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Description:
These
sidewalk panels and benches, created for the Brentwood/Cavalier
Neighborhood Association, were shaped from handmade clay and stone.
Some special glazes were developed by Helen Helwig. The benches
stand at two entryways to the neighborhood. This
community-involvement artwork was awarded a Tempe Beautification
award.
Funding:
The
project was funded in part by the city of Tempe Neighborhood Grant
Program.
Artists’ biographies:
The southwest Public Art Group specializes
in high-quality public, corporate and individual art commissions
that both delight the eye and enhance community life. Professional
artists, Helen Helwig and Niki Glen, work together to create
high-quality public art. Helwig brings more than 25 years of
experience in clay design and fabrication, and Glen has directed
more than 50 community public art projects. Both artists have
directed many large-scale public art installations. Helen
Helwig is an award-winning clay artist who
develops innovative glaze techniques and Glen is an outstanding
designer and muralist.
In 205, Glen was painting murals and large scale charcoal studies
for future public art installations. She is inspired by everything
around her and strives to make a measurable difference by enhancing
the quality of life and making the world a better place.
Contemporary themes excite and inspire her. She loves to collaborate
with other artists, sculptors and community residents. Glen is also
a master designer and uses her imagination to come up with images
that can be drawn or painted or sculpted. Her active mind loves to
put several (possibly unrelated) images together to form a
completely new concept or idea. The viewer is always considered in
this ongoing dialog with life.
Artists’ statement:
“We held
community workshops and sent out surveys to involve the community in
the planning and fabrication of the elements within the mosaics.
The vision of the neighborhood association was to have an
artist-designed mosaic to create a neighborhood identity and to
enhance the entry for the many pedestrians and bicycle riders who
use this route." The artists and the neighborhood association
together wanted to create a unified and welcoming feeling and they
wanted to involve the residents in the brainstorming of the ideas
and the creation of the artwork itself. |
