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Contact: David West
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
4/16/98
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - The object looks like nothing more than a big piece of metal to the untrained eye. Sculptor Rivers Murphy sees a lot more in the material he uses to create his work.
Murphy, a professor of art at Northwestern State University, is among those contributing to NSU's annual Faculty Art Exhibit on display through May 8 on the first floor of the Orville Hanchey Art Gallery. Murphy is exhibiting a piece of steel sculpture,"Nonnoshoshi," which is native American for (Rainbow Turned to Stone).
"I never work from a preconceived notion that I'm trying to get something," said Murphy. "I start with a piece of metal. I look at the contour, the shape. It's a constant challenge to look to solve different problems. Once you solve one problem, another occurs."
"Nonnoshoshi" is made of welded plate steel. It consists of eight smaller pieces that are "put together like a Chinese puzzle."
"It's impossible to see how it's hooked together and assembled. Maybe you could tell if you looked at it upside down from the inside out," said Murphy.
The base is black while the top part is a rich bronze.
"We created the colors by putting a chemical on the surface," he said. "The chemical is difficult to control because it will change and do things you don't want it to do. After a lot of work, we've gotten the chemicals to be more predictable and there are only a couple of other people who have gotten to that point."
Murphy created this work over the course of a year. Then one day, he felt the work was done.
"At some point the work evolves and it's done," he said. "It's hard to say when a sculpture is done, you just know intuitively that the work is complete."
Murphy began his work on "Nonnoshoshi" with a piece of metal that interested him. He gradually added and subtracted pieces until the piece was completed. It is a work like no other he has done, yet the sculpture maintains some similarities to past creations.
"There will be a stylistic unity in the works I've done," he said. "People who know my work don't have to look for my signature. No one sets out to develop a style. It just innately develops. One of the worst mistakes my students make is trying to create a style. Most people are influenced by others, but they have to develop a style of their own."
Murphy's work will be on display along with art by fellow faculty members Bill Bryant, Michael Yankowski, Clyde Downs, Brooks DeFee and Mandy Eaton. Admission to the exhibit is free and open to the public. The Hanchey Gallery is open weekdays from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.