Intro: Curve/Diagonal is a piece by an artist by the name of Robert Maki. Maki, a WWU alumni, has works on many college campus across America, all with very different and intricate designs. Other than Curve/Diagonal, Maki is a creator of “Canary II”, which is a piece located inside of the Sea-Tac airport, and “Selected Works” which is in a gallery at the Bellevue College. Today, he continues to be a local artist to Washington and occasionally does guest teaching. He’s not so much noticed for who he is, but more of what he does with his work.

Background: The Sculpture is located on North Campus of Western Washington University, right by the Viking union. It is made of steel and was created in 1979. Although it was constructed in 1979, it wasn’t actually installed on campus until a couple years later in 1981.

Reaction: The initial reaction that one may perceive is that it’s just a curved steel structure, but there is more to the piece than just that. To truly get an artistic perspective of this piece, it needs to be looked at in many different ways. What that means, is that it needs to be observed at different angles, different times, and different conditions to get a good artistic perspective.

Inspiration: Robert Maki was really interested in the way the light outside, in a way, manipulated the curve. This thought was what inspired Maki to create this piece. The way the light hit the sculpture affected the shadow that was casted on the sculpture, which ultimately resulted in a change of the appearance of the curve.

Group Members:

Megan Stark

Denley Arce