HAYDEN - Local artist Terry Lee has put the finishing touches on his "American Worker" sculpture, and it's on its way to a foundry in Portland today.

"We are going to crate him up and I have a forklift coming at three to load him in the pickup," Lee said Monday afternoon.

He said Contractors Northwest Inc. CEO Dean Haagenson, who is donating the $50,000 sculpture to the city of Coeur d'Alene's new McEuen Park, was bringing a crew by his Hayden studio to help load the sculpture.

"I am packing the crate with foam and we'll strap it down real good," he said. "We are leaving (this morning) at 5 a.m. We want to beat the heat if we can."

The first phase of the sculpture is done in a clay and wax mixture that is sensitive to heat. Once he gets the sculpture to the foundry, he will unload the piece and check it for damage that may have occurred during the trip.

"I will spend (today) and Wednesday in Portland fixing the cracks and stuff," he said, adding it's all up to the foundry for the next three months.

Lee said the foundry will make a series of molds from his wax-clay sculpture and pour each mold with metal and then those pieces will be molded back together into a solid metal sculpture.

"They will try to match my art during that process," he said. "Then I will come back down here and make any adjustment before it goes to patina."

Patina is the process used to color the metal into a bronze, he said. When all of the finish work is done, the metal is heated with a torch and sprayed with chemicals that etch the color into the metal.

"I will be there for the patina process because there are some subtleties that I want to capture," he said. "I don't want a dark brown single bronze color."

Lee said the sculpture, when finished, will have some unique color tones but it won't look painted.

"I think that cheapens it when it looks painted," he said.

After the patina process, Lee hopes to get the sculpture placed in McEuen Park as soon as possible.

Lee said the piece has been challenging and has taken quite a bit of his time in recent months.

"I will be glad to see it go away to the foundry," he said. "I am glad to be done with it."