The swirling, eye-catching creation by a Wisconsin artist has been selected as this year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Sculpture Tour Eau Claire. With paper and online ballots, voters selected Maelstrom – which stands in front of the Smiling Moose Rocky Mountain Deli near Phoenix Park – and now the $4,800 sculpture will be purchased by Sculpture Tour Eau Claire for permanent display somewhere in town. (A final location is to be determined.) The 6-foot, 4-inch-tall work is made of copper, brass, and stainless steel, and was created by artist Dave Riemer of Wausaukee. “The artistry of Maelstrom is in its creation, of course, but also in the eye of the beholder,” Riemer said. “While the sculpture is composed of many individual pieces, the wind creates a movement and you end up seeing a shape that isn’t necessarily there.” The sculpture, which was sponsored by Western Wisconsin Urology, will now be added to the city’s collection. The Sculpture Tour also announced two other awards, worth $1,000 each. The Best of Bronze award went to For the Love of the Game by Bobbie Carlyle from Loveland, Colorado, a portrayal of two baseball-playing boys. The Best of Other Materials Award, meanwhile, was given to Portal by Tommy Riefe of St. Louis, Missouri, a large, abstract, aluminum sculpture that’s part of the artist’s Spacetime series. These works and the more than 30 others that are part of the tour will be on display around Eau Claire through next spring.

Image: Giles Photography