CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago sculptor who did the bust of Chicago’s founder Jean Baptiste Point DuSable is now working on a sculpture of DuSable’s wife, and he's thinking of giving it to the city.
"I thought a lot, pretty deeply about the city of Chicago, and the fact that there is no bust or image or figure or anything of Kitihawa," said Sculptor Erik Blome.
Blome created the bust of DuSable that has been on the north side of the Michigan Avenue bridge since 2009.
“I realized after I did the DuSable bust, over the last few years, that this man was married. And that’s important because she was likely sort of a cofounder of Chicago," he said.
Sculptor Erik Blome has been doing research to try to find out what Kitihawa, a Potawatami woman of the 18th century, might have looked like. He is currently working on a clay mold - the first step before a final rendering in bronze.
"What you come to realize when you're a sculptor is that pre-photography, basically we don't know what anyone looked like, because artists are the ones who interpreted history for us," he said.
Blome is doing the bust of Kitihawa on spec.
“I’m making the same sort of matching-size bust as the one on Michigan Avenue of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, because I want them to be sort of similar. Equal," he said.
Blome said he said he would like to give the bust to the city.
“I’m actually thinking of donating it to the city - if they’ll take it," he said. "My ultimate vision would be to see it right next to the other one, with the same pose, because they would be a great pair."