“What we’re witnessing is a public arts renaissance in Palmdale,” stated Palmdale City Manager James Purtee. ”This unveiling begins our vision to create a new Art & Science Center that will be a place where our rich aerospace heritage can be celebrated and promoted through innovative interactive exhibits, the arts and learning opportunities for students and people of all ages.”
Located on the courtyard outside the city’s Development Services building, Facing the Sun revolves around themes closely related to Palmdale, linking the natural phenomena of the immediate area, environmental elements and local history. It was created by artists Lauren Evans and Margaret Lazzari, known professionally as Lazzari+Evans,
For Facing the Sun, they focused on two key features: Palmdale’s spectacular sunrises and sunsets, and local wildflowers.
The wildflowers depicted on the panels are lupine, Indian paintbrush, coreopsis and desert globe mallow, with a Joshua tree bloom crowning the top as part of the city’s logo.
The center pole depicts several local growing wildflowers on painted aluminum panels that point in four directions like a weather vane. They are intricately shaped with cut out voids, which cast highly-patterned shadows on the other panels and the ground.
A sunrise/sunset diagram on a raised concrete circular platform forms the base of the sculpture. The concrete is etched and stained to show the location of sunrise and sunset in Palmdale on the summer and winter solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes. It also indicates both astronomic and magnetic north.
Visitors are encouraged to take photos at Facing the Sun for their special events such as weddings, graduations and quinceañeras, and share them on social media with the hashtag #palmdalepublicart.
To learn more and to find out how you can support the arts in Palmdale, visit www.cityofpalmdale.org/Visitors/PublicArt.
[Information via news release from the city of Palmdale.]
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Frank says
This is better than Rex’s nude statue of himself in his bedroom.
William says
Thanks, Frank
Now, how do I get that disgusting, abhorrent, abominable, appalling, awful, distasteful, dreadful, evil, image out of my mind?
Not to mention the mirror on the bottom of his commode so he can admire ‘hisself’ while saying “Mirror, mirror…..”.