“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Senior Shammia McQuaig, an athlete-turned-artist, wrote this Fredrick Douglass quote on the toes of her basketball shoes in high school.

Exemplifying that progress, McQuaig’s “Positivity Wave” sculpture won last year’s Weller Memorial Sculpture Competition, and it is now displayed outside of Hege-Cox Hall until May 2015.

The 15-foot-tall sculpture is made of welded steel and natural fiber, and it arches into an elegant wave that stands poised over Guilford College’s quad.

McQuaig jokes that it was necessary to make the wave so tall so that stupid people wouldn’t poke their eyes out.

The sculpting process felt like a community-won effort to McQuaig, who enjoyed late night visits from friends to help her get through the grueling long hours of labor.

“I got help from people walking by when I was working on it,” McQuaig said. “The beautiful thing about it is that it didn’t take a lot. I’d have people come up and talk to me at like two in the morning.”

Assistant Professor of Art Mark Dixon, who is also McQuaig’s sculpture professor, has noticed the community’s reaction to the piece’s striking appearance.

“I sit at my window. I can see the sculpture from there and there’s not an hour that doesn’t go by that someone doesn’t slow down and look (at it),” said Dixon.

“Positivity Wave” is a captivating, interactive piece. Students often take pictures of each other standing beneath the spread of its heavy metal piping.

“I like the sculpture because it’s like standing under a tree,” said first-year Kate Jenkins-Sullivan. “It envelops you, which is really unique.”

“Yo, positivity” is McQuaig’s mantra, and she incorporated this optimistic and fun attitude into the final product of her work.

“Yeah, we all have our moments,” she said. “We just have to think of the positive ones. I wanted to send last year’s graduating class off with some positive energy. Not just crashing on our community, but on their future ones as well.”

Beyond flooding the campus with good vibes, “Positivity Wave” marks a huge milestone for Guilford. McQuaig is the first Africana student ever to win Guilford’s Weller Memorial Sculpture Competition.

In 1969, artist and educator James McMillan was hired to the Art Department as the college’s first black faculty member. Forty-four years later, McQuaig’s accomplishment reflects the school’s continual progress towards an institution that truly implements its core values of integrity, equality and diversity.

McQuaig, who was unaware of the historical implications of her achievement until she was awarded with a medal at the ceremony, described how this accomplishment changed her outlook on the work’s success.

“It wasn’t just me winning that award,” McQuaig said. “I felt like I was doing it for my race.”

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