A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point assistant professor of sculpture has won a residency through the Kohler Arts/Industry Program and will spend 11 weeks creating a sculpture of cells of the eye.

Heidi Lasher-Oakes won the competitive international residency with a proposal to create a replica of cells of the lens of the eye out of slip cast porcelain. She will work at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan from April 16 through July 1, having 24-hour access to the Kohler factory where the company creates its bathroom fixtures.

The sculpture will be the eighth work in Lasher-Oakes’ Biological Abstractions Series, which includes pieces representing the lungs, skin and reproductive organs. The cell of the eye lens is not represented in many photographs, she said. In two years she has found only two photographs.

"The cell form is so unusual and beautiful," she said, "that I want everyone to see it. It has an amazing shape, kind of like alien Legos."

To keep the cell shape as accurate as possible, Lasher-Oakes plans to use the Kohler factory’s laser pattern machine to create a three-dimensional prototype of the cell. The machine will use Autocad drawings of the cell, created by Mark Nelson, a UWSP assistant professor of interior architecture, from scanning electron microscope photographs.

"I am very excited about this process," Lasher-Oakes said. "I have never used it before as I usually make my own forms."

The cells will be made to scale except they will be cut short at one end. Accurately scaled cells at 6 inches high and 12 inches deep would be nearly a mile long, she said. She plans to cast 1000 cells, which she will assemble in different configurations depending on the space.

Lasher-Oakes began her interest in human physiology early in life. Her scientist father encouraged her to spend time looking through a microscope in his lab at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She has plans for more pieces in her biological abstraction series.

She has taught a variety of art classes, including sculpture, drawing and three-dimensional design, at UWSP since 1997.

She holds degrees from Pacific Northwest College of Art and Syracuse University and was the first artist to earn a Certificate in University Teaching from Syracuse’s Future Professoriate Program. She has displayed work in several exhibitions throughout the country, receiving several awards. She also has served residencies at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Neb.

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