It’s “Three Shades of Green” and eighteen feet high, a new and colorful beacon floating above waves of campus construction. Jim Collins, former art professor at UTC, has created a sculpture fashioned with three powder-coated aluminum figures sitting 15 feet high, perched atop recycled fiberglass turbine blades.
Three Shades of Green
It was decided to position the piece so that it overlooks green space and the new library.
The figures represent the students of UTC and remind them “that they will and do hold the answers to today’s problems and the future belongs to them,” Collins’ says in his artist’s statement.
“People love seeing things in the art world that are easy to identify,” Collins explained. “However, most people treasure art that is challenging in its interpretation.”
Collins is primarily a sculptor who works in a figurative manner, recognizable in his long running series the WATCHER. His sculpture style has been characterized by the use of silhouette figures constructed of stainless steel, aluminum and other metals.
He received the A.B. degree from Marshall University in West Virginia, the M.P.H. degree from the University of Michigan, and the M.F.A. degree in sculpture from Ohio University.
