Miami University Geology Department Centennial Sculpture 

Miami University’s Department of Geology celebrated its 100th year anniversary in 2021. To help in this celebration I was commissioned to create an artwork that demonstrates the life of the Ordovician sea, today represented by the rich fossil remains found inn the rock surrounding, and under the Oxford campus of Miami University.

The sculpture captures a moment in time when southwestern Ohio was covered in a warm, clear, tropical sea during the late Ordovician Period, which was approximately 450 million years ago. The fauna shown have been sculpted in a Bas relief to show a marine scene from long ago. They have been sculpted as they existed in life.

Imagine the waves in this sea passing close overhead, imagine the movement of the water. The sculpture conveys this fluid movement by its organic sweep from the lower right to upper left. Movement is conveyed by the bend of the swaying sea lilies and the subtle texture and patination of the bronze sea.

I created this sculpture one small piece at time. Each prehistoric sea creature was sculpted at 4x life size from reference fossils in the Miami University Geology Museum collection. Molds were fabricated from these sculptures. From each of these molds multiple wax castings were taken. These castings were then embedded in the overall clay sculpture to create reefs of brachiopods, pelecypods, crinoids and corals.

The organic shape of this sculpture is meant to be a puzzle piece, a part of a much larger whole and engages the viewer by its size, shape and relation to space. The size and placement of this sculpture demands engagement with the viewer. It is more than sixteen feet in length and wraps around the entry hall leading to one of the main lecture rooms in the Shideler Hall, home of geology at Miami University and named after the founder of the department. Dr. Shideler collected and studied the fossils from the Ordovician rocks of southwestern Ohio.