Huntsville artists join 48 Now to share their journey of building MLK Jr. monument

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - As we celebrate Black History Month, one of the most prominent figures we often honor is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Huntsville artists, Andrew Luy and Ann Moeller, have spent the last few months to a year honoring Dr. King’s legacy by creating a 9-foot bronze statue of him along with a monument that represents the life and messages of Dr. King, which will be installed in Winter Park, Fla.

Luy and Moeller were chosen out of 1,000 applicants for a call to artists to create an MLK monument. After a lengthy application and proposal process, Luy and Moeller were chosen to create the monument.

Along with creating a 9-foot bronze statue of Dr. King, they are creating a 2-foot plinth surrounded by four concept words of Dr. King built-in the foundation with benches and tall walls with quotes and names on the outside. When it’s completed, it will be a 37-foot installation with granite walls and seating. The entire park is being dedicated to Dr. King. It will be memorializing him and Black families that were displaced by eminent domain in that area, according to Luy.

“The 9-foot was done on purpose because his personality was so over the top and so humongous, we wanted to capture that feeling in a physical sense,” Luy said.

“We could’ve gone with his actual size, but we wanted something grand like his personality.”

Moeller agrees with that sentiment, and she expresses how powerful it felt to work on a statue this large of Dr. King.

“Not only is Dr. King larger than life, he’s got this warmth in his greeting so when you’re sitting there working up close, you feel a connection to the person surrounded by a hundred different images all being combined,” Moeller said.

“You feel like you’re there with someone and his pose is this warm greeting gesture and he’s holding a book because he’s both a spiritual man and a scholar so you can take from it what you want there. You can feel the warmth and the idea as you’re working, you hold that in your heart.”

Moeller said it was important to her and Luy to create a specific plan for the monument to portray Dr. King’s powerful messages to the public.

“The big thing with public art is that you want it to be very specific and really have an idea and a message behind it and what’s something more important than Dr. King and his message,” Moeller said.

The name of the monument is “The Ripple.” They decided on that name because the monument will be located in front of a body of water and the walls of the monument create a circular shape that radiates outward.

Luy and Moeller said the idea of the monument being titled “The Ripple” represents Dr. King’s messages and voice. Moeller said it’s like a drop of water, radiating out causing a ripple effect and his voice has had a ripple effect on communities.

“It really has this drop then radiate outward feel to the concept,” Moeller said.

Luy said when looking at the monument from a bird’s eye view, you can see the benches and the walls are positioned outward from the statue of Dr. King which also symbolizes that ripple effect.

“His voice and his message is as relevant today as it was back then,” Luy said.

Luy and Moeller put a lot of thought and detail into the monument. Luy said they listened to hours of audio and videos, and they pulled a lot of inspiration from each of Dr. King’s speeches to create the monument.

They even included stakeholders in their decision process. Luy said the stakeholders of the monument are a group of people who live in Hannibal Square where predominantly Black families live.

“They were basically the voice of that community,” Luy said.

“There was a lot of communication and collaboration back and forth with them and also the city of Winter Park. We took a lot of pride in having their words felt as well. We would give them a bunch of words and phrases and they would choose the ones among those they liked, so it really was a team effort.”

Luy wants people to feel the love of Dr. King’s messages when they see the monument.

“I want people to get educated on Dr. King’s message. Not only spoken messages, his outward messages, but the intrinsic messages that he wanted to pass along, and to me, it all stemmed from love,” Luy said.

“That’s the message I get, and I feel when I listen or see Dr. King talking and I hope the audience and the public get that feeling from this as well.”

Luy and Moeller made the 9-foot-tall statue in clay at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in their studio. They made the mold of it and sent it down to a foundry in Florida.

Luy said the process is, the people at the foundry will take the mold of the statue and cover it in bronze, and from there, it will get transported to its actual location in Winter Park, Fla. where it will be surrounded by its monument with the granite walls and benches. It will be placed there for final installation.

They’re hoping for the entire monument and installation to be ready and on display in Winter Park by the second quarter of 2025.

Luy said the opportunity to create the monument has been an honor.

“For me, it was like the triple crown lottery,” Luy said.

“I mean professionally, you can’t get a more iconic figure, as an artist, to paint, in this case sculpt than Dr. King. Personally, it’s just been a really spiritually growing opportunity for me to connect with so many people. This will be a milestone for me for sure.”

People in the Huntsville community can visit Luy and Moeller at their studio at Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment to see the 9-foot statue and other parts of the monument before it is sent off to Florida.

To hear more about Andrew Luy and Ann Moeller’s journey to creating the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. monument, the full 48 Now interview can be viewed at the top of this page.

More artwork from Luy and Moeller can be found at their studio in Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment in Huntsville, studio 271.

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