Art

In case you haven’t been in downtown Walnut Creek yet, the second redesigned Walnut Creek water fountain on North Main St. (in front of Mechanics bank) has been finished. The first one by Wowhaus received favorable reviews, but this new one, by Seyed Alavi, of a giant head with watering trickling over its face as if being waterboarded (or taking a shower), is getting mixed reviews based on the numerous emails I’ve been getting.

Is having a polarizing sculpture good for Walnut Creek, to encourage people to check it out or will this alienate Walnut Creek shoppers? So what do you think, do you love it or hate it?

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The Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in downtown Walnut Creek is hosting a new exhibition by the Cardboard Institue of Technology (CIT) now through August 12th. From the Bedford Gallery website:

This summer Bedford Gallery welcomes the exciting new exhibition Cardburg 2012: The Super Track! The Cardboard Institute of Technology (C.I.T.) has deconstructed the spectacle of car racing, challenging mainstream notions of competition and cooperation. C.I.T. invites you to take part in their unique brand of racing: form a pit crew, race in teams, and sabotage your opponents.

Bedford Curator Carrie Lederer comments that, “C.I.T. projects always incorporate aspects of the world we live in—from pop culture, history and myth to contemporary life. The artists are entrepreneurial in spirit, and bring an array of skills and talents to their projects, using high-tech/low-tech hybrids as a motto for construction. Each installation is a unique, humorous and thoughtful statement about our local and global community, and our attraction to large-scale, exhilarating public events.”

The exibition will include several open makes, during which visitors can come to the gallery and build their own cardboard car. We hope you will join us as we turn up the heat and explore the high-octane world of monster truck racing.

Check out more of the amazing cardboard art below:

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Spotted next to Nordstrom in downtown Walnut Creek.

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A couple of weeks ago I noted that the North Main St. fountains were getting refurbished and the one across from Wells Fargo has been turned on. Check out the finished work above. Cool stuff!

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The two fountains in downtown Walnut Creek on N. Main St. are getting a huge facelift and the one you see above in front of Wells Fargo should be finished by the end of the week. The artist for this fountain is Ene Osteraas-Constable from Wowhaus, and a Walnut Creek Arts Commision agenda has the details:

Wowhaus for the fountain in front of Wells FargoGeologica, by the artist team of Wowhaus (Ene Osteraas-Constable and Scott Constable) isinspired by tracing water to its elemental source: the earth itself. Ceramic and glass mosaic evokegeological stratification. Glints of reflective glass throughout the piece echo veining in layeredstone, leaving the impression that the fountain might have been hewn out of a single, massiverock. In the center of the fountain lies a 30” “geode”, a rock-like spherical form that is sliced toreveal a beautiful, shimmering geode-like pattern. The geode hovers just at the surface of thewater. Striking at a distance, the complex patterning of the fountain draws viewers in, invitingthem to walk around the entire piece to observe the intricate details of the mosaic and to discover
the sparkling geode in the fountain’s center. Water will flow over the surface of the geode as itrises from the center of the sphere.

The other fountain will be installed by early June. This is going to look amazing when completed. I can’t wait to check it out when they turn it on!

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Spotted in the back of the David M. Brian store, next to Crate and Barrel, in downtown Walnut Creek. Check out window washer at right, that’s classic.

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