PRINTArt pulls in
New pieces will soon join the city’s art collection
July 12, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Armed with safety glasses and earplugs, Don Asbee forges a fiery, hot steel rod beneath the hammer of the smack-o-matic, an air-driven vertical hammer that he created to shape the metal he works with. After he bends the steel rod into the desired curve, the piece will be strategically placed in the outlined wheel of a locomotive sculpture. Twenty miles away from Asbee’s studio near Hartsburg, David Spear puts the finishing touches on a regionalist-style painting of the interior of Wabash Station as it would have looked in the early 1900s. Soon these works will become members of Columbia’s public art collection when they move to their permanent home in Wabash Station on North 10th Street. The completion of the bus depot’s renovation is slated for August or September.
Recently, public artworks such as these have been funded by Columbia’s Percent for Art program. Initiated in May 1997, it calls for one percent of the budget of city council-designated new and renovation building projects to be used for public art.
Public art adds a cultural element to the architectural cityscape and gives the town some character. A simple drive around town or a step into public spaces allows locals or visitors to experience the variety of Columbia’s art.
Wabash Station is currently under construction. The renovation is expected to be completed in August ...
Larry Young’s 1996 bronze, “Nexus,” is the 17-foot-tall bronze sculpture in front of the Boone ...
Sitting at the corner of Garth and Broadway, “La Colomba” was created by artist Peter ...
Norman Courtney’s “Taking the Plunge” greets guests at the entrance of the Activity and Recreation ...
- Gross anatomy’s masterpieces
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- Animals roam local artists' works
- Dreamscapes and fantasies
- Domestic bliss
- Off the hook street art
- Carol LeBaron's "Endangered Species" exhibition
- Featured Artistans of Bluestem
- Featured Artisans of Bluestem
- A Kid’s Tale: An Evening of Shakespeare
- "Figuratively Speaking"
“We want to look for very public projects — local facilities with a fair amount of visibility and activity,” says Marie Nau Hunter, director of the Office of Cultural Affairs, which runs the program.
The complex process of finding artists begins with the Standing Committee on Public Art, a citizen advisory group that recommends the artists. The group starts by reviewing the artists’ portfolios; artists do not present a résumé so that the committee can make judgments based solely on quality of work, not on the popularity of the artist. In addition, the application process examines qualifications rather than design proposals.
“Our philosophy with this program is not to search for a work of art,” Hunter says. “We want an artist to come on board when the basic ideas are being made and can be truly integrated into the design process.”
The committee’s recommendations are forwarded to the Commission on Cultural Affairs and the City Council for final approval. Once the artists are chosen, they begin working with the project team and create a proposal that is site-specific to present to the committee and the public.
Artistic inspiration
The Wabash project, started early last year, is a renovation of the early 1900s train station turned bus depot, and Hunter says it was important to figure out what kind of contemporary art would work best. Asbee and Spear were able to bring two very different styles to the project.
Asbee has been a blacksmith since the early ’70s and has forged a variety of pieces, from staircase railings to wall sculptures in mild steel, stainless steel and copper. He originally proposed to construct a weather vane for the station but discovered the original building didn’t have one, so he instead created the design for a 7-foot-wide forged steel outline of a locomotive. The sculpture, resembling the historic Wabash 808 engine, will be seen from the back window of the newly renovated station. Asbee says that his concept was to create the illusion of a steam engine on the tracks, as it would have been in the old station. He faced a challenge after realizing the sculpture will be seen from inside and outside the building.
PARKER MICHELS-BOYCEMetalsmith Don Asbee in his studio working with a red-hot steel rod, which he is about to hammer with the smack-o-matic, a tool of his own making that shapes the searing metal.
“What I’m finding out is that I’m not just building one sculpture,” Asbee says. “It’s like I’m building two because everything I do I have to have designed so it works from the back and front.”
Historical perspective
The steel train won’t be the only work evoking thoughts of the past. Spear’s contribution to the project will be what he knows best — painting — and will be the first of its kind funded by the Percent for Art program.
Similar to Asbee, Spear says that his artistic style played a role in his selection. Spear is known for his regionalist paintings, following a style typified by the work of Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton. Regionalism, a style sponsored by the Works Project Act during the Great Depression, is realistic yet modern-looking, presenting an abstraction of everyday life.
When the station is complete, the wall above the ticket window will be home to four new paintings. Two pieces on the left-hand side will depict the station as it was in the past: One will feature trains and tracks, and the other will depict waiting passengers in clothing from the 1930s era. His desire to create historic representations initially caused Spear some problems.
“I was hoping for more historians to pop up,” Spear says about public feedback on his preliminary sketches. “Looking at the train station from the past was kind of a difficult thing to find.”
His right two canvases show the same scenes but in the present and include the recognizable blue transit buses. The paintings will provide a looking glass between the past and the current Wabash Station. Participating in a project like this has been an honor, Spear says.
“For artists like myself, these are the jobs we want,” he says. “So if you have to sacrifice a little bit for it, it’ll be worth it in the end.”
When Wabash Station is complete, the pieces will bring a cultural vibrancy that otherwise might not have been met by the renovation alone. The Percent for Art program allows artists such as Asbee and Spear to create a lasting piece of Columbia’s cityscape that buildings alone can’t provide.
