Midland junior Sarah

LeBoeuf spent two hours with about 30 other student volunteers helping to make the University Art Gallery rain a storm of empty water bottles.

LeBoeuf worked with professional installation artist Sandy Skoglund on an installation art exhibit, which will feature water bottles ranging in size that have been collected by the art department since January.

“It’s great to work with a great contemporary artist (like Skoglund) – it’s a once in a lifetime experience,” LeBoeuf said. “I like installation art because the viewer becomes part of the artwork. I’m really excited to be involved with this.”

The exhibit “Raining Bottles” will be on display today through April 2 in the West Gallery.

Associate art professor and installation artist Margaret Ware said this is a great way to educate people about the environment.

“We’re trying to work with recyclables like water bottles and get an environmental message across to students,” Ware said. “To make a water bottle, it takes one gallon of water and a half a gallon of gasoline, and for one to biodisintegrate, it takes 200 years.”

“Raining Bottles” is an example of installation art, which is a combination of objects and images installed in a space either in or outside.

Art chairman Al Wildey said the goal is to introduce the campus to the important role art plays in their everyday life.

“Art works as a guidepost. It encourages meditation, communication and can make you feel happy, sad or exotic,” Wildey said. “This is an absolutely great way for students to get involved. I want art to a be big part of students’ lives. It will make them better people.”

Skoglund is a professional installation artist who creates images by building sets consisting of certain objects. It usually takes her months to complete one project.

“I’m really excited about this,” Skoglund said. “The water bottles are going to look like huge raindrops.”

Barstow visiting artist Andrea Myers also is an installation artist.

“Installation art is great because you get to see how one intervention from a space can completely change how people see it,” Myers said.

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