With his on campus sculpture, Log Ramps, Lloyd Hamrol tried to incorporate the feeling of the Pacific Northwest by using local, natural materials such as logs. This allows the sculpture to fit in with the Western campus and feel like it fits in effortlessly. Hamrol’s use of these materials is fitting and allows an interactive experience for students, as many of them sit on the sculpture in between classes or to study on a nice day. The log ramps were constructed in 1974, a bit after Hamrol describes the main three social forces which shaped his philosophical outlook had happened. This means that by 1974, Hamrol was fully comfortable with this outlook and influence on his work, and the log ramps sculpture is a reflection of this.

Lloyd Hamrol was born in 1937 in San Francisco, California, but currently resides in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from UCLA’s graduate program in 1963 and entered the art world. According to his website, he says that the main things that inspired his initial creativity, work and philosophical outlook was “Jack Kennedy’s assassination (the prelude to Vietnam) and the intellectual seedbed of the feminist movement”. These social forces are key in the interpretation and analysis of Hamrol’s work. The historical interpretation of Kennedy’s assassination and the Vietnam War are huge points of social discussion. With the Vietnam war being a sort of capitalist vs. communist, cold-war type of war, the influence and social commentary can be seen in a variety of pieces. With Hamrol, it is less literal and more philosophical, as with the other key social forces. Hamrol describes, “…by 1965, I was trying to integrate reductive structures, androgynous imagery and social utility, but never succeeded in getting more than two out of three together at any one time. Consequently, the work swung back and forth across an arc of interests defined on one end by discrete objects and on the other by transitory collaborative events.” In this artist statement, it is clear that Hamrol has an emphasis on the intersections of 2 or 3 things at once while using inanimate objects and abstract ideals. With these abstract ideals and materials, Hamrol aims to convey the previously mentioned social forces in an abstract and less literal sense than traditionally conveyed.

What Log Ramps brings to the Western campus is a feeling of familiarity, strength and peace. An iconic and prominent sculpture such as this is very well known, especially with how interactive it is. As a staple of the WWU campus and community, we hope to keep Log Ramps as a strong and powerful creation for years to come.

Written by group 38; Cooper J Houghton and Sebastian Fell