Roger Shipley and his extraordinary Plexiglas sculptures
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The scene was docent ARTS Gallery on West Third Street in Williamsport on Friday evening, September 7. Art enthusiasts from the college and the city gathered to view the extraordinary collection of three-dimensional art created by Lycoming College art professor Roger Shipley. The exhibit was titled Reflections; the Plexiglas sculptures that were a part of it were beyond captivating, with their geometric shapes, reflective patterns, and moving parts.
“This is a continuation of what I was doing in graduate school with painting on more than one surface, and I extended that into working with Plexiglas sheets and reflective surfaces,” said Shipley. “These initially started with very primitive geometric shapes and eventually I began to introduce organic shapes. Then I went from Plexiglas to the cast bronze and they reflect some of the same characteristics.”
Shipley has produced 70 such Plexiglas sculptures, and has sold all but 18 of them to many private and commercial collectors all over the United States. In 2005, Shipley’s sculptures were included in two major book publications on sculpture: Beginning Sculpture and The Sculpture Reference.
 Shipley began teaching painting and printmaking at Lycoming in 1967. Throughout the past 40 years, he has taught art and worked as a fine artist, making and showing art in galleries and exhibitions throughout the United States. He studied painting at the Cleveland Art Institute and the American School in Fontainebleau, France. He received the MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
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