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CITYWIDE ARTWORK UTILIZES FORM AND FUNCTION
Glendale News Press, CA
May 21 2014
Artists decorate the city's utility boxes with colorful murals as
part of the annual 'Great American Cleanup."
By Brittany Levine, [email protected]
May 21, 2014 | 6:45 p.m.
As soon as Patti Sustin turned to park at her office building in
downtown Glendale on Monday morning, she noticed the bland utility
box on the street corner had gotten a mural makeover since the weekend.
Bright images of a pomegranate tree, a peacock and flowers on a
crème-colored base had been painted across the utility box on the
southeast corner of North Brand Boulevard and East Lexington Drive.
PHOTOS: Utility box murals pop up in Glendale
"I think it looks great," Sustin, an office manager, said as she
gave the mural a once-over while waiting for lunch at a food truck
parked nearby.
"It's much better than that ugly thing that was here before. I wish
they did this to all of them," she said.
The painted utility box is one of 26 scattered throughout the city's
core that were decorated last weekend during the city's annual "Great
American Cleanup," a community event aimed at beautifying Glendale
through weed abatement and trash pickup.
Glendale is on a mission to be more arts-friendly like other cities
such as Santa Monica and Pasadena. The utility-box murals, dubbed
"Beyond the Box," are the first of many planned arts projects. The
city's Arts & Culture Commission has roughly $1.4 million from
developer fees to work with, of which $20,000 went to pay for the
murals.
Although the artists and volunteers painted during the cleanup event
on Saturday, some continued to work into the week.
On Tuesday, Maryley Camacho, a marketing specialist with a penchant
for painting, was putting the finishing touches on her mural northwest
corner of North Brand Boulevard and West Doran Street that was inspired
by the newly renovated Brand Library & Art Center with her husband,
Cristian.
The painting pulled architectural elements from the Moorish-style
building and featured bookshelves with titles by literary greats such
as Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe.
Camacho, from Pacoima, said she was happy to see the city supporting
public arts and passersby enjoying her work.
"We're getting a really positive reaction," Camacho said, adding
that one of her favorite murals was down the street from hers on the
southeast corner of West Doran and Orange streets.
That one, called "Afronaut" features a surprised young boy with a
rocket lifting off out of his afro on one side of the utility box
and an astronaut standing on a purple and green landscape on the other.
Several of the murals painted similar imaginative and outlandish
images as the Arts & Culture Commission called on artists to be unique
with their creations when filling out their applications. One mural
features fish riding bicycles, while another has sheep flying in a
blue sky in replace of clouds.
Arpine Shakhbandaryan, a 20-year Glendale resident and artist, was
the mastermind behind the mural that caught the attention of Sustin,
the office manager. Shakhbandaryan's mural was done in the style of
Armenian illuminated art, which tends to be intricate and festive.
Shakhbandaryan was inspired by the peacock in the city's seal, a bird
that shows up often in illuminated manuscripts. At first, she was
afraid the murals would get lost in the busy landscape of downtown,
with its tall buildings and cars, but that fear quickly dissipated
when she drove by some of the murals earlier this week.
"They do catch your eye," she said. "They're not getting lost."
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-citywide-artwork-utilizes-form-and-function-20140521,0,1511796.story
Glendale News Press, CA
May 21 2014
Artists decorate the city's utility boxes with colorful murals as
part of the annual 'Great American Cleanup."
By Brittany Levine, [email protected]
May 21, 2014 | 6:45 p.m.
As soon as Patti Sustin turned to park at her office building in
downtown Glendale on Monday morning, she noticed the bland utility
box on the street corner had gotten a mural makeover since the weekend.
Bright images of a pomegranate tree, a peacock and flowers on a
crème-colored base had been painted across the utility box on the
southeast corner of North Brand Boulevard and East Lexington Drive.
PHOTOS: Utility box murals pop up in Glendale
"I think it looks great," Sustin, an office manager, said as she
gave the mural a once-over while waiting for lunch at a food truck
parked nearby.
"It's much better than that ugly thing that was here before. I wish
they did this to all of them," she said.
The painted utility box is one of 26 scattered throughout the city's
core that were decorated last weekend during the city's annual "Great
American Cleanup," a community event aimed at beautifying Glendale
through weed abatement and trash pickup.
Glendale is on a mission to be more arts-friendly like other cities
such as Santa Monica and Pasadena. The utility-box murals, dubbed
"Beyond the Box," are the first of many planned arts projects. The
city's Arts & Culture Commission has roughly $1.4 million from
developer fees to work with, of which $20,000 went to pay for the
murals.
Although the artists and volunteers painted during the cleanup event
on Saturday, some continued to work into the week.
On Tuesday, Maryley Camacho, a marketing specialist with a penchant
for painting, was putting the finishing touches on her mural northwest
corner of North Brand Boulevard and West Doran Street that was inspired
by the newly renovated Brand Library & Art Center with her husband,
Cristian.
The painting pulled architectural elements from the Moorish-style
building and featured bookshelves with titles by literary greats such
as Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe.
Camacho, from Pacoima, said she was happy to see the city supporting
public arts and passersby enjoying her work.
"We're getting a really positive reaction," Camacho said, adding
that one of her favorite murals was down the street from hers on the
southeast corner of West Doran and Orange streets.
That one, called "Afronaut" features a surprised young boy with a
rocket lifting off out of his afro on one side of the utility box
and an astronaut standing on a purple and green landscape on the other.
Several of the murals painted similar imaginative and outlandish
images as the Arts & Culture Commission called on artists to be unique
with their creations when filling out their applications. One mural
features fish riding bicycles, while another has sheep flying in a
blue sky in replace of clouds.
Arpine Shakhbandaryan, a 20-year Glendale resident and artist, was
the mastermind behind the mural that caught the attention of Sustin,
the office manager. Shakhbandaryan's mural was done in the style of
Armenian illuminated art, which tends to be intricate and festive.
Shakhbandaryan was inspired by the peacock in the city's seal, a bird
that shows up often in illuminated manuscripts. At first, she was
afraid the murals would get lost in the busy landscape of downtown,
with its tall buildings and cars, but that fear quickly dissipated
when she drove by some of the murals earlier this week.
"They do catch your eye," she said. "They're not getting lost."
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-citywide-artwork-utilizes-form-and-function-20140521,0,1511796.story