(Los Angeles) The artist who made the statue of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant wants there to be a permanent site as a memorial.
Posted at 7:41 p.m.
California artist Dan Medina installed the sculpture Wednesday at the site of a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., where the NBA star and his 13-year-old daughter died on January 26, 2020, along with seven other people.
Medina brought the work before sunrise and removed it at the end of the day.
The statue depicts Kobe in his Los Angeles Lakers uniform with his arm around Gigi, also in a basketball uniform, who is holding a ball.
PHOTO DAVID SWANSON, REUTERS
“Heroes come and go, but legends are forever,” reads the base of the statue along with the names of other crash victims—Christina Mauser; Payton and Sarah Chester; John, Keri and Alyssa Altobelli; and pilot Ara Zobayan.
Supporters took photos of the statue and left flowers and other items at the temporary memorial site.
Medina said this statue is a scaled-down version of a life-size one he is working on. He hopes the life-size statue can make its home in downtown Los Angeles.
He also said he wishes the smaller version could remain at the crash site.
“I think we did it the right way. I didn’t break any laws. There was no waste left on the site, he said. I hope that by showing something that we did things spontaneously and in the right way, that it can lead to something more permanent. »
Medina added that the life-size statue is 90% complete.
If granted a memorial site in Los Angeles, installation could be completed within six months.