Journey
“Journey” celebrates students and lifelong learning as a pathway and sculptural portal experience on the way to becoming an Empathetic Scholar® at the new TCU Burnett School of Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas.
Symbolism, nature and science are brought together to create an invitation for all to enter the sculpture and engage in the experience, reflecting upon and celebrating the experience of those who learn to “go on the journey” with the patient and that people are the center of the educational experience.
Integrated Artistry
The Design Process
The Client's Goals:
Convey the expression of the Empathic Scholar® educational framework: to be compassionate, empathetic, and prepared as lifelong learners who excel in the science of medicine.
The sculpture is to be engaging for students, faculty and visitors.
To give a sense of uplifting movement and to be a symbol of growth.
Anchor a large outdoor events lawn.
The Art Studio Goals & Concepts:
Express the educational experience as a journey learning to know your patient and learning to know your profession.
Making time to listen - Slowing down time - engagement is always with a person not the disease.
Create experience for people: a threshold, pathways, and a place to pause.
Iconic and personal develop scale and spatial relationships to the architectural context and visitor everyday experiences.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
Excerpt from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence
To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Perhaps the infinite isn’t elsewhere. Perhaps it’s embedded in the ordinary. Scale is a trick of attention, not of importance.
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your hand
Knowledge and wonder aren’t abstract. They’re tactile, experiential, embodied in the ability to focus attention.
And Eternity in an hour
Time collapses when attention and awareness deepens. Eternity isn’t endless duration; it’s fullness of presence.
Inspiration & Ideation
The sculptures are made of self supporting 1/2” thick stainless steel plate selected for its durable characteristics and hand finished with a non directional satin polish. Careful attention to detail by the fabrication team during fit up and assembly were essential including the transport cradle designed to facility shipment and handling of the finished work installed on site.
The finish, coupled with patterned cutouts, creates soft reflections from the surrounding landscape and changes in appearance from the changing light throughout the day.
Fabrication
The sculptures serve as both visual anchor to the lawn and as an invitation to engage with a quiet moment along the entryway to the new facility.
Planar sheets of steel come together with graceful curves and uplifting patterning to create a sense of body and sculptural volume, relating to the dynamic archway and colonnade.
The lighting was done in collaboration with RDG's lighting designers to select lighting choices that complement the architecture of Arnold Hall’s entrance, carefully selecting fixtures that emphasize Texas Christian University’s signature purple at night.