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Archives for December 2015

So what's a faculty concert like?

12/29/2015 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Community, Student Life Tagged With: dr.john marshall, ewu cello, ewu concerts, ewu music, ewu music major

Making Art is a Walk in the Park for 3D Design Students

12/17/2015 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

This fall a group of 3D design students, led by Professor Lisa Nappa, cruised out to Turnbull, EWU’s neighboring National Wildlife Refuge. The students’ goal: to make art with just their imagination and the raw materials found in Mother Nature.

Before venturing out of the studio they watched excerpts from “Rivers and Tides,” the documentary about Andy Goldsworthy, who is a guru of ephemeral sculptures made strictly from elements of nature. They also had a brief practice session across the street at Sutton Park, where they quickly learned that sketching ideas ahead of time wouldn’t help.

“You have to play with the materials long enough to know what you can and can’t do with them,” said Monica Hoblin, a senior majoring in Visual Communications.

Students Hoblin and Al Abdul Karem at work (Lisa Nappa photo)
Students Hoblin and Al Abdul Karem at work (Lisa Nappa photo)

Arriving at Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, Hoblin paired up with Aziz Al Abdul Karem, a studio art major from Saudi Arabia, to arch long sticks over a small boulder, forming a cage-like canopy. The result is that your eye focuses not just on the cage but on the rock underneath, an object you wouldn’t notice otherwise.

Other students sewed leaves together with thorns, or filled the cracks of a fallen log with moss, implementing basic design principles such as line-form and contrast.

One student wreathed a boulder with bunchgrass, creating what looked like an eye peering out of the dry grass.

Nystrom's collage adorns a birch tree (artist photo)
Nystrom’s collage adorns a birch tree (artist photo)

“It was fun to get outside,” said Linnea Nystrom, a junior Occupational Therapy major from Olympia. She said the exercise made her pay closer attention to the colors of the particular season. “The fall colors contrasted with the grey mud and the white birch bark.”  Though not an art major, she took Nappa’s 3D Design class as an elective, or as she put it, “for fun!”

Working directly with nature to sculpt works of art, the students knew nothing they made would last more than a day or two.

“You have to let it go,” says Hoblin. “It can’t be precious.”

She wove together fiery leaves, sticks and trumpet blossoms into a collage that adorned a birch tree trunk.

And yep: U.S. Park Rangers granted permission for this student project. It’s just one of the great parts of the strong relationship between EWU and the wildlife refuge.

Filed Under: Academics, Location Tagged With: art, class, Design, elective, Graphic design, major, nature, project, research, Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge

Weekend Roadtrip!

12/08/2015 by Nick Thomas Leave a Comment

One of the world's premier, undeveloped hot springs is in EWU's backyard. Goldbug Hot Springs outside Salmon, Idaho, is well worth a weekend trip from Cheney.

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The stunning landscapes of Idaho and Montana make the time fly by. It’s even more powerful when you realize you’re passing through the same mountain ranges that blew the minds of the 1805 Lewis and Clark expedition.

Traveling east from EWU, and after skipping through Spokane, you pass beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene and the historic mining towns of the Silver Valley. Then you descend Lookout Pass into Montana.

Missoula is the perfect halfway point. Before turning due south refuel at one the towns’  restaurants and coffee shops. Recommendations include the delicious Catalyst Café, which has a fresh, unique menu and great coffee, or The Bridge Pizza, which offers up fresh pizza by the slice.

Geology fans  should take note of the strange lines running across Missoula’s foothills. Those lines are high water marks made by the historic Lake Missoula thousands of years ago, the same lake whose ancient floodwaters carved out the current rugged landscape of the Inland Northwest and the territory around EWU.

Leaving Missoula you are soon flanked on either side by the peaks of the Bitterroot Mountain range, rising up to just over 10,000 feet.

Be sure to top off at Tower Creek Road and take in The Pyramid Rocks. Known as Hoodoos, these soft rocks are eroded by rain and wind to resemble their Egyptian namesakes.

After passing through Salmon, the birthplace of Sacajawea, you are almost to Goldbug. Just past the community of Elk Bend turn left on unpaved, unmarked Warm Springs Road. Be sure to Google map it, as the turn off is easy to miss.

The trailhead is a hundred yards down the dirt road. The hot springs is a two mile hike up a moderately steep trail. While camping is prohibited at the trailhead and within 500 feet from the springs, there’s plenty of flat spots to pitch a tent about a mile up the trail alongside the creek. There are also a few hotels in nearby Salmon if camping is not your thing, or if its too cold out.

The hot springs themselves sit in a series of pools connected by picturesque waterfalls. Temperatures vary from scalding hot to warm. If you’ve been to other springs you’ll be surprised by Goldbug’s crystal clear water, smooth, clean gravel floors and a distinct lack of the sulfur smell common to other hot springs. Settling into the crystal clear pools is the perfect reward for the long drive.

As you relax, take in the view. All around you steep mountains rise up, and the shimmering pool reflects the sky as you peer over the edge at the valley below.

Goldbug Hot Springs is an incredible outdoor experience you will never forget, and it’s a perfect weekend trip for a new EWU student.

Filed Under: EWU, Location, Student Life Tagged With: backpacking, Goldbug, hiking, hot springs, Idaho, Montanta, outdoor, recreation, roadtrip, weekend

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