

Marvin Avenue Chess Club
By Hardy Jones Welcome to the Marcin Avenue Chess Club The Chess Set: Playing chess on my supersize chessboard is quite an experience! Walking for the first time among the chess pieces during combat, or standing next to a vulnerable chessman threatened by attack, one actually feels the pressure. Surprisingly to me, after decades of playing chess, this new large-scale play is quite different from moving miniature chess pieces across a tabletop chessboard. My fascination with t


Los Altos High School receives an iron mascot
By Clyde Noel Town Crier Staff Writer Laura Godden, president of the Los Altos High student body, artist Hardy Jones, center, and Principal George Perez, welcome the totem eagle as the school mascot. The eagle has landed. The soaring, powerful bird now sits close to the Los Altos High School principal's office and overlooks the quad. It was officially dedicated as the mascot last Wednesday afternoon. The eagle sculpture was made by Los Altos resident Dr. Hardy Jones of Found


Hardy Jones creates a lion mascot for Loyola School
By Clyde Noel Town Crier Correspondent After being a successful orthopedic surgeon sculpturing bones to exact specifications, Los Altos resident Hardy Jones turned to creating interesting creatures from plow discs, faucet handles and railroad yard fittings. Jones' latest sculpture is the "Loyola Lion." Using a collection of rusted discs and screw shaft pieces, Jones' proud artistic sculpture stands in front of Loyola School on Berry Avenue. Principal Linda Echols accepted the


Los Altos artist practices ultimate in recycling
Former surgeon finds beature in discards By Heather Knight Chronicle Staff Writer Call it a new spin on the Rorschach ink blot test. Take a couple of old tractor wrenches, a well auger, some concrete saw blades and a foundation anchor used to retrofit buildings for earthquakes. What do you see? Hardy Jones knows most people would see "a rusting bunch of junk." But he saw a lion. A lion with wrenches for legs, an auger for a body, saw blades for a mane and an anchor for a tail


Physician Renewal
After a successful 20-year career as an orthopedic surgeon, sculpting bone to exact specifications, Hardy Jones '73 has delved into a much less precise art form. These days, he crafts asymmetrical creatures, welding scrap metal into whimsical dragons, dancers, unicorns, and fish. "Orthopedic surgery and the type of metal sculpting I do are similar in many ways," Jones says. "They both involve working with my hands, and I use an artistic judgment in solving problems orthopedic


Artist brings 'bobcat' to Santa Rita
Special to the Town Crier Due to the work of a few sixth graders, an entire student body now possesses a bobcat. However, BOBCAT, now on display in front of Santa Rita Elementary School on Los Altos Avenue, is not a living ball of fur and fangs. Made by Los Altos sculptor Hardy Jones from a collection of old tractor wrenches, blunt nails, auger and truncated crow bar, the sculpture was presented to the school on a recent Friday morning assembly. At students' invitation, Jones


Springer student makes a difference through art
By Linda Taaffe Town Crier Staff Writer Photo by Monique Schoenfeld It's not every day that a school gets a statue made for it. But Los Altos artist Hardy Jones and fourth grader Johnny Forell surprised students at Springer School in Mountain View last Wednesday with "On Your Mark, Get Set"--a sculpture of a long-distance runner getting ready for the start of a race. The sculpture, designed specifically for the school, will be permanently placed in the front of the campus. Jo


Diverse outdoor sculptures--Friday reception for artists
Fine arts will get plenty of recognition in Los Altos this weekend with the Rotary Club's Fine Art in the Park show. But another date to keep in mind is this Friday, when Ingrid Jackson MacDonald, owner of Sunbird Gallery in Los Altos, will hold a reception for the winners of the sixth "Outdoor Sculpture on Loan Contest." The reception, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., will be at the gallery, 333 First St., across from Draeger's Market. Many of the artists, whose sculptures enhance our p


Los Altos awaits new sculptures through arts committee competition
By Agnes Derbin Special to the Town Crier Many Los Altans consider the monumental, imposing "Ricochet" by artist Robert Ellison as natural as the trees in Lincoln Park. Others may readily identify with "The Australian Cattle Dog" by Anne Weinbolt. This earthbound tribute to the four-legged creatures looks quite content at the Los Altos Youth Center in the City Hall complex. Still others, particularly the children, prefer the "Magic Fish" by our local multi-talented Hardy Jone


One man's junk is another's art- Just ask sculptor Hardy Jones
By Linda Taaffe Town Crier Staff Writer What may seem like Fred's junkyard from the once popular television sitcom Sanford and Son is actually a place of peace and self-discovery for Los Altos resident Hardy Jones. Jones considers his backyard collection of bent saw blades, rusty picks, broken plows and disassembled conveyor belts inspirational. For the past 17 years, the orthopedic surgeon has turned scraps of metal into sculptures he calls "junkyard art." "When I'm working,