Sept. 16, 2010

Euken and Lilligren

A friendship between Jill Euken (left) and Ingrid Lilligren helped provide sustainable art for the new Biorenewables Research Laboratory. Behind the two is senior Katie Palmer's reduction woodcut, "Corvidae Corvus," which captured best in show at the inaugural sustainable art juried competition. Photo by Bob Elbert.

Catalysts in art and science

by Teddi Barron, News Service

Open house

Biorenewables Research Laboratory
Friday, Sept. 17
3-5:30 p.m.
(program at 3 p.m.)

In 1996, when Ingrid Lilligren was a junior faculty member in the art and design department and Jill Euken worked as an Extension field specialist at the university's Armstrong Research Farm in Lewis, they collaborated on a project to create artwork for the farm's new Wallace Foundation Learning and Outreach Center. This "beginning of a beautiful friendship" led to another partnership, between the Bioeconomy Institute and the College of Design, nearly 15 years later.

Thanks to their friendship, the institute's new Biorenewables Research Laboratory (BRL) -- set for dedication on Friday, Sept. 17 -- not only will be home to some of the university's most innovative research, but also some of its most inventive artwork.

Euken is now deputy director of the Bioeconomy Institute, and Lilligren is professor and director of integrated studio arts. The two bonded when Lilligren was commissioned to create and install a ceramic mural for the Wallace learning center. Over the years, the friends exchanged phone calls and emails. In 2008, they reconnected at a university awards luncheon.

The science of building a collection

Euken wanted to discuss artwork for the new biorenewables building, which would be built in two phases. The decision had been made to purchase the public-building-funded artwork upon completion of the second phase. Until then, the walls of the BRL would be bare.

"And a building without art really isn't a building," Euken laughed.

So the two discussed having design students and faculty create art on an ongoing basis. They formed a committee that included Barbara Walton, associate professor of art and design; Tonia McCarley, Center for Biorenewable Chemicals assistant director; and the Bioeconomy Institute's Maryann Sherman, communications and marketing coordinator, Diane Meyer, grants manager, and Diane Love, administrative assistant.

"I've always been most comfortable having one leg in two different cultures and bridging them," Euken said. "And it just makes sense that when you find someone in a different department who also likes to mix it up, that you work together."

The committee decided to hold a juried competition for students and place their art in the building. Last spring, 22 integrated studio arts students produced work for the inaugural sustainable art juried competition. Students were asked to create art from, or with images of, natural materials. They also had to write statements about the lifecycle of the materials used or the lifecycle of the subject matter depicted.

Cash awards, ranging from $750 to $75, were provided for the top four place winners, by the institute's non-state funding. Winners were selected on Earth Day in April; senior Katie Palmer's reduction woodcut, "Corvidae Corvus," took best in show.

The work of all 22 students has been installed in the BRL lobby, and Palmer's will become part of the building's permanent collection. Each year, the Bioeconomy Institute will sponsor the competition, exhibit 20-25 juried pieces for a year and add the winning art to its collection.

The art of being good neighbors

Meanwhile, Sherman and Euken asked Lilligren and Walton if they could make something with biochar, the charcoal co-product of bio-oil made from cellulosic biomass. When applied to the soil, it can restore nutrients and sequester carbon.

Lilligren set in motion the "Charcoal Challenge" for studio arts faculty. The institute provided each artist with about a pint of red oak charcoal powder. Some rubbed the charcoal into paper, and then erased areas to create light and dark values. Walton added linseed oil to the gritty powder before drawing with it. And Lilligren fired some biochar onto a tile to make a glaze. The seven faculty pieces will be on temporary display in the Bioeconomy Institute's office suite.

Also on temporary display are soywax-based encaustic paintings by Walton. In encaustic painting, colored pigments are added to heated wax and applied to wood or canvas. An ancient technique, it traditionally uses beeswax or petroleum-based wax. However, Walton has worked with Toni Wang, professor of food science and human nutrition, to develop a safer, more affordable and environmentally friendly soy-based wax. The "green" wax is creating quite a lot of excitement in the encaustic painting world, Lilligren said.

Other plans are being fleshed out to "solidify the good neighbor relationship" between the scientific institute and the designers and artists next door. Faculty who teach drawing or biological and pre-medical illustration will be encouraged to use the visual BRL laboratories and the ISU BioCentury Research Farm as settings for student drawing assignments.