Sunday, January 22, 2017

All About the Wowzerwal



Constance Jones


Sunshine fills the room, and beautiful art pieces hang in a circle of creativity.

There are eight beautiful hanging glass art pieces in North Santiam Hall here at LBCC. They are collectively named the "Wowzerwall Chandelier." Wowzerwall is an acronym for "Walls of Wonder Zestfully Executed by Roy."

 The Roy in Wowzerwall is a retired Roy McFadden of Roy McFadden Design Inc.  Roy McFadden graduated from the Los Angeles Art College of Design in 1972. 

   Each chandelier piece is engraved with a quote and an artwork piece done by an LBCC student. McFadden and his company translated these students' artwork as a "computer-cut-transit," so that they could be etched into the angled 1/2" clear acrylic sheets. McFadden used a method called sand blasting which engraved the art pieces. 

  The famous quotes include one from Duke Ellington reading "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues".   

   One faculty member, Karelia Stetz-Waters, whose office is just down the hall, said that "It has always been apart of the landscape".

   The artwork pieces were built in 2006 with the building.

The students who worked on this were Casey Tennant, Paul Richards, Jennifer Kretz, Jamie Brassfield, Mathew Zadwick, Vinessa Mayer, Christina Chase, Patrick Bettag, Alice Tetamare, Nicholas Kessi, Stephanie Wyant, Rachelle Swaney, Adam Schneider, Victoria Bottemiller, and John Redman.

Stetz-Waters said "Sometimes when you're alone in the room, you can hear it creaking like someone is walking. It has always creeped me out."


At a Glance:

What: Hanging Glass Artwork Pieces in NHS.
Members: Roy McFadden
McFadden's Email: rickert@newportnet.com
Phone:(541)265-2466
McFadden's Facebook