Category: Public Art

Edifice for the Unwanted

Public Art, Recycled/Found Material
Photo by Bill Hatcher

Steel/Concrete/Recycled Materials

40’x16’x100’

2018

Public Art Commission at the Los Reales Landfill in Tucson, AZ.- Using recycled materials to tell the story of where stuff ends, at the landfill. I wanted to capture the color and the movement ( and the birds ) you experience at the landfill. The items used on the left represent more raw versions of materials and as they cycle over to the right side your eye can begin to pick out more and more items from our daily lives and they again get “buried” to the far right. The brick pillars are built from dozens of historical buildings that Tucson has lost over the years from demolition and the center piece is a nod to the historical privy pits of the past where most household trash of the time was discarded.

Photo by Bill Hatcher

Fence for Tully Elementary School Garden

Bicycle Art, Gates and Architectual Metalwork, Public Art, Recycled/Found Material

Tully Elementary School has turned an old unused asphalt pad into an awesome garden complete with many fruit trees, native plants, water harvesting basins, a cistern that holds water runoff from the roof and feeds it to the plants with an irrigation system.  Only problem is that the Javelina’s keep coming in at night and chowing down on all the new plantings ( these things will eat cactus, spines and all).
They need a fence!IMG_3006Tully Elementary School Fence

he School was able to complete this project with a grant from CPPW (Community’s Putting Prevention to Work).  They had a fairly small budget for this project but we were able to keep the costs down by collecting old boards, scrap metal, and bicycle wheels to use in the fence.  Much of the steel tubing was purchased second-hand at a scrap yard.

Iron Horse Community Garden

Bicycle Art, Gates and Architectual Metalwork, Public Art, Recycled/Found Material

Tenth Street Sign
Here are just a hand full of the 80 some flowers that were made for the fence. Each one is unique and personalized. Now they will be glazed and eventually bolted to the fence in Iron Horse Community Garden.
We made flowers out of stoneware at the Romero House Potters studio at the Tucson Museum of Art. I invited folks from the neighborhood to come make ceramic flowers that will be glazed and bolted to the fence.
The fence is ready for install! My folks Erik !!!, and Mike were a huge help in making all this happen. It took two long days to install with the 3 of us.
This is the Beautiful Sign that was painted by Gavin Troy. Gavin is a Prolific Tucson Artist. I am really happy to have him help with this project. As you can see in the background some gardens are getting started by Iron Horse Gardener Ester. She was around a lot during install and even brought us lunch.

Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Crossroads Sign

Clay, Public Art

”Dunbar Spring Crossroads History” 2013
Ceramic Tile and Steel
12’x13’’x24’’
Located in Dunbar Spring Neighborhood, Tucson, AZ. Artwork depicting a peoples history in the neighborhood.

Public Art Paid for by a neighborhood grant and facilitated by Tucson Pima Arts Council. A collaboration between Troy Neiman, Zach Lihatsh, and Dunbar Spring Neighborhood. The community was involved in creating the ceramic tiles and researching the people represented on the monument.

Design, fabrication and install