Easter Island replicas starts man's outdoor art collection

“My moai,” George Etzel calls his metal statue.

So it is. The statue, a 14-foot replica of an angular Easter Island head, stands in a 12-acre field north of George's home.

On an overcast, rainy day, accentuating moai's mysteriousness, George and Cedar Rapids sculptor Steve Piper coax me into a pickup to cruise around the statue.

The massive, rusting metal sculpture looks like those heads you've seen in history books and magazines, the moai (pronounced moe-eye) created by Polynesian colonists some 1,500 years ago on Easter Island, far into the South Pacific about 2,200 miles west of Chile.

“I've always been fascinated by the Easter Island heads,” says George, 78. “I know I'll never get there.

“I tried to buy one of the originals,” he adds. “The cost wasn't bad, but the shipping costs were astronomical.”

He's kidding, of course. The 800-plus multi-ton heads carved from volcanic lava are not for sale. In fact, a tourist was fined $17,000 for chipping a piece from a moai ear.

At 14 feet, this is about average height. Some of the originals are as big as 33 feet and 86 tons.

“I thought it would be fun to take it to a show,” says sculptor Steve, “but it's just too big. The trucking fee ...”

With these senses of humor, George and Steve belong together. No wonder they created a moai in the Midwest.

Steve, 50, met George 35 years ago when he mowed George's grass and then continued to help on the farm. George was a real estate appraiser, and Steve became one. He's been with the Cedar Rapids Assessor's Office since 1984 for his day job.

In his spare time, Steve, who studied architecture at Iowa State, creates sculptures of all sizes, much of it yard art because that's what sells.

A couple of years in the making, George's moai materialized from sketches and a pair of scale models - the first, 6 inches tall, the second, 3 1/2-feet.

The sculpture began as a frame welded from 1/2-inch steel rods. It's covered with 12-gauge steel plates, the heaviest of which weighs 40 pounds. Metal plates 3/8-inch-thick form the base, which sits on 11 yards of concrete.

Since this moai weighs between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds, a Coonrod crane carried it into place this spring.

“I'm hoping I don't get asked to do another one of this size,” Steve says. “I had to build a scaffold.”

They declined to discuss cost, except to say that, if made for anyone other than George, Steve says it would sell for at least $30,000.

George appreciates Steve's expertise and hard work, but he has dreams bigger than moai.

“After I win the lottery,” George says, “I'm going to fill this 240 acres with outdoor sculptures and works of art.”

In the meantime, George will have to be satisfied with his single big statue, about 400 yards from his home.

“I can look out my window,” he says with a laugh, “and say, ‘Good morning, moai.' ”