Love among the gold-leaf

Newly engaged Saga Blane and Jake Jeppson at the Cowles Conservatory in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden "still processing" the special moment, Jeppson said.

When Jake Jeppson and Saga Blane walked into the installation "and still this" on Valentine's Day during opening night of the Jim Hodges exhibition "Give More Than You Take" at Walker Art Center, they loved it so much that they decided to come back when it wasn't so crowded. When they did, Jeppson had one more thing on his mind besides basking in the cozy glow of the Hodges work, consisting of ten tall Gessoed panels painted with 23- and 24-karat gold and arranged in an open circle, creating the effect of a golden womb. Back inside it, he took out an engagement ring and asked Blane to marry him.

"We stepped in and were transported into this warm and quiet place where it was just the two of us -- and the security guard peeking as I got on one knee," Jeppson said. Blane's immediate response was "Are you kidding me?" and then "WHAT?" he said. "She was kind of loud about it. But she finds a spirituality in those kinds of spatial experiences, plus she's a lover of all things gold."

The couple recently moved to Minneapolis because Jeppson, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama who has had three plays produced, is a 2014-15 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center. Blane, who studied architectural theory, plans to work in advertising and will curate a pop-up Finnish design show this spring.