As Jonathan Legg (BA/BEd ’96, MEd ’03) chisels away at the green, black, white and brown streaked soapstone, he describes the statue, which represents a community of three figures joined at the waist and supporting each other, as a metaphor for the process of education.
He explains that the different colours and textures represent diversity while the figures’ staggered sizes demonstrate growth. Each figure makes a distinct gesture: for example, a hand shielding eyes to symbolize vision.
“Creativity is so important to education, since one feeds the other in many ways,” he says. “If I change one hand placement or proportion in the statue, it forces the whole composition to change. The same analogy applies to education: if you change a single lesson or relationship with a student, everything can change.”
Legg focused on stone carving in university. He worked with soapstone, black and white marbles/limestone, sandstone and granite, and learned to shape around the unique grains and composition of the rocks. After graduating, he taught for five years before returning to the U of L to complete his master of education, where he focused on adult and creative education. Legg’s master’s research led to a 33-minute documentary exploring the creative process of four industrial designers.
“During my five years of teaching, I learned I was not just an artist, but was also very interested in creative activity and thinking,” he says. “I’m interested in how to infuse creativity into the learning process so students become both critical thinkers and creative problem solvers.”
“I’m working with the idea of the university as a sacred space – a place people go to receive wisdom. I also think of education as very much a visionary process, that idea of helping engage growth across a person’s lifespan.”