A-B

Weltzin Blix received a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Physics from Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1961 and a Master of Science degree in Physics from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois in 1963.  He began work on the Ph.D. in physics at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1963.  He stopped his graduate work to accept a staff position at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory which he held through 1965.  While at Los Alamos Blix was in charge of the construction of a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber and its subsequent use in high energy nuclear physics experiments designed to map certain energy levels of the atomic nucleus.  In 1966 he took a leave to finish his doctorate work at Michigan State University.

In 1966 Weltzin Blix decided to make a career change from physics to sculpture.  He had always been interested in both science and art from an early age but leaned toward  science until being influenced by close friends in New Mexico and at Michigan State University.  After an agonizing period of introspection it occurred to him that architecture might be the logical way to combine both interests.  Blix dropped out of the Ph.D. program and moved to Oregon where he had been accepted into an accelerated program leading to a degree in architecture from the University of Oregon.  To fulfill the requirements for this degree he elected to take a one year course in sculpture.  He fell in love with this art form, gravitated to the graduate program and earned an M.F.A. degree in June of 1969.

Weltzin Blix spent over thirty years as a professor of sculpture, ceramics and drawing until his retirement from Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon at the beginning of 2002.  Concurrently he worked as a professional sculptor completing many commissions and receiving many awards.  His largest commission is the “Oregon Capitol Fountain” located in Salem, Oregon.  This 85’ long 20’ high welded bronze piece weighing 15,000 lbs. resulted from winning a national competition made possible by a bequest from former Oregon Governor Charles Sprague.  It was completed in 1980 at the cost of $140,000.  In 1990 it was removed to make way for a two story, two block underground parking structure and (after winning a fight to save it) was finally replaced at its’ original site on the new garden mall atop the parking structure where it remains to date.  Blix was a 1984 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts $15,000 Visual Artist Fellowship that ran from November 1, 1984 to November 1, 1987.  In 1987 he entered a maquette in the Fifth Henry Moore Grand Prize Exhibition, an international competition held in Japan.  Blix was one of 25 sculptors chosen from 463 submissions to be paid to execute the work in full scale (two were chosen from the United States).  This piece was awarded the Hakone Open-Air Museum purchase award.  It is now on permanent display at the Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum near Matsumoto, Japan.

Discold Driver Refractor Tarsal Toner