Public Art Bridgeville has done it again! This year’s outdoor sculpture exhibit has popped up all over the community, bigger and better than ever. Let’s take a self-guided auto tour and check out all ten pieces.
We will begin entering Washington Avenue from Kirwan Heights. As soon as we cross the bridge we encounter, on the left, “Open Doors”, a masterpiece of red-orange folded steel plates that we instantly recognize as a Dan Droz signature piece. A well-known Pittsburgh artist, he was featured in last year’s exhibit as well. His work relies on folding and cutting plates to enhance reflection and shading and achieve a three-dimensional feel. “Open Doors” has a welcoming feel to it, appropriate for its location welcoming visitors to the exhibit.
Our next stop is at the Bower Hill Road intersection. On the right, in the lawn in front of the Washington Apartments is “Red and Green Construction”, a bold yellow pylon supporting a collection of multi-colored squares and tubes. My first reaction was “Pickup sticks!” The product of Michigan sculptor Ray Katz, this juxtaposition of shapes and colors illustrates his perception of the evolution of life.
Farther ahead, also on the right side, in the parking lot in the 400 block of Washington Avenue, is an intriguing combination of curves and reverse curves of weathered steel entitled “Fiddlehead”. Sculpted by Connecticut native David Boyajian, it is aptly named, evoking the feel of the tight spiral at the top of a violin, as well as the slowly unfurling “fiddlehead fern” so common in our woods. The artist reports that his work is focused on “the cycle of nature and its poignant synchronicity to human evolution”.
The sidewalk in front of Sarasnick’s is the site of the first Seward Johnson piece in the exhibit. We all remember the two popular trompe-l’oeil painted bronze Johnson figures from last year’s exhibit. This one is a gentleman with a lawn-mower, wiping his brow with one hand and thinking (according to the title) “Hell, Time to go fishin’.” In addition to its incredible realism, it records an emotion we can all understand.
Last year the bench at the parking lot adjacent to La Bella Bean was the location of a popular Johnson figure, a young man sitting there reading a newspaper. This year he has been replaced by another young man (similar enough in appearance to be his brother), sitting there whittling. He, too, is a candidate for lots of “selfies”.
Let’s now follow Washington Avenue to Chartiers (turn left) and left again on Dewey to McMillen. Adjacent to the traffic circle in front of the Library is “Red Dancer”; its contrast with the life-like Johnson pieces and abstracts like “Fiddlehead” typifies the diversity of this art form. Produced by Gary Kulak (born in Noblestown, currently active in Michigan), this sculpture is a normal-sized chair with twisted legs twenty feet high. The artist has used chairs as a frame of reference for forty years, distorting them to evoke different emotions.
Back on Dewey, in front of the Halcyon Senior Living Center, is a striking abstract by Alex Mendez entitled “Sepiriz”. It is constructed of three steel boxes, jet black with gold edging. Two of them are triangular, the third a small rectangle. Perhaps they represent a figure, with the rectangle being its head. Searching the Internet I learned that there is a character named Sepiriz in a 1965 fantasy novel “Stormbringer” by Michael Moorcock. In some computer games he is also known as “the Knight in Black and Yellow”.
Let’s turn down Station Street at the end of Dewey and visit Triangle Park. Located there is an excellent example of sculptor Jim Paulsen’s “Sentinel” series. A native of Iowa and Illinois now active in Towson, Maryland, Paulsen has been influenced by Native American culture since his youth. The Sentinel series is based on different combinations of distinctly painted square timbers with a broad footprint, framed together at the top. This one, “Sentinel Royal”, certainly has the feel of an Indian brave, complete with head-dress, on guard against intruders.
Now let’s follow Railroad Street to Bower Hill Road, then turn left and inspect the lawn in front of the Borough Building. Sure enough, here is another life-like Seward Johnson piece, this time a delightful young girl swinging around a stop sign. It is entitled “Waiting to Cross”. To me it evokes a feeling I remember from the first day of summer vacation. I would change the title to “School’s out!”
The final stop of our tour is back at the Bower Hill/Washington Avenue intersection, on the left side just before you reach Washington. There is located “Hyperbolic Wind” by South Carolinian Bob Doster. According to his website he is obsessed with wind and has created numerous sculptures based on that theme. This one is an interesting collection of eight curved stainless-steel plates, interacting with each other. I don’t think any of the curves are hyperbolas, however.
I have certainly enjoyed my first visit to this year’s exhibit and my initial reaction to each of the works in it. Art can be appreciated on many levels; many people are happy merely to enjoy things they like and to reject all the others. I am blessed/cursed with intellectual curiosity that forces me to try to understand at least a little about each piece. It will be interesting to see how my opinion about each of these works changes during the eleven months they are here. Kudos to Public Art Bridgeville for an excellent achievement!