Chris Duffy (at podium) and Tiffany Boddeker, two of the student artists who created the metal sculpture now known as #Poppy, celebrated installation of the artwork during a Nov. 2 ceremony on Ramona Avenue, south of campus. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)

The idea started as child’s play – or child’s playwear, to be precise.

Chris Duffy, a senior art major, was draining his mental reservoir, mining for an idea to submit for a public art installation at a turnabout on Ramona Avenue, near where it bends into Brighton Avenue, south of Sacramento State.

Duffy was putting his young daughter to bed when he “looked up, and there’s this tiny person with these stegosauruses all over her shirt.”

Everybody likes dinosaurs, he figured, so he went with it.

So did the Power Inn Alliance (PIA). #Poppy, the brainchild of Duffy brought to life with huge assists from fellow students Tiffany Boddeker, Camilo Pico and Kat – who uses only her first name – was introduced to the community on Nov. 2.

On that sun-kissed afternoon, about 70 dignitaries, community members, construction workers and students convened to celebrate as the University dropped an enduring art anchor into the Power Inn corridor.

“Is this marvelous, or is this marvelous?” University President Robert S. Nelsen asked rhetorically. “Let’s all celebrate our future because the future is here.”

President Robert S. Nelsen stands next to artists Chris Duffy and Tiffany Boddeker (with scissors) as they cut the ribbon and are joined by other dignitaries upon introducing #Poppy to the general public. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)

College of Arts and Letters Dean Sheree Meyer stressed the importance of #Poppy being part of the neighborhood that adjoins campus. And its presence is only a first step: A Creative Economy Pilot Project grant the city of Sacramento awarded the University last year will bring arts performances to the Power Inn Corridor’s George Sim Community Center, expanding access to the arts to an underserved area.

“The idea behind it was to create this pathway to strengthen the relationship between Sacramento State and the business community while showcasing the University’s talent,” said Tracey Schaal, Power Inn Alliance executive director. “We feel fortunate to be able to create a win-win for both our community and the University.”

That community, including neighborhood business, was critically supportive in the process, Duffy said.

“Anytime we went to anyone and asked ‘How do we do this?’ or (told them) ‘This is what we want to do,’ we never got a ‘no.’ All we heard was ‘Yes, that sounds awesome. Let’s move forward. How can we make this happen?’

"To have that support throughout the project has been awesome. I think that said a lot about Sac State and the Power Inn community.”

After getting the green light and hitting a local steel mill for the tubing that composes the stegosaurus’ exoskeleton, the team fired into a 15-week sprint to the finish. It became an almost all-consuming task, especially for Duffy, for whom 12-hour – or longer – stints at the campus’ Art Sculpture Lab were common.

“I think we really have incorporated the spirit of both the Power Inn Alliance and Sacramento State,” Duffy said. “I’m really happy with the result.“

Duffy, who said he usually improvises his artwork, hadn’t worked on anything the scale of #Poppy, so named as a nod to pop culture, as well as for the sheet metal flowers that complement the sculpture for reasons decorative and practical: The creature is depicted munching on one, and another is used to stabilize its massive removable tail.

“To get it to be in the position he proposed – it was hard to do,” said Andrew Connelly, the art professor who guided the student team on the project.

Duffy wanted it to have an element of spontaneity and unpredictability. The design of woven metal is intended to convey the meshing of community and students and a theme of collaboration. It’s subtle symbolism by design.

Connelly said the building crew received important lessons in collaboration in a field – art – that typically is the domain of soloists. The project also provided the students valuable real-world experience. They had to present proposals to the Power Inn Alliance and work within guidelines set by the PIA, the city of Sacramento and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

“Dealing with a client is very real-life,” said Boddeker, who pounded the flowers into shape by hand. “Even if that’s not what we do in the future, it’s still dealing with people in the professional world. It’s definitely been a learning curve.”

Duffy agreed. “The city gets involved, engineering gets involved, there’s a budget, there’s contracts,” he said. “How do we actually do this on a timeline within a budget?

“It allows us as students to get into a real-world situation of working with a client and working with a group of businesses and having a little bit of a budget to play with. And we get to put this piece of art out in the world, which is super-exciting.”

If the Power Inn Alliance has its way, it won’t be the last time Sac State students grapple with those issues – it wants public art installation to be an annual occurrence. That idea has support.

“I’m just really excited to see how much it blossoms in the future,” Boddeker said. – Ahmed V. Ortiz