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Continuing a four-semester tradition by Lafayette students, Angela Boyd ’06 (York, Pa.) and Stacey Ehrlich ’05 (Bridgewater, N.J.) are preparing to add their sculptures to the Breast Cancer Awareness Garden in Riverside Park on Larry Holmes Drive.
Boyd, a double major in art and biology, and Ehrlich, an art major and mathematics minor, will officially unveil their art 4 p.m. Friday, with refreshments provided by the Women in Business Council of the Two Rivers Area Chamber of Commerce. Alastair Noble, assistant professor of art, advised the students’ independent study projects.
“[The sculptures] are very different,” says Noble. “[Boyd’s] is a series of flowing tubes in wave-like forms covered in rope, which is organic and natural as a reflection of the river, landscape, and the fluctuating tides of life. [Ehrlich’s sculpture] is a series of brightly colored pyramids stacked within a pyramid. Reflecting the urban landscape, this presents the geometry found in nature forever growing into a crystalline form.”
Boyd says her inspiration for creating a sculpture was personal. Since two of her grandparents died from cancer, she understands how influential the disease can be on families.
“The garden itself, as well as the life it represents, greatly inspired my work,” she says. “I visited the garden on many occasions and noticed how resilient it is, how much life is going on both in and around it. I tried to incorporate the ups and downs of life into a work that would also reflect the city and waterscapes that surround the park. I hope that people will be able to get that the work is not just piping around rope, but a symbol for life and it keeps going even when the water gets rough.”
After watching other students contribute sculptures for the garden, Ehrlich decided that she too would like the opportunity to create something.
“I wanted to combine art and math in my project. I am trying to focus on combining man-made, strict geometric shapes, with the natural garden aspect and the fact that shapes occur in nature all the time,” she says. “I hope people will actually realize how much math really does occur in nature. I think math is a subject that people do not appreciate as much as they do art, so I felt that combining the two subjects would be special and important.”
Damage caused by the recent flooding downtown is keeping the students busy making final preparations for the unveiling. Boyd and Ehrlich agree that the public nature of the sculptures’ audience is what is most unnerving.
“I am excited and proud of myself and I feel like it gives me a reason to show off to family and friends,” Ehrlich explains. “I am nervous because many more people will be judging it than would have been if the project was just for a class, so I want it to be perfect.”
“I have learned that many people will interpret the work in many different ways,” says Boyd. “I am hopeful that everyone can get something out of it. Finding ‘hidden’ or unintentional meanings is greatly encouraged. This work is to symbolize life, landscape, and the progress of nature as it hopefully degrades over time.”
Boyd is a resident of Keefe Volunteer Floor and a volunteer through Lafayette’s Landis Community Outreach Center with SPCA Animal Shelter and Equi-librium, a program providing horse-assisted therapy. She is the community service assistant for Habitat for Humanity and SPCA programs, a pre-orientation service project director and volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, and a volunteer at her local hospital.
Ehrlich is a social chair and resident of Hillel House, assists with the Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Governments, and has participated as a chorus member, actor, and stage director in the Marquis Players, a student group that produces an annual musical to raise funds for charities.
Noble’s art has been exhibited nationally and internationally for more than 25 years, including at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. His works are part of many private, corporate, and public collections. He is the organizer of several symposia and exhibitions on public art and poetry, contributes regularly as a reviewer for Sculpture magazine, and has published other articles, including a piece in Journal of Architecture.
New Jersey Transit, in conjunction with the New Jersey Council on the Arts, has commissioned Noble to lead a three-phase project involving art and architecture at a $30 million NJT train station and bus terminal in Wayne. He is consulting on the facility’s design, creating the largest artwork in it, and making suggestions for complementary art based on his theme of light and speed.
Previous Breast Cancer Awareness Garden sculpture projects:
Fall semester 2003
Spring semester 2004
Fall semester 2004