Beauty, as they say, is in the eyes of the beholder, and we suppose that conceptual art is, as well.  When University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior art student, August Kochanowski, was given an assignment to create a sculpture using planar forms, he turned to a subject dear to our own hearts, purebred dogs. You see, the mascot of the public university in Stevens Point, Wisconsin is the Pointer (nicknamed “Stevie,”)  an image first seen on the cover of the December 1916 student newspaper titled, The Pointer, and used in 1917 as well. Can you see a Pointer in his piece?

In 1938, a new sketch of a Pointer was used on the masthead of The Pointer, and retired in 1946.  No Pointer adorned the student newspaper after that, but in 1969, the Alumni Association had “Stevie the Pointer” pins created by a commercial artist from Stevens Point. In 1997, another mascot was created, and this one earned first place in the collegiate mascot division of the national Americup Cheer and Dance Championship. Since the University had officially licensed the logo, the version remained in use until rebranding in 2012 when the school’s athletic teams introduced a Pointer dog head designed to “capture the forward-moving, assertive spirit of UW-Stevens Point athletics.”

Kochanowski didn’t have to go far, then, for inspiration. His creation was large-scale iron sculpture commissioned by student members of the Carlsten Gallery Student Advisory Council. The concept for the 2,500-pound, eight-foot tall dog was first crafted with hardboard. Kochanowski quickly cut paper, then folded until he captured the essence of a dog. He worked on the final sculpture for three months with the help of family and Metal Crafters, and upon completion, it was installed on a grassy knoll west of UWSP’s Trainer Natural Resources building.

Image from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point alumnus page