James Haire

“How Many Kisses” was part of a commissioned work for the Village of Northbrook, Illinois for their 2001 centennial.  I had seen a sculpture of a little girl jumping rope by a woman in a booth close to me at a sculpture show.  I really liked the idea and the work; however, one thing bothered me about her sculpture.  The little girl in the sculpture had both feet on the ground and the rope above her head.  I decided if I ever sculpted a jump rope piece the child would be at least partially off the ground.  When I did the commission for Northbrook one of the sculptures was to represent the 50’s show I decided to do a jump rope piece.  The girls in my neighborhood growing up would always chant rhymes as they jumped rope, “Billy and Mary went on a date how many kisses did she get”, then Mary would begin to jump rope picking up the pace until she missed and the other girls would tease her about her date with Billy, of course they were young girls none of whom had ever been on a date yet much less kissed.