We just put the finishing touches on the commission in the newly restored Civil Engineering School at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The whole process took about four years to completion surviving a state projects construction freeze while testing our artistic diligence.The idea behind the work concerns the primary task of thinking, drawing and making. The etched glass drawings on the glass elevator enclosure relate to the planning and design of civil engineering projects like bridges and city structures. The three dimensional bridges emerge from the drawing wall into realized forms.
Several weeks work and a marathon assembly session with the boys from “BEAST” (Blackstock Emergency Art Services Team) brought the bridge truss forms into shape. The 20’ and 25’ units were then cut in half for the trip out to Oregon.
We decided to truck the project out ourselves towing our silver “Bio-Bug” behind in order to get back home again. The drive was long but made to fly fast with Barack Obama’s books on CD, “Dreams of My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope”. It was a treat to ride with Barack's stories, humor and wisdom.
After two days on the road through four states we pulled into the loading dock of the building and entered the site that was still under construction. I was there several months ago doing the glass etching mural work that featured graphics of bridge forms and engineering images but had not seen the finished glass mural installed yet. It actually looked quite wonderful in the space.
Pulling out the bridge truss sections from the truck, we quickly got to work and the pieces were connected and hung in the fifty foot high atrium. It took one day to get everything up. The bridge forms arc in the skylight space and have reflective and prismatic materials that flash color.
