Title: Rabbit Hill
Artist: Deborah Masuoka
Materials: Bronze
Size: 3 sculptures, each 51 x 42 x 15 inches and 150 lbs
Date: 2005
Made Possible by: Funding through Art in State Buildings
About the Work of Art: “Omaha artist, Deborah Masuoka explores the duality of rabbits as cuddly creatures compared to garden predators with her instillation, Rabbit Hill, at the ReimanGardens. Rabbits are usually seen as timid prey, but Masuoka has empowered their image with lard 150 pound bronze statues. The contradiction of predator and prey is represented in two distinct sides of the face. One side appears harsh while the other remains welcoming. The unusual Patina treatment of bronze also reflects the organic colors and shapes found in the arboretum of ReimanGardens. To achieve this aesthetic, the sculptures were scraped, incised, and burnished with a mixture of black copper oxide and CMC gum. In addition, they were rubbed with steel wool, then terra sigillatas colored with commercial stains. After being fired for six days, the sculptures emerged with stone-like colors including, cobalt, blue, green, rust, burnt orange and yellow. The rabbit heads become neither a warm fuzzy critter nor garden annoyance, but are transformed into iconic models that seem oddly appropriate in their chosen environment.”
Artist’s Statement: “Over the past 12 years I have been working principally with the rabbit image or more specifically the rabbit head. By simplifying the rabbit image to just its head, I am able to explore the maximum amount of meanings within a minimum amount of information given to the viewer. The head alone merely suggests to the viewer that there is something more than what is visible. The enlarged scale of each sculpture creates an ironic twist, by taking the typical prey (rabbit) and transforming it into the predator. The rabbit then becomes the intimidator, which opens up the opportunity for dialogue concerning the preconceived ideas of what certain images represent.
Once explored the sculptures embrace deeper issues such as vulnerability, security, intimidation and protection. Visually, each sculpture has two distinct sides and at times appears to be somewhat contradictory. The parades created by this type of relationship defines each issue separately but at the same time cohesively inhabits a single entity.
Recently, I’ve explored tree images, which has broadened by visual vocabulary. I am interested in meanings that are associated with the images of trees. For example, in the sculpture Tree of Life, a bird head is perched high on top of a nine foot tree with changes the entire perspective in which the viewer discovers the bird head. The sculpture then turns the table; the viewer becomes the viewed, as the bird head peers downward from its sanctum next. The tree image becomes a foundation, which exemplifies protection and stability.”
Title: Joy II (?)
Artist: Christian Petersen
Material: Bronze
Casting Date: 2000
Size: 29”high, 23.5” diameter
Made Possible by:Iowa Art in State Buildings Program
About the Work of Art: “A chain of children dance and play around the periphery, decorating this bronze drinking fountain cast by J. A. M. Studios in Blaine, Minnesota. Created in 1938, Petersen placed his youngest daughter, Mary, as a curly headed, playful, two-year-old, dancing among the other children. This sculpture was made using a bas relief technique, which results in a raised surface decoration.”
About the Artist: “Christian Petersen (American 1885-1961) practiced his art during a transitional stage in American sculpture when styles moved from heroic to realistic. He immigrated to America from Denmark with his family in 1894, and eventually made his way to Chicago in 1929. It was there that he married his second wife, Charlotte Garvey, in 1931, and soon after was invited to join the Iowa Public Works of Art Project under the direction of Grant Wood in Iowa City. In 1934, Iowa State University President Raymond Hughes offered Petersen a one-semester residency to create the fountain and bas-reliefs in the DairyIndustryBuilding courtyard. One semester turned into 21 years, and from 1934 to 1955, Petersen served as IowaState’s sculptor-in-residence. For $25 per week, Petersen taught students and sculpted in his studio in the Veterinary Quadrangle, now Lagomarcino Hall. Petersen created 12 major public art sculptures on the IowaState campus, over 300 studio sculptures and hundreds of drawings and sketches. Petersen found his inspiration for the men, women and children that surrounded him. Petersen enjoyed the company of children and often sculpted their actions and personalities in terra cotta and stone.”
The Dedication Ceremony: “On June 8. 2001, University Museums staff members along with Curators Associates, Iowa State Alumni from the Class of 1951, and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences dedicated the Joy fountain. Remarks were given by Dean Carol Meeks of Family and Consumer Sciences; Lynette Pohlman, University Museums Director; Carol Grant, Curators Associate; Beverly Madden, Curator Associate; and ISI President designate Gregory Geoffrey. Beverly Madden told the story of how she volunteered to search through the third floor storage room of the WOI building, for the plaster mold of Joy:
“I literally stepped over models of fallen soldiers to get to the fountain. I was struck by the artist’s distress with war and its causalities… and there, in stark contrast, was a symbol of hope for the future—children playing, and so eloquently portrayed on the children’s fountain I was seeking….”
About the Fountain: “This fountain was originally proposed by Petersen to be a drinking fountain at Brookside Park, but the fountain was never bronzed. The fountain was located in Petersen’s studio throughout his career at IowaState; but after his death, and after it failed to be sold in a 1964 public sale of his sculpture, the fountain was place in storage at the WOI building. In the 1980s, Beverly Madden helped the College of Family and Consumer Sciences locate and purchase the plaster fountain from Petersen’s daughter, Mary. In 199, the crate was opened and the decision was made to cast the plaster in bronze for the new Palmer Human Development and Family Studies building.
The plaster mold was badly damaged over the years; the top portion was broken into two pieces and left unprepared. During a visit to IowaState to conserve several other Petersen sculptors, conservator Francis Miller, from Conservation Technical Associates, repaired the sculpture in preparation for bronze casting. In May of 2000 two separate bronze fountains were cast at J.A.M. Studios in Blaine, Minnesota to be placed in two locations on the IowaStateUniversity campus. This fountain near the Palmer HDFS playground functions as a drinking fountain, while the other will be installed at Reiman Gardens at a later date as a decorative fountain.”
* The Iowa Art in State Buildings Program was enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa (Chapter 304A, code 1979. section8-14) requires that one-half of one percent of the total cost of state construction projects be used for the inclusion of fine arts in state building projects in cooperation with the Iowa Arts Council. At IowaStateUniversity, the Art in State Buildings Program is administered by University Museums.
Title: Totems
Artist: Ted Sitting Crow Garner
Material: Carved steel
Date: 1979
Made Possible By: Gift of Dr. Helen Schuster(sp?), professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, 1976-1990
About the Work of Art: This sculpture is a tribute to totem poles of the Northwest Coast Culture. The stylized archetypal animal figures are a bear, beaver, and raven.
Artist’s Statement:“The piece is intended to be an updated version of a totem pole, or more correctly, a study done in a new material after totem poles as an homage. It incorporates three stylized animal figures, each cut into one plane of the twisted (in a fire, I believe) I-beam. The flanges, or “top” and “bottom” on a capital “I” are respectively a bear (with the two lobes at the top) and a beaver (with the cross-hatched welding on his tail down near the base). The web, or stem of the “I,” is a bird, specifically a raven.”
Other statement:
“This piece is a tribute to totem poles of the NorthwestCoast, done in a different material. It shows three animal figures, a bear, a beaver, and a raven, in cutout formlines.”
Title:Shep
Artist: Nina Ward
Materials: bronze and limestone
Size: 25 x 14 x 30 inches
Date: 1999
Made possible by: Iowa Art in State Buildings Program for Reiman Gardens, and in memory of Jamie Joy Helmer
About the Work of Art: “Shep, as his nametag states, is a farm dog that has been placed at the entrance of the Children’s Garden at ReimanGardens. With a happy looking face and his right paw extended outwards, Shep greets children and adult visitors to the garden with a warm welcome. Although Shep is cast in bronze, his thick fur-like body encourages children to shake hands, embrace his neck and pat him on the back.
Artist Nina Ward’s first plan for the design of Shep was to make several drawings of her own dog. After Ward had a design that she liked, she created several small models, called maquettes, from wet clay. These small models allowed Ward to adjust the proportions and gestures of Shep to the exact position that she wanted. After small models were made, Ward moved on to a full size model of Shep with was fired and is now part of the University Museums Permanent Collection. Shep was finally shipped to the Max-Cast foundry in Kalona, Iowa where Shep was cast in bronze, using a sand mold method of casting.”
About the Artist: “Born in New York City, Nina de Creeft Ward grew up in Santa Barbara and Ojai, California. She moved to Iowa in 1975 to reside in Cedar Falls, where she taught art at the University of Northern Iowa for nine years. Her father was the New York sculptor Jose de Creeft, and her mother, Santa Barbara sculptor Alice de Creeft, created bronze sculpture portrait commissions of horses and dogs for a number of years.
Nina Ward has loved animals from an early age, since her mother kept goats and a variety of other animals and her brother had a succession of riding horses. She was twelve when she bought her first horse, Red, out of a field in Goleta, California for twenty dollars. This horse predisposed her to favor draft horses, which she sketched at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, California in her twenties when she was attending ScrippsCollege. Once in Iowa, she drew horses at the Cattle Congress in Waterloo, the Britt Horse Fair, and at the Iowa State Fair. Study drawings done from life serve as reference material for both her printmaking and sculpture.
Ward as a 1956 Bachelors of Art degree from ScrippsCollege, and a 1964 Masters of Fine Art degree from the ClaremontGraduateSchool, and has done additional study at the Massachusetts College of Art. Her solo exhibitions have been held in the Philippines, California, Maryland, Iowa, Chicago, and Kansas City. She is now a full-time artist and carves in wood and stone, works in wax for bronzes, and creates soft sculpture, etchings, woodcuts, and monoprints. Her clays sculptures include a variety of different animals which are sold an in a number of galleries and shops throughout the United States. Biographical information provided by the Iowa State University Library.”
Title:Dikhotomia, Pediment
Artist: Tom Stancliffe
Material:Dikhotomia- welded bronze
Pediment- welded bronze and cedar
Size: variable
Date: 1995
Made Possible by:Dikhotomia- *Iowa Art in State Buildings Program
Pediment- Gift of Julie and Jon Ellis, class of 1985
Collection: Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, IowaStateUniversity
About the Work of Art: “Dikhotomia: Both sculptural works are welded bronze and set on stone columns, Work “A” has a round bronze base that extends to form rising “flame or leaves” of grass. Work “B” also has a round base extended with vertical bars of bronze held together by three bronze bands placed at equal distance; the top is stylized bronze and overall the piece is cylindrical. Dikhotomia represents a dialogue between the horticulture and agriculture.”
“Pediment: A wood “pagoda style” canopy extends across the entry to the rose garden. Side support columns are 8’ and are made of stone. A cedar wood trellis and bronze roses form the mid section of the canopy. The bronze finial is a 2’ high vertical bronze rod with bronze ball midway up. Pediment references the architecture and landscape of the rural Midwest. The endless grid of our roads and fields as laid out on the Jeffersonian grid plan become a trellis, with a rose added to denote the entrance into the rose garden/”
About the Artist: 1988-present Associate Professor, Department of the Arts, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa State University
Title: Garden Campanile
Artist:
Material: Steel
Size: 50’ tall
Date: 1995
Made Possible by:
About the Work of Art:
Underneath campanile:
“Come Ye Apart and Rest Awhile”
Mark 6:31
Let these gardens be a special place for students to come and quiet their minds, collect their thoughts and find their futures.
Let this place also serve as a tribute to the teachers who nurture new seedlings each year and bring students’ budding talents to full bloom- proving again that education bears living seeds that beautify the world.
Roy and Bobbi Reiman
1