A very nice thing to do! Clan honors family, land with monument to both Feb 8 2002 12:00AM By By Kathleen Obenland of the Union-Bulletin Walla Walla The gas-powered firepit flares to life every evening in the middle of the Neher family property, illuminating three metal figures standing at its rim. The sculptures speak of fathers and sons, and devotion to the land. ``The symbolism is the father passing the shield on to the two sons,'' said Dick Neher, standing at the firepit with his two sons. He smiled and gestured to the middle figure, which represents him. Firelight painted a bright line down Neher's profile. ``You'll notice that one doesn't have any of those spike things on top of its head,'' he joked, a reference to his smooth scalp. The Neher family has lived on Reser Road since 1918, the land passing down from father to son. Dick and Marilyn Neher now live in one house on the 5-acre property. Their son Bob and his family live in the second house. Son Mike and his family live in the third. Mike returned to Walla Walla after retiring from the military in 1997. ``Dad's dream was always to bring us back here,'' said Bob, a ceramic artist who owns Clay in Motion in Walla Walla. Bob wanted a sculpture that would commemorate the family, and serve as a place for them to gather for celebrations. He asked a friend, noted artist David Govedare of Chewelah, Wash., to do the piece. Govedare created the running people sculptures in Spokane's Riverfront Park and the horses on the bluffs above Vantage, Wash. ``He came down and did a spirit reading of the property,'' Bob said. ``A spirit reading?'' Mike's eyebrows went up. He hasn't spent as much time in artist circles as Bob. ``He said he felt the eagle spirit very strongly,'' Bob said, then teased: ``We all know Dad had a lot of eagle spirit in him.'' ``Bald eagle,'' Dick joked. ``I think the spirit probably comes once a month in the form of a gas bill,'' Mike said. Bob spent months building the firepit to go in front of the sculpture. Govedare's initial idea was for a fire on special occasions, but Bob wanted every day to be a celebration of the family. He piped in natural gas and added a timer that turns the fire on every evening shortly before he arrives home. It burns clean and smokeless, he said. Govedare said that with his ``Father Passing Spirit Shield Down to His Sons,'' he sought to capture the devotion of family and the feeling of the land. It depicts a central father figure holding a shield representing the land. The father's ancestral spirit swirls in his chest, and lights sparks in the sons standing at either side. ``That family (will) be able to tie into an image where they can, like a coat rack, hang their feelings of being together,'' Govedare said in a telephone interview. ``These works have human form, yet at the same time they have an imagery that rises up out of the land.'' He said the fire pit creates one of the nicest effects he could have desired. ``I hope that the imagery is pervaded with the feeling that we are part of the fire, we are part of the work, we are part of the sky,'' Govedare said. ``...(The sculpture) becomes legend and it becomes ancient and long lasting. I hope it is able to do this for the family for many, many generations.'' The sculpture was installed in late January, and the Neher family members gathered to take pictures of themselves beside the figures. Later, looking at the photos of the women in the family with the sculpture, they noticed something odd. In one, a swirl of something floats around the central figure. ``We said, `It's grandma!''' Bob said. ``I figure when I said, `All the girls get in the picture,' she just swooped on it.' We all saw it. It's in the photos.'' Laura GALLOWAY, HALES, PORTER, GIBSON, FINE, JOHNSON