Art, Description and Artist -- The Big Blue Bear by Lawrence Argent - Essay Example

Art, and Artist -- The Big Blue Bear The Big Blue Bear, d “I See What You Mean,” is the art piece sculpted by British-born sculptureLawrence Argent who finished the art piece, molded in polymer concrete and steel, in 2005 for Denver’s Percent for Art Program. The sculpture is forty-feet high, funny looking bear that attracts equally to children and adults. It has made the Colorado Convention Center a visitors’ delight. The sculpture is located on the 14th Street side of the Colorado Convention Center (CCC) (Public Earth).

The sculpture of the Big Blue Bear arouses a feeling of joy in the minds of visitors to the CCC, shown glancing at the lobby area. The sculpture has got famous over very short period of time as a genuine Mile High image. Lawrence Argent, the creator feels that such creations are not randomly sculptured. For him the making of the bear seemed to him as an essential part of the building, the same way was his feeling that the bear needed the building; such was the state of mind of the artist Argent (Denver par. 2). Argent wanted to project the CCC as a place where people become friendly through sharing of ideas and information.

His proposal appeared as a central response to the presenting of the regional western art from the viewpoint of the non-resident in the environment of Colorado. Argent found the architecture of the building quite distinct in the surrounding local environment and he wanted to match it with a similar kind of art piece that did not clash with the ambience of the building, its design and size. He wanted to make an art work that resembled the distinctness of the CCC and its connection with surrounding area through the big blue bear.

The size of the art work was very crucial part of the planning. Argent wanted to include the mountains to Denver to inspire tourists about the appeal of the location, the CCC (Denver par. 3). The idea of the peeping bear came to Argent’s mind from a picture in some newspaper of a black bear looking through a window. Initially, he wanted to color the bear black but the printout of the image got printed in blue color by mistake. When Argent saw the blue image of the bear, he liked the color although his imagination had inspired him to project the color of the natural surroundings in sandstone.

Later, it was revealed to him that the native Utes tribes residing in Colorado considered and admired the black bear and the color blue symbolized a higher spiritual ranking for the Utes tribes (Denver par. 4). The very idea of making the sculpture of a bear came to Argent’s mind because the rock imagery has been over-used. The curiosity of going down to 14th Street and Speer Blvd and glance inside from the outer of the building to know what was happening inside the building was quite exciting to the mind.

One remained ignorant about the happenings, discussions, and information exchange going on inside the Convention Hall. So a number of reasons were behind selecting a big blue bear peeping inside the building from outside. Definitely, it is childlike saying and assuming what is going inside the building. That’s why a childlike title was given by Argent, “I See What You Mean” (Denver par. 4). Works Cited Denver. The Man Behind the Big Blue Bear: An Interview with Lawrence Argent. 2010. Denver.

30 April 2011 . Public Earth. Lawrence Argent “I See What You Mean.” 2011. Public Earth. 30 April 2011