University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 2/1996 Age-old riddle solved: The Blue Hen came first No one was eggsactly sure how 99 blue and gold eggs mysteriously found their way onto the campus just in time for the first day of the spring semester. The eggs, in three different sizes, all rattled as if containing... what?... the secret to the universe? After some detective work, personnel in the Department of Art confessed that the eggs had been "laid" by one Carlos Yepes, a graduate student in sculpture. Here on a Presidential Fellowship, Yepes is studying with Joe Moss, professor of art. Ever since his undergraduate days as a sculpture major at Florida International University in Miami, Yepes has had trouble keeping his art within the confines of the sculpture yard. Sometimes, at night, one of his pieces would mysteriously break out of the yard and move onto the campus-proof of the artist's belief that sculpture needs to be out among the people. When Yepes moved to Newark, he immediately noticed the lack of sculpture on the UD campus. Wondering how to correct the situation, he decided to create public art that people could actually pick up, look at and perhaps take home with them. The idea for the eggs was inspired by the large, metal Blue Hen that now roosts on the Laird Campus. It took Yepes three months to make the 99 eggs that he, his wife and friends eventually placed all around campus. The eggs are ceramic, made of material poured into a mold. Yepes made one a day, painting them blue with a gold wash. He cut each one open and inserted a secret message. The largest eggs contain old-fashioned limericks that Yepes found in books in the Morris Library. The middle-sized ones contain proverbs, and the smallest eggs contain the key-the explanation of what the project is all about-getting art out to the public and making people think. "The idea was that the largest eggs contain the least important information, like in life, where the smallest thing may carry the most important message," Yepes says. While Yepes was interested in seeing public reaction to the eggs, none of the messages contain his name or phone number. He wanted to remain anonymous. Still, word of some egg discoveries did get back to him. He noticed the one placed in front of the President's House on Kent Way was gone the next day, as was one left on the ticket machine in the parking garage. One placed in a squirrel hole in a tree by Willard Hall Education Building went undiscovered the longest. Still another, accidentally knocked out of a space in a building, ended up in a puddle where it biodegraded. Yepes also heard of a group of students sitting around a table, pondering an egg at a local coffeehouse, and a similar discussion is said to have occurred in the Morris Library. He was told that a secretary who collects eggs had run around campus and claimed three. The trail of eggs started at the Blue Hen near the Pencader Residence Hall Complex, where one egg sculpture of each size was "laid," and went on to the Perkins Student Center, through the dorms and back to the other side of campus. "I just wanted to make people think," Yepes says. "Sometimes, I'm aware that people just walk around oblivious to their surroundings. When I saw the icicles that formed on campus after the snow, I was wowed. But, lots of people, it seems, didn't even notice." Yepes says he didn't care if ultimately the eggs were broken open by people looking for the messages. "I thought most people would break them, and that's okay if it made them curious, if it made them look." And for the spring semester? Yes, Yepes is working on another campus-wide display of hands-on sculpture. He promises a 1,000-piece display sometime in the spring. He's not disclosing the subject...but you can be sure a new project has hatched in his mind. -Beth Thomas