{"id":6415,"date":"2020-02-25T20:45:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T02:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arch.tamu.edu.staging2.juiceboxint.com\/news\/2020\/02\/25\/alumnus-carves-wood-sculpture-honoring-aggie-band-history\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T15:19:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T20:19:56","slug":"alumnus-carves-wood-sculpture-honoring-aggie-band-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/25\/alumnus-carves-wood-sculpture-honoring-aggie-band-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus carves wood sculpture honoring 125 year Aggie Band history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of intricately carved elements, created with patience and artistry over thousands of hours, created a permanent legacy: a 4\u2019x3\u2019 walnut and mahogany wood relief sculpture honoring the 125th<\/sup> anniversary of the Fightin\u2019 Texas Aggie Band. The panel was crafted by Mikeual Perritt \u201969, a former College of Architecture student and band member.<\/p>\n

Displayed proudly and prominently behind protective glass in the new Texas A&M Music Activities Center, the sculpture showcases historical aspects of the band, personal experiences shared by its members. It contains hundreds of marching band members in its world-famous halftime block T formation, ornate shields and insignia throughout the band\u2019s history, and thousands of hand-carved letters telling its story.<\/p>\n

\"Multiple
The full walnut and mahogany wood relief sculpture hand created by Mikeual Perritt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perritt started woodworking in his childhood, making little wood boats to float down a stream near his home. In the 1980s, he started making cutting festive designs into blocks, then inking and printing his own Christmas cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt evolved from flat wood blocks into adding relief and some small full figure carvings,\u201d Perritt said. \u201cI eventually got rid of the ink and started to do the embossing only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by masters<\/h2>\n

A long-time admirer of the Centennial Wood Carvings, six massive ornamental panels in the Memorial Student Center showcasing the history of Texas A&M created by Rodney Hill, legendary design professor and artist and his wife Sue, Perritt pitched a similar project to his former bandmates to document the organization\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was not always for me to do the panel,\u201d Perritt said. \u201cThe best of the best would be Rodney and Sue, and we wanted them to do it. Rodney\u2019s panels are some of the best, most artistic and historically representative pieces of art I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a health issue caused Hill, who has taught at the College of Architecture for 50 years, to bow out of the project.<\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney Hill, Sue Hill, Laura Perritt and Mikeual Perritt stand in front of the wood panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lead change<\/h2>\n

Perritt, who had originally agreed to do some of the border carving work, found himself in charge of the entire project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt prepared as I\u2019ve done sculpture, but I\u2019d never attempted anything even close to the scale of this project before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After researching the band\u2019s history and crowdsourcing design ideas from his class and other band members, the design was finalized in 2015, the frame assembled in 2016, and carving began in June 2017.<\/p>\n

Perritt spent 18 months working 8.5-11 hours a day, 7 days a week with \u201cvery few exceptions.\u201d He estimates the time spent on the carving alone to be \u201ceasily more than 5,000 hours over two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were days where I thought it would never end, but you get past those things,\u201d Perritt said. \u201cThere were some days I was wondering why I got into this, but that\u2019s part of being human. You have to mentally overcome and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said support from the Hills, which included calls, texts, emails and advising from photos, kept him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could have easily walked away from it, but I got so much support from them,\u201d said Perritt. \u201cIt was like having a godfather sitting over you, telling you what you\u2019re doing wrong and right and helping you through it. They are very dear friends and really the inspiration for the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

An uneasy art<\/h2>\n

Hill said it\u2019s difficult for nonwoodcarvers to conceive of the time and effort it takes to create this kind of art.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like watercolor or oils,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s digging a 16th<\/sup> inch by 16th<\/sup> inch every day, all day for years. I\u2019ve offered students a summer woodcarving class upon their request over the years, but no one has ever finished a project. It just takes so much time. It\u2019s why you don\u2019t see many woodcarvers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s contribution and influence are acknowledged with an etching: \u201cThis relief sculpture inspired by Rodney and Sue Hill,\u201d carved into an inset wood piece in the lower center of the panel.<\/p>\n

\"Woodcarvers
Woodcarvers Rodney Hill and Mikeual Perritt share a laugh at the Music Activities Center.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well suited<\/h2>\n

The mutual respect between the carvers is strong. Rodney describes Perritt\u2019s work as \u201ctruly great\u201d and that he is a \u201cvery precise person who is well suited for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCarving the band in formation, that many members that close together in that shallow of a format \u2013 I would think it would be impossible, but he did it,\u201d said Hill. \u201cCreating an illusion of depth of that many people in a tight pattern is incredibly challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perritt said both his shallower style of carving and Rodney\u2019s deeper, more 3D carvings have their own inherent challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very delicate work,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d lose pieces of bugles and use the type of magnifying glasses that jewelers use to save pieces that broke off. If you breathed, it would fly away and you\u2019d never find it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He finished it one day before the project had to be shipped off for installation, breathing a giant sigh of relief and getting a welcome break.<\/p>\n

Legacy<\/h2>\n

In recognition of Perritt\u2019s work, a new scholarship for Aggie band members was created in and Mikeual and Laura\u2019s names, and presented to the couple at the building\u2019s grand opening and the unveiling of the sculpture.<\/p>\n

\"Mikeual
Mikeual Perritt talks about the history of the band with a current band member.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mikeual has already committed to doing two side panels which will list former band directors and leaders, with space to add to it over time. He is also already working on a book outlining the journey of making the sculpture and researching the band\u2019s history. The book\u2019s profits will benefit the Texas Aggie Band Association.<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, contact rnira@arch.tamu.edu<\/a> or doswald@tamu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikeual Perritt \u201969 spent thousands of hours crafting hundreds of intricately carved elements in a 4\u2019x3\u2019 walnut and mahogany wood relief sculpture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":6416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[62,64],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlumnus carves wood sculpture honoring 125 year Aggie Band history<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mikeual Perritt \u201969 spent thousands of hours crafting hundreds of carved elements in a 4\u2019x3\u2019 walnut and mahogany wood relief sculpture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/25\/alumnus-carves-wood-sculpture-honoring-aggie-band-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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