Artist restores Snoopy statue now on display inside Maplewood Half Price Books
It sat in storage for 10 years, beaten down by weather and vandalism, but now the statue of "Peanuts" fan favorite Snoopy and Woodstock has been returned to its original form.
After years of waiting, the piece originally constructed by artist Kim Cope has been restored and is now on display inside a Half Price Books in Maplewood.
Joel Dirnberger was called on to put the pieces back together.
"The Woodstock has been stolen, the typewriter had been stolen, and 'It was a dark and stormy night,' the manuscript, all had gone missing," Dirnberger said.
Dirnberger documented the many hours he spent working on the statue.
"Two of the corners had been damaged. They had been hit by a car and broken off, so I had to recreate the corners and I had to recreate the Woodstock from scratch, and the typewriter," Dirnberger said.
Dirnberger has a special connection to this Snoopy and Woodstock creation: He helped the original artist, Kim Cope, put it all together.
"I have so many great memories of it from the paint-offs we would be working on the stuff and all the people would come through because it was a public event so in four days we had to get these statues done," he said.
He jumped at the chance to create new memories restoring something he took pride in helping create.
"I helped Kim make it the first time I have to be the one to restore it," he said.
Before it was restored, it sat outside the Half Price Book Store in Highland Park, where weather, vandalism and cars crashing into it took a toll.
"At one point we just removed it in hopes of restoring it," said Bill Holland, regional manager of Half Price Books.
The statue sat in storage for 10 years, until "Peanuts on Parade" creator William Johnson got involved. He reached out to Dirnberger to start the restoration process.
When the statue was unveiled on Friday, Cope's siblings were in the audience, proud their sister's work continues to be admired and respected.