Olympic Sculptor Shray - her Sculpture
"Forevermore" Presented to
Yunan Government of China
TWO MEN, ONE CENTURY - At the Governor's office at the State Capital in Sacramento, California WW II vet, Ken Mecham, and Olympic sculptor Shray donated Shray's sculpture, Forevermore, to the Director of the California Arts Council, Muriel Johnson who, in turn, gifted it to Professor Yuan, Chairman 2008 Beijing Olympic Landscape Competition, for the Yunnan Government
Half way around the world from each other, two people joined in a life experience that would effect and influence them for the rest of their lives. The time was 1944 and 1945. The place was the town of Kunming in the Yunnan Province in southern China.
One was just arriving into the world in the safety of a hospital created by United States. The other, a young man, from a farm in Nebraska ... landing in a US plane assigned to the Air Force Transport Command to help protect the people from the Japanese air attacks.
(At right - Henri Yuan, translator, next to his father, Professor Yuan. Holding the sculpture "ForeverMore")
This young man, a crew member from the US, flew to India with supplies and helped bring Chinese soldiers who had been in training back to China.
The crew member from the Air Force Transport Command was Mr. Kenneth Mecham ... the baby that was being born was Professor Yuan. Both would take away mutual life lessons from this experience of W.W.II. One would became an actor, teacher and father in the US. The other would become a renowned artist and the "Ambassador" of Cultural Exchange.
They would both in their own country and their own fields pass on these mutual lessons they garnered from W.W.II to their children, their art and their teachings.
(At left - Shray and Murial Johnson (the California Arts Council) with "Raising Tomorrow's Olympic Champions", Shray's bronze sculpture, top finalist in 2008 Beijing Olympics)
These experiences shaped their world outlook through their souls, which had become filled with the wisdom, to see the importance of humanity and harmony amongst mankind and the need to work towards a global village ... each in their own way.
As fate would have its way, their children would meet ... one from the USA, one from China, in 2006 ... each of them carrying on their fathers' dreams ... one an artist (Shray) from the Olympic Landscape Design Contest - an American, the other an enthusiastic Chinese student (Henri Yuan) for passavism and official translator.
This sculpture is being given as a gift from the American soldier's family in honor of Professor Yuan's and Mr. Kenneth Mecham's dream for world peace.
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