Stargazer sculpture in Manorville restored after $200,000 project

David Morris faced a series of obstacles to complete an ambitious rebuild of the 50-foot Stargazer sculpture in Manorville.

He began raising funds for the project in 2020 and pandemic-related shortages of key materials such as plywood sent his budget skyrocketing.

Undeterred, Morris pushed forward. Thanks to a key $100,000 donation, Morris recently put the finishing touches on the revamped Stargazer — an abstract sculpture representing a deer with an antler in its mouth — that has greeted visitors bound for the Hamptons along County Road 111 since 1991.

“I feel totally relieved,” Morris, 75, said upon completing the work.

The original sculpture, which became known as “the doorway to the Hamptons,” Morris said, was built by the late artist Linda Scott for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons in East Hampton. Scott died in 2015 at the age of 77. The sculpture was placed on a sod farm in Manorville because officials in East Hampton wouldn’t allow it at the fund's headquarters for fear it would interfere with the town-owned airport.

The sculpture began to fall into disrepair in recent years.

To restore it to its former glory, Morris, who was Scott’s longtime partner, said he and a crew stripped everything down: the lumber, plywood and stucco. They sanded and primed the steel with a “heavy duty rust inhibiting paint.” Then the new materials were used to rebuild the sculpture practically from scratch.

“It was a big process,” he said.

Stargazer now features a drain system and vent to combat any moisture that gets in. Woodpeckers proved to be a pest in the original sculpture, poking holes that allowed water to get in. 

“They just love the old stucco,” Morris said. “It gets little bugs in there and then the woodpeckers start pecking.” 

But now the stucco is thicker.

Morris credited Dr. Harvey Manes, founder and president of the Manes Peace Prize Foundation, for providing the $100,000 donation. The foundation awards money to those “doing more than their fair share at bettering the world,” according to its website. Morris said the foundation reached out seeking to help.

Manes is an art collector, philanthropist and orthopedic surgery specialist based in Lindenhurst.

Morris, who lives in East Hampton and works in high-end construction, also credited the FLAG Art Foundation for contributing $60,000. And a GoFundMe campaign set up by the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, nonprofit Arete Living Arts Foundation generated more than $17,000. Leo’s Electric in Southampton provided a bucket truck Morris used for about three months, which saved thousands of dollars. The final cost of the project was about $200,000.

The original sculpture was born out of a series Scott created centered around “looking to the stars,” Morris said.

“Her idea was to look up to the sky, to the stars and go for your talent,” Morris said. “Just go for the stars. Whatever you have, go for it.”

The idea for the deer sculpture related to a story Scott told when she was about 12 years old. Hoping to save deer from hunters, she would ride a horse and make noise to scare away the deer. In one instance, a large buck escaped by leaping off a cliff to almost certain death. But when she looked over the edge, the deer had somehow made it to the safety at the shoreline.

The antler in the sculpture represents a trophy for the deer.

“A trophy of our inner self — of going for it,” Morris said.

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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