The concept for this design is inspired by Midwestern agriculture and how it has shaped our nations capacity to dream big. As a form of transportation, space travel represents the height of human ingenuity. Among the cultural developments bringing us to the space age, agriculture has been especially instrumental. Modern agriculture has brought the proliferation of our food supply, the development of novel chemical compounds, and the advancement of biofuels. While space flight may not play a part in our daily routine, it serves as inspiration for us to reach further with our aspirations and it affirms our ability to succeed.

Space exploration has been deeply woven into the narrative of technological progress in post-WWII America. The space race woke the country up to the need for scientists and engineers to be at the head of the world’s innovation curve. The space program, along with other government research laboratories, purchased a large percentage of the early microprocessors, helping push the computer from being an enormous machine that was outside of the reach of all but the wealthiest of individuals, to the point where 85% of Americans own a cellphone. As a country, we overcame the issues of the 20^th century with creativity and scientific innovation. Although the Space Shuttle Atlantis completed its final mission on July 21, 2011 and NASA has no firm plans to develop a replacement fleet, we must continue to cultivate the qualities that made the previous century successful.

This banner submission, by far, received the most jury attention. The decommissioning of the space shuttle was THE big news the day the jury was meeting to select the final banner images.

Maria is an Omaha based artist who spent her college years studying astronomy, physics, and math. In graduate school she joined a biophysical research team. For her research, she helped develop a novel set of neuotracing dyes by measuring and evaluating diffusion rates. Working with these dyes, as she generated beautiful images of neural pathways, her desire to come back to art overwhelmed her. Since completing her master’s degree and thesis, she has worked as a full-time artist. Her artistic expressions are primarily manifested in oil painting and relief carving.

For information or updates please visit: www.mariaairam.com or on Facebook at Maria Hansen Studio.

‘Design Speed Minimum Radii’ shows the turning radii of speed. Governed by safety, the geometric road design for interchanges and intersections governs that more speed = larger radii. This graphic overlaps the radii as provided by AASHTO at 7 different speeds. Red lines indicate the minimum turning radii for roads with super-elevation; the sectional tilt of the road surface to counter the centrifigal force of turning at a speed. The curves in cyan show the minimum radii necessary at the same speeds without the super-elevation, which need to be larger without the help of the super-elevation.

Emily Andersen is a partner at DeOld Andersen Architecture (DAA), an architecture and design practice in Brooklyn, NY and Omaha, NE.  She received her Master of Architecture from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and relocated to New York City in September of 2001.  Prior to forming DAA, she was an Associate at Slade Architecture in New York City, and involved in a large variety of public and commercial projects.

Emily formed DAA with partner Geoff DeOld after collaborating on several projects addressing the suburban landscape and the role architecture and design might play in an otherwise generic environment.  The firm is currently engaged in several projects including offices for a media company, concept design for a bakery, and two streetscape / urban design projects in the Bedford Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn.

The encoded American ideology of “frontier” is beyond the facility of tangible planning procedures to amend the archetypal means and methods of collective organization and development that have been entrusted to fulfill the requirements of contemporary global culture.  While the implementation of Jefferson’s grid has predisposed the way in which Americans have negotiated physical territory, the outmoded device of proprietary rationalization is presently being mutated, if not completely dissolved by the evolutionary pattern of emergence and the complex system of natural order via the digital revolution. (more…)

Under our city’s crusts of concrete, asphalt, and rows and stacks of structures, lie many stories. The land beneath our feet is a borrowed foundation on which we construct the stories of our time and also create a reservoir for them.  “Passing By,” the banner submission by Omaha artist Kimberly Glass, uses latitude and longitude interwoven with dynamic horizontal lines; the former marks the particular point on the Earth’s surface where the grain elevator structure sits, and the lines imply the speed and movement past the structure that defines our interaction with it. “Passing By” references our city’s infrastructure and growth, and how we inhabitants and builders of place gather miles of progress under ourselves. As we “pass by” we are reminded that we are built upon Nebraska’s own history and identity rooted in its rich soil.

“Passing By” stems in part from Kimberly’s appreciation for the experience of Nebraska’s early people and pioneers and how their lives were deeply intertwined with the land.  She enjoys authors such as Willa Cather, John Muir and poet Mary Oliver, whose works explore the relationship between man and the natural world.  She found direct inspiration for her banner design when first visiting the grain elevator – taking poetic pleasure in its immense physical presence and sense of history through place.  Kimberly’s first intention was to mark that place as an invitation to travelers to take notice of near-forgotten places and what they represent. The latitude and longitude can be used with a GPS to direct an interested person to the elevator – once a ‘place’, then forgotten, now through this project again a ‘place’.

Kimberly Glass is a self-taught painter living in Omaha. Her recent works are abstractions incorporating a wide variety of imagery, from neon landscapes and cartoon figures to constructions based on both organic and geometric forms.  Much of the metaphor in her personal poetry is inspired by her experiences of place, phenomena, and glory in nature. Her artistic inclinations have influence in her early joys of intimacy with nature and landscape as a child in Northern California.

Both iterations of Stored Potential attracted like themes of submissions. The first round was flush with corn, the second round was all about trains. At one point in the jury process there were several dozen train submissions lying on the table side by side. Omaha is undoubtedly a train town.

Tim Guthrie’s train went through many iterations ranging from abstract and conceptual models to representational illustrations. Ultimately, he settled on something more illustrative, but as stripped down and stylized as possible without leaving the image unrecognizable by abandoning the original form. Even though train tracks are generally unbending through most of the midwest, the illustration mimics the curves of some roads and rivers as well as agricultural patterns seen in fields in the Midwest.

The title ‘Trainscape’ refers to how the railroad connecting East and West Coasts vastly changed commerce, and revolutionizing the Midwest in profound ways. Rather than focus on a single subject, however, such as early passenger travel, or the current emphasis on agricultural shipping, the train cars are intentionally ambiguous so the viewer can interpret what is being transported. The same is true for the agriculture represented. Although it would have been natural to render fields of corn or soybeans, the crops are stylized so they are equally ambiguous, since Nebraska is connected, via rail, to a region with a diversity of crops.

Tim Guthrie is a visual artist and experimental filmmaker whose work is in collections throughout the country and has had solo exhibitions at numerous museums and galleries. Tim graduated with a BFA from Creighton in 1989 with an emphasis in painting and drawing and an MFA from the University of Idaho in 1997 with an emphasis in digital work, painting and sculpture. Tim has been awarded numerous artist residencies (Ørslev Kloster [Denmark], The Tyrone Guthrie Center [Ireland], New Pacific Studio [New Zealand], Blue Mountain Center [NY]), artist fellowships and grants (Nevada Arts Council, Sierra Arts Foundation, Nebraska Arts Council), and other awards, including purchase awards at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art and at “Conflicts:  The Cult of War and the Culture of Peace – AniMOweb,”  Modena, Italy, for the short film “Recalling Trinity,” which was also included in the Hiroshima Animation Festival and the 5th Annual Athens International Animation Festival.  He was also awarded Best New Media Artist by the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Awards in 2008 as well as Individual Artist Fellowships (Nebraska Arts Council) in 2011, 2008, 2007 and 2006.