July 11, 2006 > Pleasing, provocative and public

by Arathi Satish and Margaret Talt with photos by Jim Talt and Margaret Talt

You see them here and there, in parking lots, in front of buildings, in the malls and places in between. They may please the eye, evoke emotions or perhaps offend. Whatever the reaction, they are works by artists - famous, obscure or sometimes unknown. Over the next several weeks, TCV will feature selected works of art in public places throughout the greater Tri-Cities area. This week: Fremont.

"Diatonic Degrees" by Ron Rodgers, is a cast concrete sculpture located at the Centerville Community Center, 3355 Country Drive. Originally a fountain when first installed, the sculpture is owned by the city of Fremont.

A graceful, polished, stainless steel sculpture, "Silver Sails" by Lou Pearson and Robert Robins is mounted on a pedestal at 39141 Civic Center Drive. Robins says of their work, "Imagine the fluid motions of dance but without the dancer; and the sweep of a bird in flight, but remove the bird. Now blend these together into a few simple strokes written in gleaming steel." This piece is privately owned.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center displays two noteworthy granite sculptures by world renowned San Francisco sculptor, Beniamino "Benny" Bufano. "Penguins" is located at the Civic Center Drive entrance "Bear and Cubs" is at the hospital main entrance at 39400 Paseo Padre Parkway.

"Stitches" by T. Barney of Healdsburg, is distinctive steel tubing sculpture depicting the stitches on a baseball. It serves as a landmark for the Central Park Sports Complex entrance, 1110 Stevenson Blvd.

Ron Rodgers depicts "Apollo and Daphne" in a cast bronze sculpture at the corner of Mission Blvd. and Stevenson Blvd. Apollo loved Daphne, a river nymph, but she was not interested. To discourage his further advances, she asked Paneus, her father (a minor river god), to transform her. Paneus changed Daphne to a laurel tree and the sculpture shows her changing, putting down roots and sprouting leaves from her fingertips. A jilted Apollo still honored Daphne by designating the laurel as his tree of choice for ceremonies. This is why victors were crowned with laurel leaves.

Pacific Commons Shopping Center commissioned well-known sculptor, Aristides Demetrios, to craft a distinctive series of acrobatic figures placed throughout the center at AutoMall Parkway and Christy Street. Among many distinctions, Demetrios crafted the famous White Memorial Fountain "Mem Claw" at Stanford University as well as "Forms Sung In A Kelp Forest," a sculpture displayed in front of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.