uniquely qualified to take it on.
Dudych is a hockey fan, but also has a Bachelor of Fine Arts to his name, and he wanted to be involved from the very beginning.
"I kind of begged to be involved," said Dudych. "It's been a journey. It's been about 18 months in the making."

Dudych got his wish and was part of a working group that consisted of many people, including Dale's wife, Crystal, and son Eric.

The first thing they had to do was decide on a photo.
"We started with a number of photos of Dale that we compiled - different emotions, different expressions, different poses. We kind of grouped them thematically in a few different adjectives that would describe the subsets of this collection," said Dudych. "We put together a presentation for Dale's family and Mark (Chipman) was talking directly with Crystal and Eric Hawerchuk about that. Thematically, it could go in a number of these different directions and which ones they thought would be appropriate."
The final decision was one of Hawerchuk reaching for a puck, trying to win a puck battle, and moving up ice.
The theme of that photo was "striving." That's what the photo was capturing. That's what they wanted the statue to represent as well.
Even after the final photo, or pose, was selected there was still image gathering that needed to be done. Dudych said it's common for sculptors to meet the subject in person, but since that wasn't possible, gathering as many photo resources as possible was crucial.

But it wasn't only photos they had to find. Dudych spent a lot of time on eBay as well. He had to find replicas of the equipment Hawerchuk wore while playing for the Jets.
Some pieces were easier to locate than others.
"The hardest find and the best get was that Dale played with Canadien brand gloves which is a brand that doesn't exist anymore," Dudych said. "I found a pair that matched what he wore from some seller in southern Ontario. They were even the right colour. They were Habs colours because they were almost the same as Jets, a little different but close enough."
Once all the equipment got the approval of Jets assistant general manager Craig Heisinger, who worked as the equipment manager during Hawerchuk's time with the Jets, it was shipped to Illinois where sculptor Erik Blome could get to work.
Blome's portfolio includes the Legends Row statues in front of Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, as well as Wayne Gretzky's sculpture in Los Angeles.

First, Blome made a small model of Hawerchuk's statue for approval. The model, called a maquette, was approved shortly after completion, with the next step involving a 3D scanner to size it up.
The 3D model, made in Colorado, would be used not only by Blome to build the statue, but also by the working group in Winnipeg to help design the pedestal the statue sits on.
"We took that 3D model and gave it over to A49 architecture, who has been involved in the development of True North Square," said Dudych. "They had the assignment that we wanted a pedestal that's going to look and feel at home with the architecture of the buildings and fit into that space well, as well as be complimentary to the pose of the statue."
Both PCL Construction and Crosier-Kilgour Engineering were involved as well, in order to ensure the pedestal could be built and would support a statue of this size. Once all necessary approvals were received, they got to work.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, Blome was bringing the statue to life.
"The method Erik used is a classical method. It goes back to Renaissance times," said Dudych. "It's a method that has been used by bronze sculptors for several hundred years. It's called the Lost Wax method."
And what a process it is.
Using the 3D model from Colorado, Blome made an enlargement in Styrofoam and then covered it in clay. He meticulously etched details like the stitching on the gloves, the texture of the jersey, and the nuance of Hawerchuk's expression into the clay.
Next, the clay is covered in beeswax to create a layer, and then is covered again in plaster.
"Then you cover the plaster, then you basically take sections of it, carefully pull it back off the clay and you've got the negative at that point," said Dudych. "You add in little wells and it's basically a funnel and some pipes. You have the wax, the plaster, and the pipes, and that's all integrated. Then you dip the whole thing to fill in the other side of that wax with the liquified clay or slurry."

That slurry hardens, and those plaster casts are baked in a kiln, which helps the plaster and slurry harden around the beeswax. As that's happening, the wax melts out, leaving a hollow.
"You pour the bronze into the funnel, which fills in the hollow, and once the bronze cools, you have a bronze piece," said Dudych. "You chip off all the plaster and cut away all the parts where the bronze flowed in, and you grind that all down, and now you have a piece of the sculpture."
Piece after piece is attached to a frame, welded together, and finally, after some detail work, the statue is complete.
The only step left was to get it to Winnipeg.
"I met up with Erik and Grant, his assistant that helped drive the sculpture up from Illinois. I promised to meet them and help guide them in from Highway 75 at the Perimeter, which is right by my house, to downtown," said Dudych. "By the time they got on the road, they were a little delayed and the weather wasn't kind to them on the journey. It was 3:30 in the morning, I'm pulling onto Pembina, and we drove in. When I saw the truck coming up Highway 75 at Perimeter I thought 'oh thank God we made it.'"
While he had seen photos throughout the process, Saturday's ceremony was the first time Dudych had seen the statue unwrapped with his own eyes.
It may have been 18 months of hard work, big decisions, countless meetings, and slow progress, but in his mind, it's all worth it to honour someone that meant so much to the city, the province, and the hockey world.