克里斯·达菲（Chris Duffy，站在领奖台上）和蒂芙尼·博德克尔（Tiffany Boddeker）是两位学生艺术家，他们创作了这个金属雕塑，现在被称为”#Poppy”。11月2日，他们在校园以南的雷蒙纳大道（Ramona Avenue）举行了仪式，庆祝这件艺术品的安装。 （博彩平台/安德里亚·普莱斯）

The idea started as child’s play – or child’s playwear, to be precise.

克里斯·达菲（Chris Duffy）是一名大四的艺术专业学生，他在拉莫纳大道（Ramona Avenue）的一个转弯处为一个公共艺术装置征集灵感，这个转弯处靠近萨克拉门托州以南的布莱顿大道（Brighton Avenue）。

Duffy was putting his young daughter to bed when he “looked up, and there’s this tiny person with these stegosauruses all over her shirt.”

每个人都喜欢恐龙，他想，所以他就这么做了。

So did the 动力客栈联盟 (PIA). #Poppy, the brainchild of Duffy brought to life with huge assists from fellow students Tiffany Boddeker, Camilo Pico and Kat – who uses only her first name – was introduced to the community on Nov. 2.

在那个阳光普照的下午，大约有70位政要、社区成员、建筑工人和学生聚集在一起，庆祝大学在Power Inn走廊上放置了一个持久的艺术锚。

“Is this marvelous, or is this marvelous?” 大学校长罗伯特·s·尼尔森反问道。 “Let’s all celebrate our future because the future is here.”

罗伯特·s·尼尔森总统站在艺术家克里斯·达菲和蒂芙尼·博德克尔（拿着剪刀）旁边剪彩，并与其他政要一起向公众介绍#罂粟花#。 （博彩平台/安德里亚·普莱斯）

文学艺术学院 院长谢莉·梅耶强调了#Poppy成为校园附近社区一部分的重要性。 And its presence is only a first step: A 创意经济先导计划补助金 the city of 萨克拉门托 awarded the University last year will bring arts performances to the Power Inn Corridor’s George Sim Community Center, expanding access to the arts to an underserved area.

“The idea behind it was to create this pathway to strengthen the relationship between 萨克拉门托州 and the business community while showcasing the University’s talent,” said Tracey Schaal, 动力客栈联盟 executive director. “We feel fortunate to be able to create a win-win for both our community and the University.”

该社区，包括社区企业，在这一过程中提供了关键的支持，达菲说。

“Anytime we went to anyone and asked ‘How do we do this?’ or (told them) ‘This is what we want to do,’ we never got a ‘no.’ All we heard was ‘Yes, that sounds awesome. Let’s move forward. 我们怎样才能做到这一点呢？’

”在整个项目中得到这样的支持真是太棒了。 I think that said a lot about 囊状态 and the Power Inn community.”

After getting the green light and hitting a local steel mill for the tubing that composes the stegosaurus’ exoskeleton, the team fired into a 15-week sprint to the finish. It became an almost all-consuming task, especially for Duffy, for whom 12-hour – or longer – stints at the campus’ Art Sculpture Lab were common.

“I think we really have incorporated the spirit of both the 动力客栈联盟 and 萨克拉门托州,” Duffy said. “I’m really happy with the result.“

Duffy, who said he usually improvises his artwork, hadn’t worked on anything the scale of #Poppy, so named as a nod to pop culture, as well as for the sheet metal flowers that complement the sculpture for reasons decorative and practical: The creature is depicted munching on one, and another is used to stabilize its massive removable tail.

“To get it to be in the position he proposed – it was hard to do,” said Andrew Connelly, the art professor who guided the student team on the project.

达菲希望它具有自发性和不可预测性的元素。 编织金属的设计旨在传达社区和学生的啮合，以及合作的主题。 It’s subtle symbolism by design.

Connelly said the building crew received important lessons in collaboration in a field – art – that typically is the domain of soloists. 这个项目也为学生们提供了宝贵的现实经验。 他们必须向电力酒店联盟提交提案，并在PIA、萨克拉门托市和萨克拉门托大都会艺术委员会制定的指导方针下工作。

“Dealing with a client is very real-life,” said Boddeker, who pounded the flowers into shape by hand. “Even if that’s not what we do in the future, it’s still dealing with people in the professional world. It’s definitely been a learning curve.”

达菲表示同意。 “The city gets involved, engineering gets involved, there’s a budget, there’s contracts,” he said. “How do we actually do this on a timeline within a budget?

“It allows us as students to get into a real-world situation of working with a client and working with a group of businesses and having a little bit of a budget to play with. And we get to put this piece of art out in the world, which is super-exciting.”

If the 动力客栈联盟 has its way, it won’t be the last time 囊状态 students grapple with those issues – it wants public art installation to be an annual occurrence. 这种观点是有根据的。

“I’m just really excited to see how much it blossoms in the future,” Boddeker said. – 艾哈迈德·v·奥尔蒂斯