Millersville Marker dramatically enhances the Millersville section of the Fall Creek Trail, which the Millersville at Fall Creek Valley neighborhood adopted and improved since 2013. Millersville representatives expressed the desire to create a community space along the Fall Creek Trail where residents and visitors could relax and enjoy a natural setting in the heart of Indianapolis.

After their discussions with the Millersville neighborhood, artists Amy Brier and Sharon Fullingim found that residents frequently conveyed the importance of the incorporation of a mill wheel element: a nod to the area’s history. Limestone was selected as the material because it is the artists’ specialty.  The artwork design recalls this history with the inclusion of partial mill wheel forms at the top of each of three adjacent upright pillars. A life-sized, three-dimensional, red-tailed hawk in cast bronze adorns the tallest upright to refer to the wildlife seen near the site. Each pillar also has one carved side and one side with the natural limestone face. The carved sides have detailed motifs featuring symbols of the area: birds, wheat, and the flowing water of Fall Creek. Each upright is “pierced” with shaped openings to allow light to flow through them.

Amy Brier lives in Bloomington, Indiana. She is a professional sculptor, trained in traditional carving techniques in Italy and with experience working on St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. She has executed many public sculptural projects in Indiana.  Learn more about Brier at http://www.amybrier.com 

Sharon Fullingim lives most of the year in Socorro, New Mexico, and is both a stone carver and bronze caster. She is a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists, and is the Director and lead carver for the Indiana Limestone Symposium held each summer in Ellettsville, IN. Learn more about Fullingim at http://www.fullingimstudio.net/

You can find out more about the Millersville at Fall Creek Preserve project here.