“It was a great pleasure to serve as this year’s juror for Washburn University’s on-campus sculpture exhibition. Having been a member of the Campus Beautification Committee when the project began in the late 1990s, I was especially pleased to see how it has grown since its inception. The show is now national in scope, with more than 20 fine entries from artists in many media. It was a difficult task to narrow down the number of recommended sculptures, as the quality of entries was so high. In the end, I opted for variety of styles, scales and materials, to create a ‘teaching’ exhibition for a teaching institution.

“Some pieces deserve special mention. ‘Totem,’ by Joe Sackett, expands the scope of the exhibition to include carved work in wood that includes painting, and ‘Inside Edge,’ an extraordinarly fine marble sculpture by Andrew Sweet, completes the ‘carved’ section of the exhibition. Castings are represented by ‘Poco a Poco Se va Lejos,’ by Pokey Park, a fine casting that holds up the representational end of the exhibition, and welded and painted pieces include ‘Circus Acrobat,’ by Robert Lamberson, and ‘Ring Three’ by Joe Sackett.

“This year’s exhibition will be finally realized by Patrick Dougherty’s visit to Washburn and his community-assisted installation on the grounds of the Mulvane Art Museum. Nature, community and art come together in Patrick’s work in compelling images that blend reality and creativity in an extraordinary new way.

“I salute the Washburn community for its continued commitment to the arts, and I hope the 2009-10 on-campus sculpture exhibition will herald many successors in the years to come.”