Alison Stigora explores contrasts with her installation at Sculpture in the Wild

Last Friday morning Alison Stigora was taking measurements and getting lumber ready for the armature of her piece at Sculpture in the Wild.

Stigora's sketches for her work show a piece people can interact with, walk into and sit with. The outside will be sheathed horizontally with burnt wood harvested from the the Park Creek Fire burn area. The inside will be vertical tongue and groove pine with benches and an open top, making the sky the ceiling. The inner walls of the structure lean back, which encourages people to look up at the vast expanse above them. One of the things Stigora really loves about the piece is the contrast between the outside and the inside, which she said will feel emotionally really different.

Her inspiration for the design came from her initial visit to Lincoln. She learned about the forest fires, how they are part of the cycle in Montana and how the community of Lincoln rose up to fight them. Stigora said she knew she wanted to respond to that and incorporate it into her piece by taking burned material from the fires that the folks here fought and making something new with it.

"The charred wood has been through something, and people here can relate. Like the firefighter who battled the fire or the home or ranch owner watching the fire burning red towards them, both the wood and the people have been through something," Stigora said.

She's hoping to create an intimate, meditative space with the piece, where people can still feel the sense of reaching openness while being contained within the structure. Whether it's folks who live here or who are passing through, they can kind of tap into that feeling a little bit. And she hopes it's a space where people will come and spend a little time, and not just see it from a distance and move on. She's intentionally putting seating in the piece because she wants people to take a minute. Stigora wants it to be a kind of space that people utilize and enjoy, and maybe even meet there to chat. If it's a spot where someone might come regularly and bring their coffee in the morning and take a pause or bring a book and read in there, she said she would love that.

Once Stigora had the concept for the design, she had to find just the right spot in the park for it. The place she chose has a grove of chokecherries right near the entrance to the piece. She had read about local plant life and how chokecherry bushes are resilient to fire, and that after a fire it's one of the first plants to grow back.

"It seemed like the perfect spot with a subtle approach that maybe some people will notice." Stigora said.

Stigora remembers always creating things, even as a young child of four years of age. She grew up doing a lot of drawing and painting and gluing pieces together. It wasn't until college and beyond that Stigora got into large-scale sculpture work. She loves larger sculpture and installation because it's so big, it can't be ignored.

Stigora has been working with burnt wood since 2006 and finished her Master of Fine Arts in 2007. Since then, she's been working consistently. She's done gallery work inside, as well as several outdoor pieces including parks in Philadelphia, Italy, Iceland, and California. She says it's a real treat to be outside and working in the woods, and when working in a gallery space, it's often about bringing the outdoors inside.

Stigora currently lives and teaches in Seattle, but grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She completed her undergraduate degree in Tennessee and completed grad school the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she got more deeply into sculpture installation.

One of the most impactful things during her visit to Lincoln is seeing burnt out forest lands, as well as chatting with folks and learning more about firefighting in the area.

Stigora hasn't yet decided what she'll call her piece and says she's "chewing on it" for now. She finds it often emerges over time, as it does with a lot of her artwork. She tends to make lists of keywords as she's working, sometimes of things she associates with the piece. Sometimes it may be a combination of two of those words, while other times the name just becomes really clear. She equates it to naming anything and says it just can't be rushed because it takes time. It's part of her process and often finds the name just "hits her."

Although there are always some things that carry over from what she's learned from previous work, Stigora said there are always things that are new. For this piece, folks will see it from a distance, and as they come closer, realize there's a door and they can go inside. She calls this the "surprise component," where someone thinks they know what it is from far away and then when they get closer they realize that there is a whole second layer of experience. She's worked with that component in gallery settings before, but said this piece might be one she's explored that with more outdoors, and she's excited to see how people respond to it. Stigora wants to remind people that it is a very interactive piece and would love people to spend time with it – inside and outside. But, she reminds everyone if they touch the piece on the outside, they will get dirty.

Next week, check the BVD to find out more about Stuart Ian Frost's installation the Sculpture in the Wild. Until then, you can attend their upcoming artist talks tonight, Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7:30pm at the Lincoln Library.