Soul
to Soul: Portrait of Stevie Ray Vaughan was commissioned by
Eloise and John Paul De Joria for their Austin, Texas home. Vaughan, who died
in a helicopter crash in 1992, is Austin’s local hero and a bronze statue
of him stands in the city center.
Eloise De Joria chose the photo that was to be the
inspiration for the sculpture. In it Stevie Ray’s back is to the audience
and he is playing his guitar with it behind his back. Because of the size
of the wall in their home Lakich felt that the sculpture needed to be eight
feet tall. That proved a problem when using a real guitar as the outsized
figure would be out-of-scale to the Stratocaster rhythm guitar that Stevie
Ray played.
Lakich took her full-size pattern down to The Guitar
Center and solicited the help of the staff in her dilemma. The solution became
clear. Lakich bought a Stratocaster bass guitar, which is larger, and changed
out the pegs from four to six.
