The capper to the San Pablo Avenue Streetscape Project is to be a public art project that would line the boulevard. But the art commission in charge has rejected the artists' plans as "poorly done" and wants them to come back with a new concept.
Artists Jonathan Russell and Saori Ide have been working for over a year with the commission to deliver a project based on their description of "site-specific, durable, artworks that serve to provide continuity and color along the Project."
Charles Burress has a detailed analysis of the breakdown between artist and client at El Cerrito Patch:
"...at the meeting two weeks ago, the commission expressed clear disapproval of what the artists have spent months developing - simple, colorful, easily recognizable images of people and things like a jogger, a woman pushing a baby carriage, a woman doing yoga, a Native American reed hut, a saxophone.
Instead, the commission asked the artists to return with a design that meets these criteria: 'abstract, non-color or copper, sculptural, uniquely stylistic, integrated.'"
Read the full story: Major Public Art Plan Rejected by Art Commission, Back to Drawing Board
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