More art has been installed around campus, but this time the art is useful and functional: bike racks.

Adjunct professor Lance Vickery said Vice President of Public Relations Sharon Ashton came to him Jan. 2013 and asked if his class could make creative bike racks to use around campus.

Vickery gave the project to his Sculpture 2 and 3 classes and had them come up with ideas. In March, a selection committee reviewed the eight or nine submissions and chose the four that would be made in full scale.

Sculpture seniors Wandy Griggs, Russell Bailey, David Maine and Mark Ewing each got $750 to buy materials for their sculpture. After they were built, Atlantic Powder Coating donated their services and powder coated each of the four sculptures. The first sculpture was installed Nov. 25.

Vickery said projects like this highlight what makes UNF special. He said Sharon Ashton got the idea from similar projects in cities around Florida and a national trend toward functional art.

Name: Wandy Griggs
Sculpture: Cutting Edge
Location: In front of Ann and David Hicks Hall
Sculpting for: 3 years
Preferred Medium: Steel

Griggs’ sculpture was made to resemble blades of grass. She made the structure by cutting steel, running it through a slip-roller or a “giant rolling pin for steel,” welding the pieces together, and grinding down the rough edges. She started sculpting when her professor for Sculpture 1 showed excitement for Griggs’ progress and abilities. “It’s like no other class I’ve ever had,” she said. “You’re making this idea that is in your head exist in real life.” She took this class as a free elective and said the experience has been very empowering for her because there aren’t very many female sculptors, especially female sculptors of color. She said that, above everything else, she wants her art to make people as happy as it makes her. Griggs currently has another sculpture on display in Downtown Kissimmee.

Name: David Main
Sculpture: Os-prey
Location: Between the Biological Sciences Building and Skinner-Jones Hall South
Sculpting for: 3 years
Preferred Medium: Steel, Ceramics and Wood

Main made his sculpture, a giant bright orange fish, by cutting steel rods, bending them with a pipe bender, laying out the formation of the fish and welding the rods together. He said he chose this form for his bike rack because he was interested in taking something natural and organic and turning it into unmaneuverable steel. He said he liked the idea of using the ribs as bike holders and making an usually small object enormous. He prefers sculpture for the 3-D aspect. “It invades the space. It’s interactive. You can touch it, you can feel it, you can pick it up,” he said. Main hasn’t always been a sculptor, but he’s been “making stuff” since he was a kid. Now, he sculpts by taking old objects that he finds around and adding, taking away, or rearranging elements of it for something else. Main currently has another sculpture on display in Downtown Kissimmee.

Name: Russell Bailey
Sculpture: Osprey Perch
Location: Due to be installed near the library
Sculpting for: 18 years
Preferred Medium: Metal and Wood

Bailey made his sculpture by cutting up pipe steel, using a conical wood splitting edge to flare out the ends, welding them together, and welding the frame. He said he chose this idea for his sculpture because it wasn’t an actual shape. He said, “I wanted it to look like he had gone out in the woods, and collected all the bamboo, and put it together.” He usually tries to keep his sculptures looking as natural as possible. Since his sculptures are usually made to be functional, he’s glad this one is being used on campus. He said, “To see that it’s being used is so gratifying.” After graduating this semester, Bailey is moving back to Tampa to teach ceramics and silversmithing.

Name: Mark Ewing
Scupture: Empowered
Location: By Coggin College of Business

The Spinnaker was unable to reach Ewing for comment, but Vickery Ewing made his sculpture, an orange electric cord, by bending pipe with a pipe bender and cutting and welding the steel for the plugs.

E-mail Natalie Logan at reporter6@unfspinnaker.com