Artist Laura De Angelis was the natural choice when it came to selecting an artist to create an eagle for the Police Academy's exterior front entrance on JCCC’s west campus. The 3-foot glazed, off-white clay sculpture, installed in July 2010, perches on top of a 3-foot limestone base. Although the artist has a penchant for ornithology (she was a member of the Audubon Society growing up in Chicago), the eagle is not a scientific replica but a stylized eagle reminiscent of 1920s-1930s Kansas City art deco architecture.

“I have such a great love for the history of Kansas City’s architectural ceramics,” De Angelis said. “This sculpture reflects that. Bruce (Hartman, executive director of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art) and I didn’t want an ultra-realistic screaming eagle. We wanted something elegant, subdued and stoic.”

The eagle required three months to sculpt and another several months for the clay to cure at a consistent rate to prevent cracking.

“It’s fun to be part of something so permanent,” De Angelis said. “I like the idea of creating public art, especially because it allows for the unexpected observer.”

Walk into the loft of Kansas City, Mo., artist and you know right away she has a passion for nature in addition to talent as a sculptor. Large plants and pet birds fill the living space. The adjoining studio is filled with examples of De Angelis’s figurative and architectural ceramics. Many of her works are in private collections and have been exhibited in recent SOFA (Sculpture Objects Functional Art) Chicago and its sister show SOFA New York.

“Laura is one of the best clay sculptors living in the area,” said Hartman.

De Angelis was born in Chicago and holds her BFA (1995) from the Kansas City Art Institute. In addition to exhibiting her work nationwide, she actively teaches and presents workshops; in 2004 she completed a residency at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary. In 2006, she was the lead artist for the “Art in the Loop” public art project for Oppenstein Park at 12^th and Walnut in downtown Kansas City. 

De Angelis describes her work as “meticulous with a natural tendency to invoke something from another era.” She finds inspiration in the periods of art from medieval religious to early Renaissance, early American naïveté to art deco.

“Laura is an important emerging artist, and her eagle will make the Police Academy part of the campus sculpture experience,” Hartman said.

Dr. Jerry Wolfskill, director, Police Academy, said De Angelis’ eagle design was approved by the board of directors of the Police Academy, which consists of the Johnson County sheriff and police chiefs of five Johnson County cities. The eagle is a memorial to Johnson County police officers killed in the line of duty.