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Bus-center art budget a problem for some
By Rebecca Unger / Hi-Desert Star
JOSHUA TREE — The Morongo Basin Transit Authority has narrowed the field of candidates for a public art installation at a new transit center in Yucca Valley. Working with the Town’s Public Arts Advisory Committee, four finalists have been chosen from the 12 applicants: Jeffrey Crussell, David Falossi, Steven Rieman and Delos Van Earl.
Recently, the finalists presented their ideas to the bus agency’s ad hoc Public Art Task Force, composed of board members Frank Luckino, Alan Rasmussen, and Bill Neeb.
Joe Meer, general manager of the MBTA, said the criteria of the $25,000 commission was it be “consistent with the aesthetics of the desert, and incorporate the theme of motion.”
First up was Jeffrey Crussell. A recent property owner in the Basin, Crussell lives in Orange County and is a director of the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. The artist’s conception, in a work titled “Forward Motion,” was to “interface with the public, and to have the community interact with the piece.”
The model depicted an installation of 17 hollow, unlit, steel tubes that would gracefully swirl from a white cube (a signature Crussell form) and curl around to an information kiosk. The artist theorized that “the physics” would create a pan-pipe effect of 17 humming notes when the wind blew over the tubes, the tallest one being 30 feet. However, he admitted the design would exceed the original budget.
The project would need an engineer to “calculate wind loads” and sound levels, as “noise hazard” was a concern to the panel. Also, he said the existing concrete slabs on the new construction would need to be demolished.
Yucca Valley sculptor David Falossi asked himself, “What’s the sizzle?” of the transit center, “what’s important?” He decided the answers were in the “Discovery” of what the Basin has to offer.
Falossi’s vision includes a “presence from the past,” an American Indian woman with child emerging from an 11-foot column of limestone boulders. The glass “river” would capture light from the front and back.
The sculptor also saw the need to create tranquility to balance the “hustle and bustle of 30,000-pound El Dorado buses pulling in and out of there all day.” The center is in a residential area, and Falossi wanted his work to be “peaceful with the surrounding area.”
Falossi, whose stone and glass work can be seen at St. Mary’s church in Yucca Valley, said the glass sections could be replaced for $33 apiece if damaged. Including his labor to create the sculpture, he stated, “My costs are soaring above the budget.” But he added that this is “an idea I’d be able to live with,” one that will “help with the Town’s identity.”
Metalworks and “GeoKinetics” fabricator Steven Rieman of Flamingo Heights developed his idea around the theme, “Connecting People and Places.” To “arrest the eye and the attention” with an “uplifting and positive spirit,” Rieman created a circle of “universal figures symbolizing movement and cooperation,” seeming to whirl around a ribbon of highway. A stylized version of the MBTA logo encircles the base.
The weathered and brushed stainless steel piece is 16 feet tall. “You need that kind of visibility to have a presence,” he told the panel.
The three-dimensional piece is designed for 360-degree viewing. When asked by one of the panel what the outstretched height of the figures would be, the artist assured them that 7-foot height would keep most folks from bumping their heads.
Rieman is no stranger to public art; his locations of his metalwork installations include Twentynine Palms’ Bucklin Park, La Quinta’s City Hall, Palm Desert’s The Living Desert and San Dimas City Hall.
Multi-media artist Delos Van Earl knows, “When doing public art, four important elements are safety, maintenance, liability and interaction.” Van Earl has large, looping public installations in Palm Springs that people can “walk through and sit on,” similar to the 11-foot-high, 12-foot wide “Terra Cotta Treble Clef” he designed for the transit center.
The arches and curves that he is known for are created using 8-inch-square reinforced steel. The paint is industrial quality and can be reapplied easily with a roller in case of weathering or damage.
Van Earl calls this a “subterranean piece,” as only half of it exists where it can be seen and touched, and the other half “exists only in the imagination.”
Van Earl said he also knows how complicated sculpture can be. “My approach is to have everything solved ahead of time” when it comes to installing a piece, he said.
He recently moved to Yucca Valley, where he has a studio.
The MBTA board will announce its choice at their next regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 20.
Recently, the finalists presented their ideas to the bus agency’s ad hoc Public Art Task Force, composed of board members Frank Luckino, Alan Rasmussen, and Bill Neeb.
Joe Meer, general manager of the MBTA, said the criteria of the $25,000 commission was it be “consistent with the aesthetics of the desert, and incorporate the theme of motion.”
First up was Jeffrey Crussell. A recent property owner in the Basin, Crussell lives in Orange County and is a director of the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. The artist’s conception, in a work titled “Forward Motion,” was to “interface with the public, and to have the community interact with the piece.”
The model depicted an installation of 17 hollow, unlit, steel tubes that would gracefully swirl from a white cube (a signature Crussell form) and curl around to an information kiosk. The artist theorized that “the physics” would create a pan-pipe effect of 17 humming notes when the wind blew over the tubes, the tallest one being 30 feet. However, he admitted the design would exceed the original budget.
The project would need an engineer to “calculate wind loads” and sound levels, as “noise hazard” was a concern to the panel. Also, he said the existing concrete slabs on the new construction would need to be demolished.
Yucca Valley sculptor David Falossi asked himself, “What’s the sizzle?” of the transit center, “what’s important?” He decided the answers were in the “Discovery” of what the Basin has to offer.
Falossi’s vision includes a “presence from the past,” an American Indian woman with child emerging from an 11-foot column of limestone boulders. The glass “river” would capture light from the front and back.
The sculptor also saw the need to create tranquility to balance the “hustle and bustle of 30,000-pound El Dorado buses pulling in and out of there all day.” The center is in a residential area, and Falossi wanted his work to be “peaceful with the surrounding area.”
Falossi, whose stone and glass work can be seen at St. Mary’s church in Yucca Valley, said the glass sections could be replaced for $33 apiece if damaged. Including his labor to create the sculpture, he stated, “My costs are soaring above the budget.” But he added that this is “an idea I’d be able to live with,” one that will “help with the Town’s identity.”
Metalworks and “GeoKinetics” fabricator Steven Rieman of Flamingo Heights developed his idea around the theme, “Connecting People and Places.” To “arrest the eye and the attention” with an “uplifting and positive spirit,” Rieman created a circle of “universal figures symbolizing movement and cooperation,” seeming to whirl around a ribbon of highway. A stylized version of the MBTA logo encircles the base.
The weathered and brushed stainless steel piece is 16 feet tall. “You need that kind of visibility to have a presence,” he told the panel.
The three-dimensional piece is designed for 360-degree viewing. When asked by one of the panel what the outstretched height of the figures would be, the artist assured them that 7-foot height would keep most folks from bumping their heads.
Rieman is no stranger to public art; his locations of his metalwork installations include Twentynine Palms’ Bucklin Park, La Quinta’s City Hall, Palm Desert’s The Living Desert and San Dimas City Hall.
Multi-media artist Delos Van Earl knows, “When doing public art, four important elements are safety, maintenance, liability and interaction.” Van Earl has large, looping public installations in Palm Springs that people can “walk through and sit on,” similar to the 11-foot-high, 12-foot wide “Terra Cotta Treble Clef” he designed for the transit center.
The arches and curves that he is known for are created using 8-inch-square reinforced steel. The paint is industrial quality and can be reapplied easily with a roller in case of weathering or damage.
Van Earl calls this a “subterranean piece,” as only half of it exists where it can be seen and touched, and the other half “exists only in the imagination.”
Van Earl said he also knows how complicated sculpture can be. “My approach is to have everything solved ahead of time” when it comes to installing a piece, he said.
He recently moved to Yucca Valley, where he has a studio.
The MBTA board will announce its choice at their next regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 20.
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