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K-State Today

September 18, 2019

Product designer celebrates 10 years after K-State

Submitted by Thom Jackson

Chickens

Sally Linville, a 2010 graduate in interior architecture & product design from the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, known as APDesign, at K-State will present work from her career spanning 10 years and share a lecture-demonstration to the Manhattan and K-State communities.

"I love the idea of how this beautiful product got started and now after 10 years of amazing success, Sally is bringing the chickens home to roost!" said Nathan Howe, department head of interior architecture & product design. "We are proud of Sally's accomplishments. Her story as a designer and entrepreneur is an inspiration for our students."

Linville's exhibit "The Art of Chickening Ten-Years in the Making" will open Friday, Sept. 27, in the Cassias Gallery in Regnier Hall on the K-State Manhattan campus. As part of the opening, Linville and her creative partner Carly Pumphrey, a 2008 interior architecture and product design graduate, will present a lecture-demonstration for the community at 4:30 p.m. in the Regnier Forum in Regnier Hall. The exhibit and lecture-demonstration are free and open to the public.

The exhibit highlights work designed and produced by Linville over the past decade. Each piece is handcrafted and inspired by her life on a farm in central Kansas where her father farmed the land and her mother worked as an interior designer. Being part of a third generation of farmers, Linville grew up around chickens and loved their quirky nature.

After pining over the sheep sculptures made famous by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne, her childhood memories of pet chickens inspired the idea for chicken footstools. While finishing her interior architecture and product design degree, she brought this idea to fruition in her last furniture design studio at K-State. Wrapped within this exploration are the traditional art processes that also harken back to her days on the farm. Every chicken is unique in posture and personality. A turned wood egg-shaped core stands on bronze feet and is connected to a bronze beak. Feathers are fashioned with various fiber art techniques — felting, spinning, knitting, dyeing — and are upholstered by hand. The chickens can function as footstools and are best at making people smile.

"The City Girl Farm sculpts natural materials — fiber, wood and bronze — to bring delight into the world," Linville said. "Our sophisticated barnyard 'Chicken Footstools' are created through traditional art processes. They remind us of where we come from and invite others to do the same. We are proud each piece is one-of-a-kind, grown, and fashioned in the Midwest."

To view Linville's creative chickens, visit The City Girl Farm website at thecitygirlfarm.com.