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Katelynn Bliven | Freelancer<\/span><\/p>\n Seemingly out of nowhere, large metal flowers have blossomed to life in front of the Richard Woodcock Education Center. The artwork, titled \u201cGrowth\u201d, was the result of an Oregon Arts Commission program to provide high quality, accessible and permanent art in public spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n While many students are delighted and intrigued by this latest addition to Western\u2019s outdoor art collection, some are very confused by their spontaneous appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very cool, I really like the design they made,\u201d said Stephen D. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they\u2019re there, but it doesn\u2019t surprise me because there are a lot of outdoor sculptures around campus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mike Elliot, Western\u2019s construction manager, helped clear up some of the confusion surrounding the sculpture. Elliot explained that it was the result of a program that began in 1975 called Percent for Art. According to the Oregon Arts Commission website, all state building construction plans in Oregon with budgets over $100,000 must set aside no less than 1 percent of their funds for public art. This is why, nearly a year a half after the official opening of the Richard Woodcock Education Center, the artwork seemed to spring up from nowhere. <\/span><\/p>\n The theme of \u201cGrowth\u201d was decided by the Oregon Arts Commission. After much discussion, the commission decided on the flowers. \u201cBecause it was an education building, it needed to speak to growth,\u201d said Elliot.<\/span><\/p>\n Once artwork is submitted, the committee then chooses the artist that best represents the initial idea with their concept and design. With the theme of flowers in mind, project manager Kate Ali selected from a state roster of artists that might be interested in creating the piece. For this piece, the Oregon Arts Committee chose Washington artist, Paul Sorey. <\/span><\/p>\n Sorey has experience with public works of art. His portfolio consists of \u201cSalmon Waves,\u201d located at the Ballard Locks in Seattle, Washington and \u201cFlow & Flower\u201d at Tahoma High School in Maple Valley, Washington. Many of his previous pieces share a common theme \u2014 growth and change. <\/span><\/p>\n When asked, several students gave their thoughts on the newest campus monument. Senior Marie B. commented on the aesthetic of the sculpture, \u201cThey look cool and modern, especially when the LED lights are on.\u201d \u201cGrowth\u201d glows a blue and purple color at night, which makes this latest addition stand out against the other outdoor art on campus. <\/span><\/p>\n Junior Susie R. exclaims, \u201cI love it, especially at night. I would love to see more of this around campus.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Other pieces that came to Western as a result of this program include the stone sculpture in front of Rice Auditorium titled \u201cOregon Rivers\u201d by Thomas Rudd and the tapestry that hangs in Hamersly Library titled \u201cSoliloquy\u201d by Shelley Socolofsky.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at kbliven14@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Katelynn Bliven | Freelancer Seemingly out of nowhere, large metal flowers have blossomed to life in front of the Richard Woodcock Education Center. The artwork, titled \u201cGrowth\u201d, was the result of an Oregon Arts Commission program to provide high quality, accessible and permanent art in public spaces. While many students are delighted and intrigued by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}