Three sites in Southwest Detroit with plenty of neighborhood activity are being beautified through the community+public arts:DETROIT program that is facilitated by
College for Creative Studies. Patton Recreation Center, Clark Park and LA SED will all recieve public art installations that incorporate tile work -- in very different ways -- designed by artists Lisa Luevanos and Mary Luevanos.
Patton Park, located on Woodmere stretching north from W. Vernor, is a large, heavily used park with a gleaming new recreation center. The rec center's kiln was unused for years, but not so any longer. Now every Wednesday between 5 to 7 p.m., the Luevanoses host a drop-in program in which residents of all ages can create ceramic tiles that will ultimately be used to cover a bench at the park.
Over at Clark Park, the Luevanoses will use brick collage technique to refinish the walls of the band stand. The tiles will be broken with a hammer and stuck together "intuitively, along with being outlined in mirrors," explains Sioux Trujillo, CPAD's coordinator. The technique, which was also used at the
Art League of Michigan's new Harmonie Park home, also uses colored grout, another signature that separates it from traditional mosaic.
LA SED's offices at 4138 W. Vernor at Scotten will be graced with a photomosaic tile mural that is being created from a photograph of Cesar Chavez. A computer program will sort each pixel of the original photograph by color with the end result being very small tile squares that comprise a mural image of Chavez. Trujillo describes the end result as "reminiscent" of a
Chuck Close piece, where many very small pieces together create a unified larger whole.
Approximately 15 youth are being employed through the CPAD program, which also includes Brightmoor's
Talking Fence. Model D will cover more of these neighborhood installations over the next couple of months. All the projects will be "done by the time the snow flies," says Trujillo.
Source: Sioux Trujillo, CPAD
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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