Welcome to Shaw Elementary School 1% for Art Project
Arthur Higgins, MFA, PO Box 499, Mosier, Oregon, 97040: emailoakrunstudios (@) gorge (dot) net
Installation Of Shaw 1% Public Art Sculpture

" Sun Light with Dogs"

August 2008
September 2008

The Sculpture "Sun Light with Dogs" was successfully installed the first week of August 2008. There were very few problems in the process. In light of the size and scope of this project I was quite surprised it went up so well.

I'm keeping most of the introduction because it is part of the installation scenario and gives you and idea of the location of the sculpture.

This is one page so you just keep scrolling down and down.

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Late October at Shaw Elementary. Notice the mountains in the background. A view you have to see to believe. There were two sun dogs over the school when I arrived. A good omen?

This is the end of the ramp that leads to the lower floor. Around the left is stairs to the library. The hanging trees will be in this space.

The two walls here that are in front of the library will get special treatment because they can be viewed straight on. This will be the part of the sculpture that will have a picture like image.

There will be a forest of trees above the lower ramp which will be like the above sample. The trees will be made of wood, painted so the grain shows and wrapped in shiny metal strips that will represent light from the sun.

This view from the upper ramp shows is the primary location for the sculpture. The sun hangs 3' below the ceiling and is supported by four sun rays. The rays reach all around.

The area covered by the whole sculpture is 24 feet by 24 feet by 14 feet.

The presentation I sent had models of the various aspects of the project with samples of the materials and construction as well.

This is the view if you stand on the landing in front of the library. This space is an intersection between the corridors, library and entrance to the school and is basically at the center of all activity. To use this building, i.e., go to a classroom or leave the building, you almost invariably pass through this area.

When you walk down the lower ramp you go under the sculpture. Turning the corner and climbing the stairs to the library you are inside the sculpture. If you take the second set of stairs up to the upper corridor you are going around the sculpture.

Here is a quicktime movie I made of the a walk through of the sculpture. The file size is 6.4 M and the length is about 3 minutes.

This is the view down the lower ramp as seen from the entrance of the school

This is the upper ramp view and leads to classrooms on both ends of the corridor.

As you walk down the ramp the trees look like a forest with clouds, sun and sun rays above.
This view shows how the trees begin to look more like hanging objects as well as a forest. The bright strips represent the light of the sun. On the wall are images representing a birch forest, the dominant forest of the Wasilla area.
Looking to the left at the beginning of the trees you see the sun rays leading to the walls around the library stairs and the clouds from which the clouds are suspended.
Walking around the upper corridor gives you views of the sun and the rays leading to the walls of the library. The sun is made of strips of anodized aluminum and the sun dogs are made of spun brass. Aluminum rods circle the sun to create some more visual movement.
Looking down the upper corridor shows how the sculpture reach across the corridor and occupies some of the visual space of the viewer.
Looking from the upper corridor back to the school entrance, you can just see the receptionists office in the pictures, you get an almost abstract view of the sculpture and it's basic elements.

So you can also look down and into the sculpture as well as at it from the outside looking in or the inside looking inside or the inside looking outside.