Penn College News

Campus Mosaic Project Enhances Art of Seeing

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

With a stretch of sidewalk as his studio ...... and scaffolding as his office ...... David A. Stabley creates a 400-square-foot conversation piece along West Third Street.The instructor of ceramics and wood sculpture who shepherded the Centennial mosaic along the campus mall is creating another piece of outdoor art at Penn College: an abstract landscape on the heavily traveled north side of the Hager Lifelong Education Center. At 38 feet long and 11 feet high, and enjoying prime visibility adjacent to Bardo Gym and across from the Klump Academic Center, the piece has attracted much attention from passersby as it takes shape."It has been interesting working on Third Street," David A. Stabley said. "Many people walk by each day, commenting on my progression. Mostly great comments and sometimes I get feedback as to what they see within the image. The Susquehanna River, mountains, pyramids ... What is it going to be? All good things to hear. It is nice to make a visual image where everyone sees something different. I believe it makes people think more about what is going on and, hopefully, they have a connection with it or at least a comment." Stabley, who has been helped by summer students and others who stop "for an hour or two," will offer a mosaic class in the Spring 2016 semester for interested students. The course will count as an art elective and will include smaller studio projects and a larger-scale installation in Dauphin Hall.