Quackers is yet another sculpture in the permanent collection in downtown Mesa, AZ. It is located next to a large fountain near the northwest corner of Main and Center streets. (You can learn more about all of the sculptures in  Downtown Mesa’s Permanent Sculpture Collection by looking at the brochure for the self-guided tour.

Mike Dwyer of Loveland, CO created this bronze piece. According to Dwyer’s website,

Mike was inspired to sculpt “Quackers” around his two year old son Nathan and his love of feeding the ducks at the local park. Nathan would hold on to crackers or bread and try to get the ducks to come in as close as possible.

This was Mike’s first sculpture of a child. He used real measurements from Nathan, even going in with his calipers and measuring ears nose and extremities while Nathan was napping. He also took many pictures of the active, small boy in many different poses.

According to the Waymarking website,

The sculpture was purchased through the City of Mesa’s Permanent Sculpture Panel and was dedicated in April 2004.

I think this is a really cute piece of art. How can Mesa go wrong with a little kid feeding ducks? What I really want to know is how the city keeps people out of that fountain in the summer.

I took the photos in this post.