Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 6/12/01
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   5

Editors: Photo accompanies release
SCULPTOR INSTALLS CAMPUS ANGEL
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University now has its own campus angel.
     An eight-foot statue of an angel, carved from Carrara marble by Russian-born sculptor
Alexei E. Kazantsev, has been installed on the west side of McGehee Hall. 
     "Angel of Discovery" is the latest addition to Southeastern's "Louisiana Sculpture
Garden," which also includes Robert Warrens' "Easel Celebration," John Geldersma's "Dogon
Hut and Spirit Poles" and a work by John Scott which has yet to be installed.
          The Louisiana Sculpture Garden is supported by a grant from the Louisiana State Arts 
Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts,
said Don Marshall, director of Clark Hall Gallery. It is also supported by matching funds from
the Clark Hall Gallery student fees.
     Kazantsev installed the sculpture June 11 with help from Alvin Vicknair of Javco Inc. in
Ponchatoula. "I think it looks beautiful," he said, eyeing the angel contentedly after he and
Vicknair had spent well over an hour maneuvering the huge piece from Vicknair's truck to its
new brick pedestal home.
     Kazantsev, who has created numerous works of arts for local patrons such as the Neill
Corporation and was commissioned to sculpt a Baptismal font for the new Holy Ghost Church in
Hammond, said he had originally intended to call the statue "Nike," after the Greek goddess of
victory.
      "But nobody understood. They think it is a brand of shoes," he said, laughing. "So after
that reaction from 10 or 15 people said that, we decide it is 'Angel of Discovery' instead."
     "A campus is a place where you learn and discover things. By discovering, you learn," he 
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ANGEL OF DISCOVERY   Add One
said. 
     Kazantsev said Southeastern student David Herrington of Covington, who has been
apprenticing with him, helped create the angel. 
     Trained in Moscow, where his uncle is a renowned sculptor, Kazantsev came to the
United States in 1993. He lived first in Lincoln, Neb., then moved to Louisiana, where he has
been artist-in-residence at the Sutton Gallery in New Orleans and, since 1996, owner of Moon
Couple Designs in Covington. He will move again   to Seattle, Wash.   this month.
     His sculpture has been displayed in exhibitions in Covington and New Orleans as well as
in Chicago, Ill., and Santa Fe., N.M., and in Dusseldorf and Berlin, Germany. His work can also
be found in private collections in Scotland, Germany, France and Italy. 
     "Maybe we will have a new tradition at Southeastern," said Kazantsev, with a twinkle in
his eye. "Students can visit the angel to ask for good grades."
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsm01.htm