Photo via Vanner Erikson
NATCHITOCHES – A new public art installed at Northwestern State University last week, recognizing several facets of Natchitoches/NSU history and legacy that are passed down from one generation to the next.
“Confluence” through public artist DeeDee Morrison, is inspired by that of a pen with a basket weaving trend encouraged through the paintings of the Caddo Indians who once inhabited the area. In the trend are the laser cuttings that constitute the leaves of a papaya and the zebra butterfly machaon, whose caterpillars feed on papaya leaves. Papaya is an indigenous fruit tree, from which Natchitoches takes its name, translated from the Caddo language as “place of papaya”.
“As in southern quilting cultures, those cultural legacies are nurtured through women who continue to pass on the culture from mother to daughter from one generation to the next. The conical shape of the shape reflects the tip of a pen and its connection to the importance of writing to document our non-unusual history,” Morrison explained in his proposal.
The sculpture, 17 feet tall and weighing 1,300 pounds, sits in the triangle where Sam Sibley Drive meets Caspari Street and is illuminated at night through LED lighting. The sculpture designed through Morrison with laser fabrication and cutting through Kyle Rebechini of RSI Design in Chicago. Doug Smoak, also an artist and sculptor, made the base and worked with campus staff on their premises. Andrew Mulkey is credited with lighting. The site will soon be landscaped to complete the new sculpture.
“Confluence” is right across the street from the NSU Student Services Center which opened in 2012. The award was funded through the Louisiana Percent for Art program, which states that each time more than $ 2 million is spent In the public budget through a state enterprise in the structure or renovation of a state building, 1% of state cash is reserved for the recovery or installation of works of art to be displayed on or on the grounds of the state building.
Morrison has worked as a public artist for 15 years and has an extensive resume of projects in the United States.
“With public art, our communities have the ability to go beyond language, have an effect on emotions, design thinking, and make a contribution to having an effect on a conscious and informed public space,” according to their website. history, biogeography and art, sculptural bureaucracy intertwine elements of creativity, geology, herbal history and generation to uniquely create a history of position and home. “
Morrison has a connection to NSU. His grandmother, Anne Dixon de Belcher, attended Louisiana State Normal College, as NSU was then called, from 1922 to 24 and earned a coaching certificate. His grandmother, who lived to be 101, had a profound influence on Morrison. instructor before her marriage and also sister of the famous Louisiana artist and sculptor Clyde Connell.
“‘Confluence’ is the fusion of other flows, like a river and the things my grandmother informs me about,” he said. “It’s the legacy, like a quilt or remnants of pieces that come together and are passed down through families or having the general school the opportunity to be informed and continue and teach others. “
Introducing the concept of “Confluence,” Morrison visited the NSU archives to study the history of the city, the Caddo, and their ceramic and basketry models, which can be complex. The piece he designed for NSU themes not only history, but also the region’s connection to papaya and its coevolulutive pollinator, the machaon zebra, which nests in the papaya, a collaborative ecosystem that speaks directly to education, Morrison explained.
“It’s three-dimensional and a lot of layers,” Morrison said. The design itself is a complex structural design. It is the confluence of events. It’s a difficult concept.
You can learn about Morrison and his public art projects at https://www. deedeemorrisonsculpture. com/.