Sad Sculpture Safari

So in talking to an artist friend of mine I discovered that the clay people on the benches were done by her ceramics class who were given some old clay and told to do an installation somewhere.

Then another friend doing glass making at Alfred University found some one had lined up all these salt shakers on the wall, and there was some debate on Facebook to whether it was an art project or just a prank.

This got my artist friend and I thinking about how its the Year of the Arts at Buffalo State College, and how terrible our campus sculptures look.

 This sundial one between the library and Bacon Hall is getting streaks of rust and dirt down it

These by Rockwell appear to be surviving well...

This one in the same area is rusting away, and I have no idea if the artist intended it to do so. Besides, none of these are labeled at all and there isn't any info about them on the college website either.

Can you spot the marginalized sculpture hanging out next to a dorm for no reason?

Here it is! this one at least rusted appropriately but that doesn't excuse it being a smaller sculpture all out on its own in a quad.

Now this ice fountain sculpture doesn't exist anymore....

Neither does this one, the weather of course did a number on the wood...

The one on the left was switched out for the "torch" on the right.

Which means currently the giant yellow C in front of the arts building is currently the best looking sculpture on campus. Bonus fact it was made in 1981 and I know that only because it has that date inscribed in it.

So looking around at the campus sculpture a lot of it is outdated, installed in goofy spots, and on the verge of being ruined. Since its the Year of the Arts and all, why can't they spare some money for a new sculpture? It would add interest to the campus and there's plenty of room. If cost is that big an issue I'm sure there's plenty of students who'd love to make one and the college technically owns our work anyways. There also must be some successful design and fine arts alumni who'd love a commission. Plus we even do an iron pour each year, easy access to a durable medium!

Oh well nothing to do about beside use the college presidents email as a complaint box, or perhaps do some guerrilla installations?

Year of the Arts, Apparently

So, in a move I barely knew about, the college president has decreed that the 2011/2012 school year is the "Year of the Arts" at Buffalo State. It's then good timing on my part having this being my senior year, and just declaring another art major on top of the one I already had. And, in order to involve the students at the very beginning the college commissioned an upper level class to create and propose logos. I had two friends in the class; sadly neither of their logo designs won. You can read the college news post here, and there's a flickr set here of the 12 proposals, but below is what the college chose:

Not to disparage another student's work, but this looks like a coffee stain ring. It's a style of logo I remember Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams complaining about in a book in the mid 90s. In some ways though, this one is appropriate to represent art students since most live on a potent combination of coffee and cigarettes throughout the year. What does everyone else think of it? I rather like the one by Shannon Berkel myself.

And so much for keeping up the blog over the summer. the problem is my motivation to create art ebbs significantly during this time. But I do have a few projects started and ideas kicking around in the sketchbook, so please occasionally look back at the blog for those as I post around my summer internship!