WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (CitizenWire) — Green art is only one way to describe the new suspended sculpture by Marta Thoma Hall (www.publicartgreenart.com) at the new Walnut Creek Library north entrance. The art spirals overhead in a galaxy of glass bottles floating upward in space like stars and cosmic bodies. The bottles are an assortment of the every day kind, in various shades of blue, green, purple, and rose. On July 16th Hall will be available to answer questions such as: Where did you get all of the bottles? How did you find them in all those colors? How are the bottles attached? Is it supposed to represent a galaxy? What do the arrows mean?
Climbing the stairs to the second level gives you a closer view of the sculpture. Pale blue bottles along a rim of a large, silver hoop look like over sized water drops on a David Smith sculpture. The sculpture is illuminated by LED globes and sunlight coming in the clear story window. Three balconies on the upper library floor provide a good view of the curved steel and delicately colored bottles streaming upward.
“Colored glass is naturally beautiful, but bottles are also functional, mass produced objects which brings up thoughts about contemporary culture and the challenge of sustainable living,” states the artist. Hall has designed several public projects by massing glass bottles together to create a wave, a cloud, the wind, and other natural elements while individually, the bottles themselves look like water drops or gems. These include “Double Wave,” “Water Source,” “Two Tears,” “Gila Shade,” and “Water Drop Journey,” each commissioned for a civic public site. The work has resonated with city officials and the public with hope to raise public awareness about sustainable living.
In 1993 Hall participated in the Sanitary Fill Artist-In-Residency Program at the Bay Area dump, now called the Recology Artist-In-Residency Program. She was inspired by the sight of bottles heaped into various discarded piles and created “Earth Tear,” an 8-foot tall sculpture made of 250 plastic bottles and steel. “Earth Tear,” is permanently installed at the Recology Public Art Garden in South San Francisco.
“Thoma’s art evokes a sense of story and history, while mirroring and opening windows into the future … her art turns the ordinary into extraordinary, the uniform into the unique, and the utilitarian into sublime,” says Carrie Rehak, Ph.D. U.C. Berkeley.
“Journey of a Bottle,” by Marta Thoma Hall and “Portrait in 12 Volumes of Gray,” by Christian Moeller are featured at the new Walnut Creek Library.
More information: www.publicartgreenart.com .
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