News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 12/4/02 Click on image for publication quality photo  SCIENCE AND ART – Bigger-than-life portraits of four famous scientists have been installed in the glass block stairwells of Southeastern Louisiana University's Pursley Hall, home of the Chemistry and Physics Department. The artwork was created by two visual arts majors under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate research program, OSCAR. Shown with the artwork in the north stairwell are, from left, digital art professor John Valentino; senior art major Shanna Montgomery of Covington, who created the artwork with fellow student Feltus Wirtz, now a Southeastern alumnus; President Randy Moffett; Chemistry and Physics Department Chair Dan McCarthy; and chemistry and physics professor Sarah Weaver. Valentino and Weaver oversaw the project. STUDENTS CREATE ARTWORK FOR PURSLEY HALL STAIRWELLS       HAMMOND -- When Southeastern Louisiana University's Pursley Hall was renovated in the late 1990s, cylindrical glass block stairwells were added to each side of the North Oak Street home of the Chemistry and Physics Department.        Glinting with sunlight or glowing after dark, the stairwells have been an attractive and dramatic addition to the campus  architecture.        Now, they look just as good inside as they do outside.       Bigger-than-life portraits of four icons of science -- Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton and Niles Bohr -- now hang in pairs in each stairwell. The translucent panels, colorfully depicted on four by eight-foot panels of polymer film stretched in aluminum frames, shine like stained glass against the beveled blocks.       The panels were created by two Southeastern digital art students, Shanna Montgomery, a senior from Covington, and Feltus Wirtz of Abita Springs, who graduated last May. The project  was funded by OSCAR (the Office of Student Creative Activities and Research), a College of Arts and Sciences program that promotes collaboration between faculty and undergraduate students on research and creative projects.       This particular OSCAR project also prompted a partnership between Southeastern's chemistry and physics and visual arts faculty.       It all began when Wirtz approached his digital arts professor, John Valentino, about applying for an OSCAR grant to create a large-scale artwork. Valentino had just the project in mind, thanks to chemistry and physics professor Sarah Weaver. The two had met at an orientation session for new faculty, and had chatted about ways in which their departments could collaborate. Weaver mentioned the stairwells.       "We had these huge beautiful stairwells that were rather blank and boring on the inside," said Weaver.       "When Feltus asked me about OSCAR, I thought, ‘Let's make a project out of the stairwells,'" said Valentino.       Wirtz, who now works for Turbosquid, a digital media design company in New Orleans, brought fellow art major Montgomery in on the project.        "We showed them the space and they took off with it," Valentino said.       Montgomery said she and Wirtz decided to incorporate the glass blocks' grid as the artwork's background and to use a media that would compliment the space's natural light. They researched their choice of scientific subjects and okayed the concept with Valentino, Weaver and Chemistry and Physics Department Chair Dan McCarthy.       "We were given a lot of artistic freedom," Montgomery said. "It was great to work on such a large scale and to have something installed on campus. It gives us (art students and faculty) feedback from other areas."       The four panels were printed on the university Digital Arts Center's Roland FJ-500 printer -- a huge machine that can generate quality prints up to 53-inches wide and of any length. Valentino and Weaver recruited chemistry and physics colleagues Maury Howard and Randy Belter to help assemble the frames and hang the artwork.       "It was right around the time of Hurricane Lili," said Weaver, laughing. "We had everything -- aluminum, power tools -- strewn out in the hallways. It looked like a machine shop up here."       "I had a good time," she added. "I enjoyed working with faculty outside my area."       President Randy Moffett, who recently visited Pursley Hall to view the artwork, said the experience the project gave the students, plus the opportunity it created for an interdisciplinary faculty venture, is "a great example of why OSCAR is so good for us."        The popularity of the College of Arts and Sciences' undergraduate research program, and its potential to help recruit top students, has prompted Southeastern to expand the concept to each of its colleges. Beginning this semester, students in the College of Business and Technology can participate in PROFIT (Preferred Research Option for Intensive Training), Nursing and Health Sciences students have SOAR (Student Opportunities for Achievement and Research), and the College of Education and Human Development has established SURE (Student Undergraduate Research in Education).       "This was the first radically interdisciplinary OSCAR project," said McCarthy.        Since Montgomery has class in Pursley Hall, she gets to keep a regular eye on her artwork. "It's nice to walk by them on the way to my Earth Science class," she said with a smile. Return to News Releases