Rogue Valley Revelry

Title: Rogue Valley Revelry
LC Subject: Sculpture Public sculpture Sculpture, Abstract sculpture (visual work)
Creator: Swanson, Richard
Description: Richard Swanson maintains two studios--a pottery, for making utilitarian and sculptural vessels, and a warehouse space, where he works on multi-media sculpture for museum installations, landscape installations and dance collaborations. He resides in Helena, Montana--a mountain town of much sunshine and an atmosphere of support and encouragement for the arts. His wife Penny Price Swanson, is an artist and art educator. Their son Alex is an artist for a small, innovative video game company in Eugene, Oregon. Richard’s first professional training was in psychobiology, a field dedicated to exploring the physical basis of memory. A casual pottery lesson from a friend led to an intense period of self-teaching and a career as a studio potter--later expanded to include ceramic sculpture. In 1974 he came to Helena, Montana as a resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, an internationally recognized ceramic center. An interest in working large scale with materials other than clay led him back to graduate school at the University of Montana--this time in art--where he undertook the first of several sculpture/dance collaborations with Amy Ragsdale, choreographer and art director of the Montana Transport Company. Since obtaining his MFA from the University of Montana in 1994, his work has been honored with several major grants and awards, including a Montana Art Council Individual Fellowship in Visual Art, Art Matters Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, Helena Presents Individual Artist Grant and a New Forms: Regional Initiative Grant. His large scale works have found permanent homes in many locations in Montana--including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building at Montana State University, Rocky Mountain College, Paris Gibson Museum of Art and the Holter Museum of Art--and in other states, including the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. His figurative clay vessels have homes in such prestigious institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs in Washington, D.C. richardswanson@mt.net The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Columbia Gorge Arts & Culture Council. You may view their website at http://www.racc.org/
View: Detail, interior stairwell
Location: Medford >> Jackson County >> Oregon >> United States RCC/SOU Higher Education Center >> Jackson County >> Oregon >> United States Jackson County >> Oregon >> United States
Award Date: 2007/2008
Identifier: percent_m000
Accession Number: Swans_Second_02
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Swanson, Richard
Type: Image
Format: image/jpeg
Material: stainless steel bolts and galvanized washers in stainless steel expander anchors embedded in the brick mortar joins Sculpture plasma cut 3/16 in. aluminum sheet with black-blue powder coat
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: Rogue Community College / Southern Oregon University Higher Education Center Project
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: Exterior brick wall and interior stairwell wall at the main entrance
Color Space: RGB Color
Biographical Information: Each shape in this composition symbolizes some aspect of the Rogue Valley, prehistory to present. A few of the symbols are modern in origin, some are ancient and others were conceived by the artist. All have been manipulated in form to create an abstract, free flowing composition that celebrates, indeed revels in, the unique heritage of this area. July 2008