By Hamilton Richardson
Elmore/Autauga News
Top Photo: Julianne Hansen handmade all 2022 ceramic poppies as part of the Alabama Poppy Project.
Thousands of bright red poppies adorn the hillside near Heritage Park in historic downtown Prattville as the Alabama Poppy Project is in its third year, helping locals commemorate fallen soldiers and letting others know that are not forgotten.
Julianne Hansen, who owns Hansen Fine Art and Pottery in downtown Prattville and who began the project, explained, “The Alabama Poppy Project was born out of the desire to keep myself busy around Memorial Day because after my stepson Kyle’s passing, it was too difficult for me to go to the cemetery for those ceremonies. Very raw, very fresh and very emotional and I had just to sit there and it was awful.”
Hansen’s stepson served in the Air Force as a C-17 pilot and passed away suddenly in 2017.
Hansen went to say, “I said I can’t do that again. I have to do something so I don’t lose my mind. So that’s when I thought, what can I do that encompasses ceramics or pottery with some sort of memorial? At that time, I had seen an art exhibit done in London to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of World War I. In that exhibit they did 888,000 ceramic poppies pouring out of the tower of London and filling up the moat. It was an incredible exhibit. It was stunning.”
Hansen said as she thought through it, she realized she couldn’t make 888,000 poppies, but she could do 500 to 1,000.
“I had this spot in mind because it reminded me of a war-torn area, very historical looking,” she said of the area near the dam. “We started creating prototypes of poppies and by that time the pandemic was kicking in. We were trying to figure out if there was hardware involved. We have done so many types of prototypes. Finally, we came up with a design that was just a post and a poppy and it was all ceramic so it could be left outside and not degrade.”
The first Alabama Poppy Project event took place in 2020, even though everything was cancelled due to Covid. Hansen thought someone would come shut it down but they didn’t.
“Lots of people did come that year,” she said. “They were traveling in little family pods keeping social-distanced. We didn’t realize how people were going to respond to this.”
The local potter said the experience is very cathartic, as it was for her.
“It’s very therapeutic with the ribbons blowing in the wind,” she stated. “And even on rainy days, because our service men and women have to do their job rain or shine. The rods would get rusted in the rain but think about their new uniforms that they wear when they’re first issued. What they go have go through and everything they have to see and do when they’re performing their jobs. It’s so symbolic and therapeutic at the same time.”
The first year the project was held, there were 1,001 poppies, but each subsequent year, that number has increased. Hansen joked that when she was making so many poppies, she’d binge-watch the entire series of Little House on the Prairie.
This year there are 2,022 poppies because Hansen said, “You can’t forget the people that are working and going on missions today. There are people who could be dying today. That’s why current year number is so significant.”
Featured in the field of poppies is the poem by John McCrae called In Flanders Field, which describes poppies blowing in the wind near the crosses on soldier’s graves.
The cost of sponsoring a poppy is $45, with $10 going to each of the following organizations: Stop Soldier Suicide, Support Committee for the Alabama National Cemetery, Autauga County Heritage Association, and Wreaths Across America-Wetumpka.
Sponsorships are still available through Saturday, June 4.
For more information, go online to www.alabamapoppyproject.com.
