Lighting Moment #3
1. Wednesday Feb 16th 11:00pm Leaving campus from the Oak Street South side of campus, across from the lions with a white back ground
2. The two lions are back lit with 2 outdoor type lights pointed directly at the words and not the sculptures. The light is pointed up so is splashing off of the white background to hit the letters of “Hofstra University” from below. This fully illuminates the sign for those driving by.
3. Though this light is all about the sign into Hofstra it was the shadows on the sculptures in front of that which I found interesting. We all know there is only so much you can do to a sculpture in order to make it look real and as far as lions in Hempstead we are pretty good judges. The quality of this light was that it was coming up from the slightly wet ground to have a charged beam of light to bounce off the white backdrop to the lions. These lions are in no way believable in getting up and coming after you. This light gave them just enough light from behind to be distinguished but not so much as to see any of the carving details, but you can see the overall shape. So without any light our eyes start filling in the blanks for us when we need it and play tricks to show something moving when it is still. It gives them the ominous presence in which to be a mystery and to cox them into their ground. So despite sculpture trying to welcome students at night because the words are more important, we may just be scaring children on their way by.