[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/DEGROOTE-bust.jpg” caption=”Michael DeGroote’s bust, created by local artist Juliet Jancso. Photo credit: “]A bronze portrait statue of Michael G. DeGroote, created by local artist Juliet Jancso, has a home in the atrium of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre of Learning and Discovery, which opened officially today.

Michael DeGroote's bust, commissioned by McMaster University, was done in Jancso's downtown Hamilton studio with reference to the many photographs taken at the time of the December, 2003 announcement of his donation of $105 million to the University.

“At first I missed not having the opportunity to meet with Mr. DeGroote in person, but I found that working from photographs gave me longer hours to observe and study his appearance, and in order to gather some further insight into his personality I also spoke to people who know him personally. At times when I was working on the bust, his presence seemed so strong that it was as if he was in the room.”

The portrait sculpture was first made in clay and was then cast, locally, in bronze.

Juliet Jancso graduated with honours from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1989, winning the Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook Prize for Sculpture. Since that time she has worked full-time at her art. She has exhibited regularly in both solo and group shows, and she has spent many years teaching adults and children through the Burlington Art Centre and the Dundas Valley School of Art. Her works are in collections in Canada, the US and the UK, and some are prominently displayed in public spaces around southern Ontario.

The diversity of Jancso's work can be seen in some of her local public sculptures for which she has used a variety of materials such as bronze, resin, cement, stoneware and porcelain. They include:
First Flight, bronze of children playing, The Children's Garden, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto; The Bev Mulkewich Memorial, a relief sculpture of an oak tree in translucent casting resin and porcelain commissioned by Walter Mulkewich for wall of the Burlington Baptist Church Sacristy; Vitality, a frieze of ninety relief sculptures in red stoneware, commissioned by City of Hamilton for Inch Park Recreation Centre, Hamilton; and A Sense of Pride and a Knowledge of their Strength, bronze family grouping, commissioned by Toronto Trust for entrance of the Necropolis in downtown Toronto.