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My Work - a public commssion
At the left is an overall view of a sculpture
commissioned for a Physical Education facility
at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. It
is a simple piece in which I tried to capture the
spirit of the place, an indoor track with
basketball, volleyball, tennis and more in the
infield. I wanted to show acceleration, a race, and to do it on a scale to
match the building on a
budget that was almost nonexistent. I set my elements like a Muybridge photo,
coming out of the
chocks, rising, leaping, releasing and coming in bronze, silver and gold.
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At the University of Wisconsin - River Falls, I was chosen by and worked with a
committee of
artists, administrators, building occupants, facilities management people.
Together we identified
priorities and problems. It became my object as the artist to solve, state,
restate, focus and resolve
the intent, direction, and design of the project to my satisfaction and then to
sell my viewpoint to the
committee and then finally to produce the project in a professional manner.
They had a huge athletic
building that was a functional insulated box, their original expectations were
of a postage stamp for
the corner and call it art. This would have been a failure, no matter how well
wrought, one of my
complex woven - welded assemblages that fit their budget would have been lost
in that huge space.
I must admit that I prefer to work with more elements than we could afford in
this project, but given
the scale and the bold simplicity of the pieces, I am quite happy with the
result.
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