"New" Savery has New Art
Thanks to alumnus, Jim Riswold, (B.A., 1983, Philosophy, Communications, and History) our "new" home in Savery Hall just got better. Jim generously donated several of his latest collection of art work (titled Philosophy is Not Funny) to the Philosophy Department, and it is now displayed throughout the main office area.
For many years, Jim was a partner for the Portland based advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy. While there, as Creative Director of the Nike account, Newsweek magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in American culture. In 2000, Jim was diagnosed with leukemia and subsequently decided to retire from advertising. He then began a career as a full-time contemporary artist, going, in his words, "from a career of selling people things they don't need to making things that people don't want."
Jim's art work has been shown in galleries throughout the Northwest and some of his work is included in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Seattle Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum. Sardonic, funny, irreverent, satirical, and always poking fun, Jim's work takes on religion, art, historical figures, and… you guessed it… philosophy. Some of the pieces that now hang in the philosophy main office include, It's Kant Time;Supernietzsche; Hegel gives Schopenhauer a Headache;KGL Kierkegaard; Murakami Gives Spinoza Flowers, and Red Rover, Red Rover Send an Empiricist Right Over.
In honor of Jim, his friendship, and his contributions to the department, the departmental seminar room (Savery 359) has been dedicated to Jim, and is now known as "the Jim Riswold Seminar Room." There students can gather to study some of the philosophers captured in Jim's collection (among others).
Jim Riswold in the main philosophy office with Professor Sara Goering, her daughter, and some of his art.
KGL Kierkegaard