A 14-by-13-foot sculpture of a 1950s-style bra made its way through Dallas in 2011, thanks to two Preston Hollow residents.
Created to raise awareness of breast cancer, it was hard to miss the gigantic undergarment shuffled across the city to places such as West Village and Dallas City Hall.
Preston Hollow’s Leslie Ezelle designed the sculpture for an event that Susan G. Komen was planning. Ezelle, who also is a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and HGTV’s “Design Star contestant,” explained the artwork’s symbolism in an interview that year.
Leslie Ezelle (center) photographed at home with her family: (from left) Gregory, partner Libby Toudouze, Matthew, Ella, Taylor and their cats Sammy and Toby. Photo By Can Türkyilmaz
“Susan G. Komen was planning this event for Sept. 17 in the West Village where they wanted to hang bras from all the trees signifying the memories of people who battled breast cancer. They asked me if I could design something for it. So, we did a huge sculpture of a 1950s strappy bra, made out of metal, crawling up the “tree of life,” saying that we are free of breast cancer — we’re beating this thing. The catch phrase is, “You can’t strap a good woman down.” She’s named Anne Girl after my step-kids’ aunt who died of breast cancer. She was a strong fighter; she had it for nine years. It’s going to pop up at different locations around Dallas and turn the building pink. It will be like Where’s Waldo — you never know where it’s going to pop up next. My dream is that she will bust out of Texas and land in Ellen Degeneres’ parking lot. Ellen doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve emailed her, and I’m trying to contact anyone who has a connection to her. This is right up her alley. We want to put Dallas on the map for its artistic movement that we never get credit for.”
George Tobolowsky. Photo by Danny Fulgencio
George Tobolowsky was the mastermind who brought the sculpture to life. His whimsical metal pieces are stationed at SMU and Hillcrest High School, but his work has been featured across the world from Switzerland to India. We chatted with Tobolowsky about his career as an artist in 2016.
“They key to the whole thing is matching one found object to the next in size and color and material,” Tobolowsky said. “That’s what I like doing.”
