New to the City’s Public Art Collection is the recently completed public art project by artist Gwynn Murrill at The Montana, a mixed-use development located at 345 East Colorado in the heart of Pasadena.

The artwork is based on the natural environment and wildlife common in the American West. Murrill was inspired by the arid climates set in and adjacent to mountains common to many locales in settings as disparate as the City of Pasadena and the state of Montana. Pasadena’s rich history is rich with artists focused on the region’s natural splendors for inspiration. The Montana artwork builds upon this tradition by furthering it within a contemporary idiom, one respectful of the past but committed to progress in art.

The project, initiated by developer Charlie Munger and MS Property Company, was designed and managed by Nakada + Associates, Inc., with landscape architects Kornrandolph and art consultant Marc Pally for the City of Pasadena Public Art Program.

Bighorn Fountain
Bronze and Anamosa Limestone
10’7” x 12’ in diameter
2008

A life-size cast bronze sculpture of a native San Gabriel Mountain bighorn sheep poised atop two columns of rough-hewn limestone blocks. Water gently pours down the inside faces of the blocks providing a sense of respite during warm weather.

Raptor Intaglio
Carved Limestone
18’ x 80’
2008

The most visible artwork, and Murrill's largest to date, is a dramatic intaglio carving into the limestone panel sections that are situated above the building's main entrance on Colorado Boulevard. Two large-scaled eagles (one is approximately 9'6” and 42' long, the other approximately 15'6” high and 22' long) are carved into the limestone, creating a flowing narrative for the building's façade. While playing on a long-tradition of architectural ornamentation, Murrill's approach is strictly contemporary in its reductive language and manipulation of scale.

Cougar Intaglio
Carved Limestone
8’ 6” x 20’
2008

This carving was inspired by the arid climates set in and adjacent to mountains common to many locales in settings as disparate as the city of Pasadena and the state of Montana. An additional large scale, intaglio of a cougar (approximately 8'2” and 19'4” long) is carved into limestone panels measuring 8'6” high by 20' long, on the Euclid Street façade of the Montana.
 

“Whole Flow” (Processio Pasadena) is a sculpture by artist Buster Simpson for Whole Foods Market that functions both as an artwork and as a working example of water preservation and sustainable uses of natural resources. The fountain will run on gray water from the condensation from a series of freezer units.

The sculpture is fountain is a series of fourteen stacked stainless steel bowls measuring 50” diameter and 12” deep. The artwork forms and provides a vertical aeration system for the water cascading from one bowl to the

next allowing oxygen to enter the water and promote a cleansing process. This procession is one of healing and of art, a journey of restoration infrastructure, serving as a model and catalyst, and suggesting a procession of paradigm shifts for Pasadena recharging the valley watershed.
 

Commissioned in 2005 by Bellevue Ventures LLC and with infrastructural assistance from Whole Foods Market, art consultant Marc Pally, landscape specialists kornrandolph, Inc. and fabricated by Fabrication Specialties, LTD., and Simpson Studios and City of Pasadena, Public Art Program. Whole Flow is an example of sustainable artwork and principles.

Whole Flow

Stainless steel and recycled water
18’h x 6’ w x 50” d
2008

Artist Renee Petropoulos is installing 317 paces and 21 stops, a terrazzo hardscape that wraps around a corner of the mixed use project like a garden path at 220 N. Lake Avenue. The artist designed the path as a progression of colors and patterns that are repeated throughout the project like the diamond pattern with large rocks found on Walnut Avenue, the rock pattern on Lake Ave. and the stone pavers on Walnut and Lake Avenues. The perspective decreases or increases as it winds its way down the block. As some patterns echo one another, color is introduced to reinforce and enhance the effects of the composition giving the project a rhythm felt by the pedestrian.

Commissioned by Standard Pacific Homes for the City of Pasadena Public Art Program.

317 Paces and 2 Stops (and 4)
Cementitious Terrazzo
2,500 square feet
2009

Sculptor David Schafer was commissioned through the City of Pasadena Public Art Program for New Private Development requirement of Pacific Medical Buildings located at 70 W. California. The artwork, “Separated United Forms” encompasses two large-scaled cast bronze sculptures, 7’ x 12’ each that are anticipated to be installed in Summer 2009.

The two rounded sculptures are undulating and organic with references to a life-form. The development process involved the selection a small Henry Moore sculpture from the collection of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena which was scanned using 3D scanning technology. Moore believed his sculptures evoked growth and suggested a living life-form, or the vital life force. The forms of the sculpture were then manipulated by scaling, rotating, superimposing, and doubling.