Ko 1 Kyungtae Ko English 150 12 Oct. 2013 Unlimited Possibilities, Hidden Artwork in Park Library Have you ever experienced walking the same passage but with different feeling? Iowa State University has many different artifacts and artistic buildings along with its own history and meaning itself, and these are providing students the opportunity to increase value of their experience inside the campus. This also happen inside the buildings either if there are small artifacts inside or especially mural paintings. 'Unlimited Possibilities' worked by Doug Shelton is the representative mural painting that is placed in Parks Library. This shows well how its meaning fits with surrounding environment and how it affects the students walking through it. Ko 2 ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ is definitely not a single random painting but it has its own history and purpose. The date of its construction was January 1998, and the painting was officially granted to ISU on March 22 which is the Founders Day. The other factor that contributes to purpose of this construction was Iowa’s sesquicentennial year in 1996. In other words, the mural painting has the function of commemorating the Sesquicentennial year of Iowa (“Doug Shelton mural – Unlimited Possibilities”). Once the purpose of this work had been confirmed, Doug Shelton was elected to be the director of the construction. Dough Shelton, who is surrealistic-style artist from Des Moines (“Doug Shelton”), decided to work with students in Design colleges, and worked for about two years at the University Museum. To construct the initial idea, Doug and students brainstormed with several scenery of the ISU campus, and process that is used for Grant Wood murals which are another mural painting located in the Park Library (“Grant Wood murals). They kept collect comments from every visitor and themselves during whole period of construction, and tried to put all of those into the painting. Finally, they succeed to see the creation of painting ‘Unlimited Possibilities’, which contains all members’ idea, and satisfied the meaning of the name of painting. The mural painting depicts about educational figures and cultural interchange, using calm colors. Placing entrance in the middle, the picture is divided to left and right, where one side is showing rural and the other urban area. Both rural drawing and urban drawing contain several students, some of whom grabbing a book, studying and engaging in professional areas such as agriculture, architecture, biology, and etc. The left side of the painting, which is depicting rural area, is showing Figure 1: Left Side three students at the front and two students behind. Its background is consisted of grass, naked Ko 3 stratum, double screw of DNA, and bird on agricultural plain. On the other hand, the right side of urban painting is depicting four students who are studying inside the office-looking building. Its background is consisted of computer, drawer, blackboard, and office supplies. At the top of the both right and left side of the painting, however, it shows a shared background which is depicted as cloudy sky and globe in the middle not divided by the door. In overall, green, blue and yellow colors were used while red color is only used once at the right side of the mural painting. None of those colors are strong in saturation, and the picture is usually in bright colors. Figure 2: Right Side The space that ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ is placed is second floor’s central lobby in the library where many studying desk are available for ISU students, and the painting affects the nearby space and students. The artist Doug Shelton commented that ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ is to affect how the students behave at ISU (“Doug Shelton mural – Unlimited Possibilities”). This is shown well especially since the painting contains clear messages. Not like other surrealistic art work done by Doug Shelton. ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ expresses its message clearly by depicting academic components in overall. This characteristic seems acceptable, since it is placed in the library which should be environment of focusing and calm (Aarts 18). Furthermore, less usage of strong color such as red contribute to educational purpose of the painting. According to Daggett, Cobble, and Gertel, color of red Figure 3: 2nd Lounge Ko 4 and orange is not recommended to study hall, because those colors are don’t have any traits of stasis, which is required for studying. Instead, colors of earth tone such as green and brown are suggested by Daggett, Cobble, and Gerterl. Therefore, it can be said that color combination in ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ is intended and has function of constructing educational atmosphere around the place. There is also technical interaction between the painting and students who pass through the door. The Door often symbolizes behavior of finding or revealing truth as the users open the door (Thompson). Considering that, students who pass through the door that is placed at the middle of painting are posed in the situation where meaning of the painting and behave of opening and passing through the door interact each other. Being said above, the place where does ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ locate can be very special to students who recognize what historical events it contains and how well it is harmonized with space around. Furthermore, characteristic of being hidden can be attractable since the individual can feel sense of superiority of knowing what others don’t. While ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ has its own value in historical purpose and artistic aspect, the artifact is influencing its surrounding especially the students. It became the part of ISU in Founders day, which increased the importance of the painting, and Doug Shelton depicted urban and rural with professional images as well. Also, the name ‘Unlimited Possibilities’ intends inspiring students, and actually it does through visual and practical functions as explained above. There is no doubt that it is a valuable artifact of ISU, and it will provide great feeling of knowing artifact and specialty to whom visit the mural painting. Ko 5 References Aarts, Henk. “The Silence of the Library: Environment, situational norm, and social behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 84(1) (2003): 18-28. Daggett, Willard R. and Cobble, Jeffrey E. and Gertel, Steven J. “Color in an Optimum Learning Environment” LeaderEd.com, International Center for Leadership in Education, March 2008. Web. 8th Dec. 2013. “Doug Shelton” Iowa Artist Directory & Roster, Iowa Art Council, 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. “Doug Shelton mural – Unlimited Possibilities” Iowa State University E-Library, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2013. “Grant Wood murals” Iowa State University E-Library, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Thompson, I.J. “Spiritual Meaning of Door” BibleMeanings, KERNZ, 2002 Web. 13 Oct. 2013.