Shelley High sculpture class selected for Jackson Hole art installation

SHELLEY — Courtesy of Shelley High School’s sculpture class, the more than 30,000 motorists who drive through Jackson Hole on W. Broadway will see a puzzling site on the side of the road.

This fall, Jackson Hole Public Art put a call-out to regional artists to send in sculpture proposals to fill The ArtSpot, located across the street from The Car Wash at Jackson Hole on W. Broadway. Daniel Borup saw the call-out and thought it would be a good opportunity for his Shelley High School sculpture class to create some proposals.

He, and the class, were surprised when JH Public Art picked one of their proposals.

“It’s kind of one of those things where you hear about other students and other people doing that kind of thing and it happens to them and you always have that moment of, like, ‘dang, I wish I could have something like that happen to me,'” Shelley High School Senior Isis Brinker said.

In preparation for sending their proposals to JH Public Art, Borup had each of his students come up with multiple designs. He then worked with each of the students to improve the designs that had the most potential.

Brinker’s design, “A Puzzling Escape,” caught the eye of JH Public Art’s Board of Directors, leading them to choose it as the winner.

“I just liked the idea of a puzzle undoing itself. Instead of being put together, the puzzle being like, ‘you know what? I don’t want to be in this frame anymore,'” Brinker said about the inspiration behind the sculpture. “Just the idea of all the pieces just deciding that they didn’t want to be there. Just being like, ‘well, let’s just jump,’ and just kind of running away and being little goblins about it.”

While JH Public Art chose Brinker’s proposal, the entire sculpture class was involved in creating the piece.

“They all knew that whatever got picked–if they got picked–we would all be creating it together. Whatever piece,” Borup said. “That was kind of the plan from the start. We all do a design and then if one of them gets picked, then we all help make it.”

The other students involved were: Ella Carlson, Sophia Garcia, Amber Lindsay, Sophia Patchin, Cordell Winward, Malaya Witt and Ericson Wittwer.

Winward said the size of the sculpture proved challenging.

The ArtSpot is 10 feet tall and six feet wide. Each of the puzzle pieces are two feet by two feet plus the added length of the arms and legs.

“We had to have it in two separate pieces that we had to screw back together on-site to be able to fit it on the bus to be able to take it up there,” Winward said.

The class installed the piece just over a week ago and it has already created a buzz among motorists.

“I was so tickled to see this installation while driving through town the other day. I literally started laughing out loud – the puzzle pieces have a lot of character! The one who looks like he’s trying to flag down a car to get away is too much. Kudos to this student for a really wonderful piece of art!” one individual wrote in a letter to JH Public Art.

Another person said, “Just wanted to let you know, I’ve been thinking about this installation since I first saw it earlier this week. I passed it on my way to work and literally burst out laughing, alone, in my car. It has been making me giggle ever since. It was a little piece of joy that’s helped me laugh through some tough times this season. Thanks for sharing the background on this!”

The sculpture will stay at The ArtSpot for around six months. After that, the class isn’t sure what they will do with it.