Monument by Wesley Wofford

Wesley Wofford, FNSS, is honored to unveil his most significant monument to date.  His 9-foot Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad sculpture is installed in a private building in Dallas, Texas.

Wofford depicts Tubman as the role model and hero she is.  Tubman, confidently leading a slave girl on The Underground Railroad to freedom, leans into the wind, bracing herself against the elements.  Her eyes are cut formidably up, anticipating the next part of the journey. The wind illustrates the peril of the journey and is a metaphor for the intense opposition Tubman faced.

The contours of the base represent the Maryland/Delaware Peninsula where Tubman was enslaved, eventually escaped, and continued to return for her freedom raids. The girl is off balance and tentatively taking a step forward- her left foot precariously hanging off a cliff, illustrating the danger and peril of the journey.  The shackles are broken, and the atrocities of slavery are left forever behind.  The dramatic step up/cut is the Pennsylvania state line and the two are stepping out of the slave states into freedom.  View More

Wofford, an Emmy and Academy Award winning sculptor, works from his private studio in the National Forest of North Carolina.  His studio is filled with sculptures at various stages of completion, the large commissions occupying the same space as portraits, gallery pieces, and maquette studies.  Wofford organized a sculpture park within The Village Green near his home, which he was the curator of a Permanent Collection and three Biennial Invitational Exhibitions. He was invited to join The Bascom Board of Directors in Highlands, NC, and curated an Inaugural Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition that opened May 2015.  He was awarded Signature Status with The Portrait Society of America in March 2015 and is an elected member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Portrait Sculptors Society of the Americas.  Wofford’s sculpture is recognized on a national and international level with various awards and publications celebrating and featuring his work.