Figurative sculptor Joanna Blake died on her 39th birthday in a motorcycle crash in Italy Sunday, May 22, according to reports from WUSA 9 in Washington, D.C. and AL.com.
Blake, a 1999 Auburn graduate, traveled to Italy to celebrate her birthday, according to the reports.
She has worked for Kaskey Studio Inc. since 2001, where she "has contributed her design and sculpting skills to the creation of a number of large scale public monuments, most notably, the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee," her website states.
Blake, along with professor emeritus Gary Wagoner, sculpted the terra cotta panels depicting Auburn’s colleges and schools installed in portal columns marking the entrance into pedestrian areas.
In a 2014 interview, Blake said she and Wagoner were working on at least 13 more sets of columns that would represent each college. They were also working on five large terracotta panels for the Recreation and Wellness Center.
"Auburn has such a beautiful campus, I’m proud that my work is some small part of it," Blake said in the interview.
Blake is survived by her husband, Ike Blake, and their 5-year-old daughter Myra of Cottage City, Maryland, as well as her parents, Alan "Boaty" Campbell and Joleen Campbell of Point Clear, and a brother, Alan Campbell.
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