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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.
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‘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
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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
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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.
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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.