Metro Art Tours offer a chance to experience some of L.A.’s best public art, for free
Posted by Fred Camino in Metro Art on March 5, 2010 - 5:30 pm
Eager to learn more about this mural in Union Station?
Observant readers will have noticed a couple of new items included on today’s Go Metro Weekends roundup: Metro Art Tours. These free tours, put on by the Metro Art Docent Council, celebrated their 10th anniversary last year. Metro says that over 25,000 visitors and Angelenos have gone on the art tours in the last decade, but I’m willing to bet most Angelenos aren’t even aware they exist.
The tours have historically been given on the first Saturday and Sunday of each month, but for 2010 Metro has added a new weekday evening tour on the first Thursday of each month. The 20 volunteer members of the Metro Art Docent Council are well versed in the various art works along the Metro system and offer insight on the pieces and the artists who created them. And, as mentioned before, all of these tours are completely free.
Metro invests one half of one percent of rail construction costs into original artwork along the system and the result has been a dramatic increase in public art, accessible by all, in Los Angeles. In my opinion, the synergy between art and infrastructure helps create a sense of place and defines a city in the minds of its residents and visitors, in effect creating a living museum out of the otherwise mundane.
Here’s the information about this weekend’s art tours grabbed from the Go Metro Weekends roundup:
Saturday, March 6th
Meet promptly at 10 am at the street level entrance to the Hollywood/Highland Metro Rail Station on Hollywood Blvd. near the corner with Highland Ave. If driving to Hollywood/Highland station, park at the Visitors’ Center at the Hollywood/Highland shopping center complex to obtain partial parking validation.
Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Metro-Art-Docent-Council/286824323171?v=wall&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=361501780708&index=1
Type: Art
When: 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.
Price: FREE
Where: Red Line Hollywood/Highland Station
Nearby Rail: Red Line Hollywood/Highland Station
Sunday, March 7th
Meet promptly at 10 am at the information booth inside the entrance to historic Union Station at 900 Alameda St. in Downtown Los Angeles. There is pay parking at Union Station and metered street parking, and pay lots in the immediate area.
Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Metro-Art-Docent-Council/286824323171?v=wall&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=328584128228&index=1
Type: Art
When: 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.
Price: FREE
Where: Union Station
Nearby Rail: Union Station
And remember, if you can’t make it this weekend, tours are given every month.
Shizu Saldamando: Metro artist interview
Posted by Fred Camino in Metro Art on December 3, 2009 - 11:16 am
Little Tokyo by Shizu Saldamando, spotted on a Red Line train. Washi Paper, Colored Pencil, on Wood Panel.
In October we introduced you to the newest addition in a series of posters that spotlight Metro accessible destinations, commissioned by Metro Creative Services. The artist, Shizu Saldamando, was kind enough to agree to an email interview with me to discuss her poster, her art and its place in Los Angeles transit.
How did Metro approach you for the Little Tokyo poster project?
Metro called me and asked if I would be willing to submit a design for their new Little Tokyo station. I think they had asked two other Japanese American artists as well. We were each given a stipend for the submission, and if our poster was chosen we’d be given an additional sum of money. So it was sort of like a private art contest of sorts.
How did you come up with the concept for the poster? Is the Japanese Village Plaza a place you routinely visit?
Yes, I go to Little Tokyo quite a lot for food, bars, art exhibits etc. I walked around the neighborhood taking photos and immediately knew I wanted to depict the Yagura Tower. I usually do portraits, but in this case I didn’t want to stereotype the people that would represent the neighborhood so I chose to do a cityscape instead. I know that I laugh at mustaches drawn on models in advertisements, so I decided the tower would be great alternative to depicting people. I contacted my friend Clement, who works at JANM (Japanese American National Museum), and he let me onto the roof of the old JANM offices, which are currently under construction, so that I could get a good view of the Village Plaza. If I had control over the title of the piece it would be called “View from JANM,” because that museum is such an important part of the neighborhood. I also use collage in my other work so adding the yuzen papers was a good way to make the composition more colorful.
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Gallery: the new Gold Line’s Atlantic Station
Posted by Gayle Anderson in Metro Art on November 11, 2009 - 12:49 pm
We posted photos the other day of the new Indiana Station and the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station on the Gold Line Eastside Extension, which opens to the public on Sunday. Gary Leonard, staff photographer for the Downtown News, shot the stations for Metro.
Now, we’re on to the Atlantic Station, which the Metro art department describes this way:
Adobe LA is an arts collective of architects and designers including Ulises Diaz, Gustavo Leclerc, Laura Alvarez and Barbara Jones. The artist team created a series of benches with tile rugs at the platform and a large scale free standing sculpture inspired by the striking and colorful design culture of Eastside living rooms, shops, cars, and toys. By researching local residential and urban design culture, Adobe LA collected a variety of design motifs that survey what local residents are comfortable with and proud of, and manifest this knowledge into an artistic outcome in the station environment.
Take a tour. Click on images to view gallery and mouse to ‘next’ for a slideshow.
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- Sanctuary
“We are completely immersed in an environment where design is dictated. From our local shopping centers, freeways, to a neighborhood restaurant, we have no say in what our environment looks like. However, our homes are quite different.” -- Adobe LA, artist team
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- Living Room
"Here we can have total control. They are our sanctuary. We wanted to celebrate this fact and extend it to the station environment.” -- Adobe LA, artist team
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- The Culture of Urban Design
By researching local residential and urban design culture, Adobe LA collected a variety of design motifs that survey what local residents are comfortable with and proud of, and manifest this knowledge into an artistic outcome in the station environment.
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- Benches with tile rugs
Adobe LA created a series of benches with tile rugs at the platform.
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- Eastside living
The station is inspired by the striking and colorful design culture of Eastside living rooms, shops, cars, and toys.
Gallery: Indiana Station
Posted by Gayle Anderson in Metro Art on November 10, 2009 - 2:25 pm
We posted photos the other day of the new Little Tokyo/Arts District station on the Gold Line Eastside Extension, which opens to the public on Sunday. Gary Leonard, staff photographer for the Downtown News, shot the stations for Metro.
Now, we’re on to the Indiana Station, which the Metro art department describes this way:
Inspired by the classic style of the Anasazi, Maya and Aztec Pre-Columbian cultures, the artwork is infused with a modern sensibility and stands as a metaphor for the relationship between nature, society and the sacred. Artist Paul Botello, who was born and raised in East L.A. and still lives and works here, created 16 stainless steel cut panels in the style of “papel picado” (cut paper) along both sides of the station area. The sculptures pay homage to “family” and “history.” Stylized large scale heads of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent Mesoamerican deity, mark the generations past and present and are located within the landscaped areas at both ends of the station platform.
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- Pivotal Events
“Our goal is to distill and abstract the many pivotal events that have shaped and formed a very dynamic community as well as a very rich Latino heritage.” -- Paul Botello, artist
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- Metaphor
The artwork is infused with a modern sensibility and stands as a metaphor for the relationship between nature, society and the sacred.
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- The Plumed Serpent
Stylized large scale heads of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent Mesoamerican deity, mark the generations past and present and are located within the landscaped areas at both ends of the station platform.
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- Papel Picado
The artist created 16 stainless steel cut panels in the style of “papel picado” (cut paper) along both sides of the station area.
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- Infusion: Nature, society and the sacred
The artwork is inspired by the classic style of the Anasazi, Maya and Aztec Pre-Columbian cultures.
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