Public Art Projects: Better Late than Never!

Excellent Work everyone!

John Payne's Dino Kinetics

I was fortunate to see the work of the late John Payne in Asheville, North Carolina over the weekend. I work with his son Trevor Payne who told me about his Father's work when I mentioned I was taking a 3D art class. Please click on the links below to view his work.

Video inside his studio

John Payne describing his work and process

Website w/ video inside the exhibit

John Payne's dinosaur sculptures are fascinating. Payne studied pre-historic creatures and used his amazing creativity and engineering talents to create interactive kinesthetic sculptures of life-sized dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are built from steel and crafted to have functioning joints so they move exactly as the creature would have moved. The sculptures are hooked up to playstation controls and allow the viewer to be in control of the movement of the creature (AMAZING!!!). They are simply unlike anything I have seen. Payne crafted each skeleton by hand along with a crew of assistants, who pounded each piece of steel. Each skeleton is completely one of a kind. Unfortunately Payne's family is having trouble finding a permanent home for these amazing sculptures, so hopefully they can be enjoyed and not wasted living in storage. I felt very fortunate to get to see such inspirational work by such a talented artist, he left us with some amazing work I hope is enjoyed for a long time to come.

The Thompson Elk

For the final First Thursday assignment I felt it would be suiting to choose a local public art piece. This sculpture is located downtown on Main Street between the two Plaza Blocks. It is position in the middle of the street and I have always thought that it was an interesting location choice for a statue being that its surrounded by moving vehicles and not easily accessible to view.

I had never got close enough to the statue to notice the inscription, due to it's location, until I purposely visited the statue. I discovered that the statue had been erected in 1900. This made much more since for it's interesting location in the road way being that the city grew around the statue as opposed to being constructed in the road way. I also learned that there have been several attempts to have the statue removed, but these have been foiled when the statue was designated as a Historical Landmark in 1974.

The statue was commissioned by David P. Thompson who served as Portland's mayor from 1879-1882, assisted with building the first Oregon railroad and was Captain in the First Oregon Calvary. Thompson commissioned the American sculpture and painter Roland Hinton Perry to create the sculpture as a gift to the City. Perry has crafted a number of monuments that can be found in Gettysburg, Washington D.C. and the Library of Congress to name a few. The fountain that surrounds the elk was constructed by local architect H.G. Wright. The fountained was crafted from eastern granite and designed to function as a water trough for horses and dogs. Another interesting fact I read was that the Exalted Order of Elks (aka Elks Lodge) refused to dedicate the statues stating that it was "a monstrosity of art". It seems that this Elk statue has had a rough history, but after so many years it still stand as a historic Portland landmark.

The sculpture of the elk is made from casted bronze. The elk was made to be life-sized and realistic, achieving both very well. The gesture of the elk with it's head swooping upwards and it's antlers cascading downwards gives the statue a feeling of movement and grandeur. The fountain around the elk was crafted from granite and functions as both a pedestal for the elk and as a surrounding fountain. The fountained was built in a hexagonal shape with 3-level stairs encircling the perimeter. I feel that the piece as a whole has variety and balance that result in a appealing art piece altogether. I also am appreciative of any piece of art, especially pubic, that serves a functional purpose, in this case the fountain being intended as a water trough. On the other hand I can't but help enjoy the humor in cars having to swerve around the elk statue as they drive by, like dodging a dear in the road. I enjoy this piece as apart of Portland's public art and learning it's history made me enjoy it even more.

-Lindsey Dixon

New, free iPhone app maps public art around Portland

Not that I have an iphone, or ever will, but...

View full sizePublicArtPDX

Take a look around next time you're downtown. Sculptures, fountains, arches and paintings are everywhere -- but it's easy to miss them amid the bustle and hustle of a hurried day.

So pause a moment, pop out your iPhone and download a new, free app -- Public Art PDX.

It maps 429 pieces of public art around Portland, from the imposing Portlandia statue to an electronic reader board silently displaying poems to passersby on Southwest 10th Avenue.

Click on the app to see where you are and a map of what's around you. Each listing comes with the name of the artist, the artwork's history and very often a photo and detailed description.

"I've always been a big fan of public art in Portland, and even I didn't realize how many pieces there are," said Matt Blair, a 36-year-old freelance software developer who crafted the app as a "gift" to his adopted city.

The app will be a neat complement to a public art brochure that's already popular with tourists and residents, according to Megan Conway, communications vice president for Travel Portland, which markets Portland to tourists.

"We definitely see this as something visitors will use," she said.

To make his app, Blair compiled listings of the city's public art from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, which maintains both the public art collection and information about all the art.

Portland has abundant public art because of a 1980 "Percent for Art" ordinance, which initially required that publicly funded, capital construction set aside 1 percent of the project's cost for art. That total has since increased to 2 percent, according to Jeff Hawthorne, the arts and culture council's director of community affairs.

The council had already been working to put information about Portland's public art online through the nonprofit organization's website, according to Hawthorne. It made the data available to Blair in keeping with Portland's "open data" initiative, which seeks to give software developers access public information in hopes they will make it more accessible to the public.

But simply making the data available doesn't necessarily make it easy to use. To craft his app, Blair spent weeks converting RACC's data into a useful format and ensuring that it's presented in compliance with legal licenses that govern each piece of art.

"It's been a substantial amount of the project," he said, "to make sure people got the credit they deserve and to make sure the information was presented accurately and with integrity to the original artist."

Portland hopes a community of developers like Blair will take a leadership role in the city's open data initiative, according to, Rick Nixon, project manager for Portland's Civic Apps program.

Public entities aren't in the business of creating apps, he said, and shouldn't be. But he said they can provide the data that make these apps possible.

"The momentum that we build really needs to be owned by interested community members," he said.

Portland's Civic Apps attracted only modest interest initially, in part because it can be difficult to transfer city data into a format everyday people would find useful.

But Blair, who won a city-sponsored Civic Apps award last year for an app listing Portland's "heritage trees," said it's worth the effort.

"You can take the data out of the desktop and put it out in the real world, so people can discover things about their environment," he said.

For the moment, the app is only available for the iPhone and other Apple devices. But Blair said he compiled the data in a manner that makes it easy for someone to transfer the information to an app for another device -- running Google's Android operating system, for example.

"That's not something I will personally develop," Blair said, but "I'm very much open to having someone else build off this."

Scores of apps have emerged to give mobile phone users an augmented view of their reality. The most prominent may be "Google Goggles," which performs a Web search for information about anything a mobile phone user photographs.

Other apps using Portland data map the city's food carts, track transit arrival times, and facilitate citizen reports of potholes, graffiti and other issues that need the city's attention.

Slightly more than 600 people downloaded Blair's trees app. He expects a considerably wider audience for his public art app, both among tourists and residents who want to see more of the world around them.

And Blair said he intends to build out the app with additional data from TriMet and Metro to provide detail about more artwork around the city.

"I would expect there will be hundreds more (pieces) added in the coming months," he said. 

Public Art Installation: Night Sky Walkway

There are approximately 1800 holes that have been drilled into this 4 foot design.

3 Different drill bits were used to give "stars" varied luminance.

Proposal (Click to view PDF)

Budget (Click to view PDF)

Jeremy Wenrich

First Thursday: Jeffry Mitchell (Pulliam Gallery)

Jeffry Mitchell’s show pot & snowflake is currently on display at Pulliam Gallery. The pieces are largely made up of glazed pots and paper cutouts pressed between panes of glass.

The pots have distortions in their forming, some more exaggerated than others. Holes and cuts are punctured into the material. Animal, floral and geometrical designs are etched into the exterior. Each pot is glazed and the drippings are not corrected, allowing them to coexist with the ever so slightly malformed pot.

The glass panels containing the large rectangular snowflake paper cuts are duct taped together. Viewed alone, a piece can seem to be at undergraduate level crafting skills. The consistency between the many works helps to negotiate this observation. While mostly two dimensional due to the flat surfaces, the attachment of different glass planes together raises this as a sculptural piece. A level of interaction is presumably present as well. The planes seem fully movable, like a doors connected to each other, each able to swing in any direction off the next.

There is a cohesion to what seems to be a carefully perfected aesthetic throughout the installation. The artist has produced many pieces in the same style. The malformations and seemingly unprofessional crafting skills are purposeful.

Jeremy Wenrich

Trophiphying my Trophy

So I finally have pictures to post of my re-done trophy for little grandma. The first issue that I addressed was the securing of the flowers so that they where fully attached to the trophy. I did so by glueing the floral wet foam into place and then poking the stems into it.

The second and third items that I added to make it more trophy-esque was a base and a little plaque. I chose to paint the base white and added a darker pink and yellow to the layered edges. I also added layered paper for the plaque to make it as clean as possible. Both items are attached with glue, and the colors where chosen to complement the flowers.
And this is it with all of its upgrades!

-Amy Grider


Also, I wasnt able to re do my picture of my presentation of the trophy to my grandma, When I got home I realized I didnt have any pictures at my house.

Final First Thursday

For my final First Thursday I decided that I was going to go along the lines of our public art project with these wonder functional bike racks that are placed throughout the Pearl district in NW Portland.

These adorable little bike lockup area/posts are little replicas of the Freemont Bridge. The base of the structure has blue in reference to the Willamette below while the rest is constructed in grey steel (I’m guessing) that even includes little cars, trucks, and semi’s driving on the bridge.

I had never thought of these pieces as art until we went on our public art “field trip” and we where pointed out those tacky looking orange bike post/path markers. I truley love how these reference a local structure while making it so useful.

-Amy Grider

First Thursday

In identifying with the theme of my final project I choose to write about Newberg Skate Park as my final First Thursday assignment. Although many people may not consider this art, I in fact believe that it takes quite the creative mind to think up and put into action a design that serves as a fully functioning park to various people. This "sculpture" is indefinitely interactive with its subject and may include kinetic pieces. The most important aspect of a skate park is its ability to provide a flowing rhythm not only to the eye but those who are skating. When it comes to size the Newberg Skate Park is one of the larger scaled ones in the area. Particular ledges and objects are a result of unity and harmony, every detail is interactive and relies upon one another. Although to many this skate park would look only as a concrete jungle, but to those who can understand it and appreciate it, it is truly a work of art.

- Katie Clemens

BLU

Graffiti animation, so amazing!

Pop Out Artist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnZks0BCCiw

First Thursday - BASALT: A sight specific work by Eric Franklin

I was exploring campus and stumbled upon the new exhibit at the Autzen Gallery. I thought it was empty or under construction before I noticed the giant glass sculpture taking up the majority of the space. The freestanding transparent glass installation consisted of table-like shapes that had an alternating rhythm with scale and created variety with the form that seemed to progress to the largest point in the center. It's largest feature seemed to be placed in the center, adding to it's dominance and creating a sense of radial balance. The repetitive simplicity of smooth, clear glass was interrupted with the downward direction of the eye getting drawn in by the light-catching bulbs present in the slender, delicate pillars that hold up this elegant structure. I would recommend that everyone check it out. It's just down the hallway from class.

Michelle Caldwell

I forgot about this!!

The is just a draft, some of the grids got a bit messy.

Description	Quantity	Unit Price	Cost
Grass	18,650	$ 0.55	$ 10,257.50
shovels	4	$ 15.00	$ 60.00
Gardening Gloves and Tools etc.	misc	$ 1,000.00	$ 1,000.00
Mower	1	$ 500.00	$ 500.00
Rakes	4	$ 15.00	$ 60.00
Yard Debris bucket For misc.	5	$ 2.54	$ 12.70
Mulch	5	$ 20.00	$ 100.00
Rectangular Planters	18	$ 110.00	$ 1,980.00
Circular Planters	3	$ 97.00	$ 291.00
Big Cart use for hauling from the street	1	$ 256.00	$ 256.00
plants	misc	$ 7,496.00	$ 7,496.00
water Tank	1	$ 589.95	$ 589.95
Soil For Square planter	1656 sq ft	$ 150.00	$ 360.00
Soil For Round Planter	706.5 sq ft	$ 180.00	$ 180.00
Table	1	$ 599.99	$ 599.99
Benches	21	$151.55	$ 3,182.55
Pavers	1500	$0.74	$ 1,110.00
Green House	1	$3873.00	$ 3,873.00
Tables for the Green House	5	$70.00	$ 70.00
Sand for the Pavers	5	$24.00	$ 120.00
Gardening tools	1	$1000.00	$ 1,000.00
Spiral Ladders	1	$1195.00	$ 1,195.00
Workers Cost (During Construction)	3 workers 15 /hour 40 hours per week	$21,600.00	$ 21,600.00
Workers Cost (For the rest of the year; 9 months)	1	$21,600.00	$ 21,600.00
Wheelbarrow	2	$179.00	$ 358.00
Delivery Fees	12	$769.99	$ 769.99
Artist Fee	1	$50,000.00	$ 50,000.00
Hose	4	$44.93	$ 44.93
Fertilizer for the First Year	1	$499.99	$ 499.99
Safety Railings	190	$136.70	$ 25,973.00
		Total	$ 155,139.60

admin Last Name

First Thursday: (Third Paper)

The piece that I choose to critique was the Theodore Roosevelt Statue, located in the Park Blocks, right outside of the Portland Art Museum.  This is a copyright symbol that dates back to 1922.  It was a gift that was donated to the City of Portland by Dr. Henry Waldo Coe (1857-1927), who was actually a friend of Roosevelt.  The sculpture cost $40,000 dollars to create.  The groundbreaking ceremony was preformed by Vice-President Calvin College on August 15, 1922.  The sculpture was the subject in a film entitled, “The Making of a Bronze Statue”.  Furthermore, the film was created by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to document the process of creating a bronze monument.  

This is basically a large sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt mounted on a horse said to be shown as a Rough Rider.  He is wearing his cavalry uniform, wide brimmed hat and glasses.  He is carrying sword on his left side and a pistol on his right.  It is a vary detailed figurative bronze casting.  The horse was modified after a suggestion from General Leonard Wood.

On the base of this statue, there is a plaque which states the following:

He was found faithful over a few things and he was made ruler over many.  He was Frail; He made himself tower of strength.  He was timid; He made himself a lion of courage.  He was a dreamer;  He became of of the Great doers of all time.  Men put their trust in him; women found a champion in him; kings stood in awe of him, but children made him their playmate.  He broke a nation’s slumber with his cry, and rose up .  Souls became swords through him; Swords became servants of God.  He was loyal to this country, and he exacted loyalty of God.  He loved many lands, but he loved his own land best.  He was terrible in battle, but tender to the weak.  Joyous and tireless.