Laguna College of Art and Design invites the public to a 3 p.m. dedication ceremony Thursday, April 26, for “Canyon Walkers,” a trio of heroic-scale figurative sculptures installed along Laguna Canyon Road at the main campus.
Visitors are also welcome to the campus library which will exhibit materials related to the development of the sculptures.
The sculptures are titled, “The Art Student,” “Hiker and Companion,” and “Traveler,” all conceived and designed by Brittany Ryan, who leads the college sculpture faculty and is an alumna who earned drawing and painting degrees in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
She led a team of student sculptors, that includes Elizabeth Alvarez, Maxwell Gerber, Charlie Goering and Atiyeh Hess, who studied in different disciplines.
“ ‘Canyon Walkers’ will complement and capture the free-thinking, artistic spirit of Laguna Canyon,” President Jonathan Burke said in a statement. “Each figure tells a story of Laguna Canyon archetypes whose stories in this unique environment will live on for future generations.”
The sculptures origin began in January 2016 when Ryan and Burke discussed the replacement of the three, two-times life-size female figure sculptures that have marked the college’s main campus for nearly 10 years. Cast in plaster and intended to last five years, the sculptures underwent numerous repairs, but degraded due to exposure.
The works will be the first large-scale public art installation for Ryan, who has exhibited at Festival of Arts. Last year, Ryan received a commission to create a sculpture of LCAD co-founder, Nellie Gail Moulton. The work was presented at the college’s annual fundraising gala.
Other sculptures on campus include two by Richard MacDonald.
If sculptors sculpted the way painters painted, these statues wouldn’t even look like people. They would be bizarre gobs of bronze simply thrown together, and *artistes* could “ooh” and “aah” at them for hours, with oh so creative interpretations.