The saying, “You never know when inspiration will find you,” could not be more true for Kingsley, Iowa native, Hanna Seggerman. While hiking along the Cedar Falls River, just minutes from her alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, with her teeth chattering and her face burnt from the frost, she was undeterred, stubbornly determined to practice shooting with her new camera. “I think I was in Photo II class, and I knew I needed to be out there practicing. I knew I needed to be working with that camera. I’m looking at the river, the trees, the landscape all around me and then I see these rocks, placed so perfectly and they had ice so beautifully wrapped around them, almost like it was sewn. It was absolutely pristine, like beyond just pretty,” she describes. That photograph propelled sketches, which multiplied to more sketches and then finally a maquette, to what now houses property just left of the steps by the East Entrance of the Bologna Performing Arts Center. Just her second time to install this sculpture and her first time to install outside of Iowa, Seggerman adds, “My work is super personal to me, I think most artists would say that. Having a piece that so many complete strangers are going to come into contact with, that’s scary and completely exhilarating all in the same crazy breath. I would hope they see things that may appear so unconnected or share a juxtaposition, can grow with each other, can be close together, can work together. That’s a concept that is really interesting to me.”
Amongst by Hanna Seggerman
