FOCUS ON: Art and Sculpture

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Sacramento State’s Art Sculpture Lab offers something most universities can’t give their art students – space, and lots of it. The lab’s outdoor yard gives students the elbow room they need to develop large-format creations.

Video: (Narrator:) This is “Focus” from the campus of Sacramento State.

(Jim Finnerty reporting:) Welding, casting, shaping , creating. Elements of work done in Sacramento State’s unique art production arena. Areas providing showcase space for university and community events.

(Matthew Dunkerly, art student:) “Our role as an artist is to inspire, so for me, it’s inspiring the public.”

(Finnerty:) Matthew Dunkerly does conceptual work in two dimensions, later to become sculptures. Erin Billingsley adds texture to “rust” on flat surfaces.

(Erin Billingsley:) “Normally, rust isn’t something that you would paint or draw with and I’m trying to push it outside of its comfortable realm and into something more uncomfortable.”

(Finnerty:) Art Professor Andrew Connelly oversees the myriad of sculpture projects.

(Andrew Connelly, Sacramento State art instructor:) “Art is actually a way of life. Art actually becomes integrated. It becomes embodied into who they are.”

(Finnerty:) Large format materials are stored in what students call the “bone yard.” And the space allows artists close proximity to interact in different mediums.

(Kyle Larson, graduate student:) “It’s got a unique character to it. And every nook and cranny has some sort of weird thing going on that some artist in the past has done. It’s just really interesting to be here.”

(Tom Monteith:) “The core of the work is the independent creative work and that is clearly the focus.”

(Finnerty:) Programs here transition students from academic settings to real world environments. Enrichment beyond the college campus.

(Connelly:) “It’s our identity. Art of a community is our identity.”

(Finnerty:) This is Jim Finnerty reporting.

(Narrator:) For more information on this and other news from Sacramento State, visit our website.