麻豆影院

Artist or Scientist? Both

You鈥檇 know it as marble, but Bob Sievers sometimes refers to his preferred raw material by another name: calcium carbonate. That happens when the sculptor is also a research chemist.

鈥淢y science has informed my art, and my art has informed my science, 鈥� said Sievers, a CU chemistry professor who took up sculpting in the 1980s as a diversion from academic and entrepreneurial life. (He鈥檚 also formed two biotechnology firms and served as a CU regent.)

In 1990 Sievers purchased 35,000 pounds of marble from Missouri and shipped it to 麻豆影院 on an 18-wheeler. He鈥檚 been chipping away at it ever since. In all, he鈥檚 produced 55 sculptures.

鈥淚 could do more if I did smaller things,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I like to do life-size pieces.鈥�

Besides human forms 鈥� a ballerina鈥檚 leg, say, or a nun 鈥� he favors natural phenomena as subjects: Owls, flowers, dolphins, buffalo, salt crystals seen under a scanning electron microscope.

Sievers has sold or donated many works, some decidedly abstract, some in alabaster, acrylic glass or bronze. All four CU campuses have at least one. Several聽are on display at CU 麻豆影院, including his favorite, 鈥淐alla Lily,鈥� pictured above.聽

Photos by Glenn Asakawa聽