BELLINGHAM - A silhouette stands in the front yard of the Kors home in Sudden Valley - a boy lit up against the night sky juggling what looks like stars.
Created by Odin Kors, the sculpture is an homage to his son, Caleb "Flip" Kors, a budding street and circus performer who died Jan. 10 after he accidentally hung himself in his bedroom while apparently working on a costume.
"It's the first year without him, so it's really been tough. This is about as close as you can get to him standing next to you," Odin Kors said of the Caleb-sized silhouette, complete with the bowler hat that was an "iconic part of his style."
The 10-year-old boy was often seen juggling and doing magic tricks at the Bellingham Farmers Market, and it was one such image of him at the market - eyes focused, a small smile on his lips and hands in mid-juggle - that inspired his father to create the life-sized image.
"It was kind of like he was there, he was there standing in front of me. I made the outline true to life," Odin Kors said of his creation, an outline of his son's exact shape made from bent wire and LED light ropes.
He also was inspired by Christmas lights that were up at neighboring houses. Caleb's illuminated form will stay up at least until Jan. 10, the one-year anniversary of his death.
When family friend Kim Ninnemann saw the boy's form, she was struck by the green spheres of light around him.
"Oh wow, it looks like he's juggling stars," the Sudden Valley resident said.
And that was fitting, according to Ninnemann and Odin Kors.
Those who loved Caleb like to picture him "adventuring through the universe" and juggling stars, she said.
Odin Kors added of his son: "He had a deep understanding of the universe and the cosmos and what happens to us when we die and how energy doesn't die, it just gets redistributed. He believed that we all come from stardust and when we die, we return to stardust."
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