When first-years arrived at Carnegie Mellon, one thing that they quickly noticed was the “snowman” outside of Doherty Hall. Every night during Orientation, “Skippy,” as his nametag read, would be dressed up in a new costume. “Skippy” has been a fairy, a cowboy, and a Steeler’s fan. However, its deepest role is that which was assigned to it by its creator, a British artist named Gary Hume.

Carnegie Mellon was grateful to have Hume as a guest speaker on Wednesday, September 21 in McConomy. Upon graduating from the Goldsmiths College of London in 1988, Hume had his first solo show. Shortly after this showing, he gained international fame as a promising young artist. Hume was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1996, won the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1997, represented Britain at the São Paulo Biennial and the forty-eighth Venice Biennial in 1996 and 1999, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2001. His works are still being exhibited all over the world.

Although he is in fact the sculptor of the snowman we see in front of Doherty Hall, Gary Hume is more widely known for his paintings. While most artists try to incorporate emotions into their pieces, he takes a more subjective approach.

“It is when the painting has its own personality that it is complete,” said Hume.

Instead of explicitly informing his audience members what his works symbolize to him, Hume wants them to formulate their own meaning as they view his works. For instance, the paintings he was first noted for were his “door paintings,” paintings of hospital doors in which he chose colors that had meaning to him. Because some of his viewers find a spiritual significance in the colors of the paintings, Hume has given many of his works to those who are religious. In reality, he does not have a religious affiliation.

Carnegie Mellon’s snowman is an example of one of Hume’s subjective pieces. One of many that he has made over the past few years, the snowman was first exhibited in 2002 in London’s White Cube Gallery, then bought by Milton and Sheila Fine and donated to Carnegie Mellon, where it now resides. Originally the snowmen were made with two parts, a head and a body, which is the classic British snowman design. However, when Hume showed the pieces in New York, no one knew what they were. He was complimented on his “abstract sculptures.” When Hume told the viewers that they were snowmen, he was told that he was wrong. So he decided to alter his piece for his American audience who make snowmen with three parts rather than two.

Though Hume wanted people to think “snowman” when they saw his sculpture, he still wanted the piece to have a deeper, personal meaning for them. The piece embodies what Hume calls a circular idea, something that keeps people thinking, but can never be reached. How is this idea achieved in the snowman? Because the snowman has no face, Hume wants viewers to feel as though the snowman is always looking away, always facing the future and ultimately its end. The artist wants viewers to feel as though the snowman is aware of its surroundings and aware of the future that is beyond the horizon it faces. Hume hopes that viewers face their own futures and ends by thinking about the snowman. The piece reflects the audience’s mortality while the audience reflects the piece’s searching nature. When the snowman is seen in this way, Hume has accomplished his goal of creating a circular piece that loops from the snowman to the audience and back again.

His pieces are personal in that they represent an integral component of him. If there is one word to describe Hume’s art, it is “simplicity.” He loves making “pictures that cannot be photographed.” His style seems to focus more on forms and colors rather than specific details. In a way, this demonstrates his eloquence.

Though his stay was only for a short while, Hume’s lecture on his artwork and the concepts behind them have inspired and motivated those who attended. Hume expects to continue making his art because, as he asserted, “If I’m not working, I feel like nothing.”

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