Chris Carlson made the UNM Lobo emblem come to life near the duck pond, with the aid of his trusty set of chalk. Carlson’s 3-D art is playful; it’s not meant to be taken too seriously, he said. He doesn’t incorporate political messages or anything controversial.
“3-D is what fascinates me the most in art,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in optical illusions, how our eyes perceive things and how much we trust our eyes to not mislead us, how easily they are misled.”
In order to achieve the desired effect he takes a construction chalk line and marks diagonal lines from the viewpoint starting at the bottom, he said.
“Basically, what that diagonal line does is it defeats the natural perspective that would occur if you drew a straight line,” Carlson said. “If you look at anything that’s standing on the ground in front of you, it’s going to look bigger at the top than at the bottom just because the bottom is farther away.”
Carlson said he loves working with anamorphic art, which describes the 3-D appearance. After seeing pictures of 3-D chalk art online, he began studying it and learning all of the little tricks. Since then, he has been practicing it, he said.
Crystle Collier, the student activities specialist for the Student Activities Center, said they chose Carlson because they loved the idea of 3-D art, and enjoyed his work in particular.
“We wanted to bring Chris Carlson down to augment the Homecoming festivities, but we also wanted it to be interactive,” Collier said. “Since social media is such a big deal right now, we wanted it to be something that people can take pictures of.”
The Lobo emblem is facing south. A birthday cake is drawn above the logo and the candles read “125,” which point toward the duck pond.
Chalking is an important part of the UNM community, she said. There are more than 450 student organizations on campus, and many of them use chalk to spread information.
“Chalking is sort of a staple for student organizations on this campus to get the word out,” Collier said. “Every day you see chalk on the sidewalk, whether it’s writing or an event, but to see a piece of art is going to be different.”
Chalking helps spread awareness of the Homecoming theme and the event itself, she said.
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Weather permitting, the SAC will take the Homecoming Court to the 3-D Lobo image for pictures this morning, she said. Although the king and queen won’t be announced until Friday’s football game, the Court will be decided by that point.
Sue MacEachen, senior program manager of alumni relations, said planning for the Homecoming theme starts in January with a steering committee comprised of 25 volunteers, all of whom are UNM alumni.
“We see what’s going on, what’s happening, and we knew that this year was our 125th and so that was a no-brainer,” MacEachen said.
The difficulty was deciding on how to decorate, she said. With the anniversary theme in place, the committee decided to get another committee together to design the image of the birthday cake.
“The archivists got together, various people on campus, a couple reps from the art department, and somebody from communication and marketing,” MacEachen said. “The committee was saying ‘we should plan something around campus.’”
Moriah Carty is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @MoriahCarty
