WAUKESHA, Wis. — The artist behind a big part of the Waukesha Christmas Parade Memorial is putting the finishing touches on the final piece of the installation. Carmen De La Paz is creating a sculpture of hands and a heart that will complete the tribute to those lost and injured in the tragic attack.
Carmen is currently working on carving out the sculpture from styrophone and will cast it in a special concrete.
"I'm constantly carving away and drawing. And carving away and drawing," De La Paz said.
The memorial opened last year to honor those killed on November 21, 2021.
The Waukesha native, who also works full-time on the Spanish-language version of "Ask This Old House," has been the driving artist behind much of the memorial. Carmen created more than 1,200 tiles with community members that now run along the back of the memorial.
"I have gotten to know many of the families that have lost their loved ones," De La Paz said. "So much of this is inspired by the fact that those people lost their lives, and I'm still here and I'm going to represent something that represents them, their family, and their love.”.
As she fired the community-created tiles in her kiln, some broke — and that's when she got the idea to use them as a mosaic on the sculpture.
"We are going to take the broken tiles from the tile wall, and we are going to mosaic the heart," De La Paz said.
Watch: Artist works to complete final piece for Waukesha Christmas Parade Memorial
The broken tiles are a metaphor, in part, for how Carmen watched the city be reborn into something stronger. Carmen has worked for over three years creating different parts of the memorial, often working nights and weekends
"I just think that it has given me the privilege of seeing Waukesha rise up from a very difficult situation and be resilient," De La Paz said.
The sculpture will be unveiled on November 21, which marks four years since the parade attack.
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