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 Nox News Fall 2009 |
Commissioned Art Project Uses Acryl Pen
With plans in place to add 25 new transit stations to the Snohomish County, Washington's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Corridor on Highway 99, the Snohomish County Arts Commission and the City of Everett Cultural Commission sought proposals from qualified artists who could design and integrate a public art project into 16 of the future stations. The artists were challenged to submit designs that could be integrated into an 8' x 8' square of the transit station floors and which would represent movement or transportation, or even better, both. In addition, each station would be designed around predetermined themes, such as Birds, Garden, Sea Life, etc. The selected art would need to be consistent with these themes. The transit stations have concrete flooring that is exposed to the elements and foot traffic so the project and media selected needed to meet the needs for durability and ADA guidelines.
Winning artist Cheri O'Brien (www.cheriobrien.com) is a native of the Pacific Northwest and a resident of Everett, Washington. According to her website, she is self-taught and has been a professional artist for 21 years, working with paint on canvas and most recently with paint on glass. While the BRT Corridor project did not represent her first public commission, it was her first using concrete. Turning to local concrete experts, Cheri contacted Emil's Concrete Construction Company of Redmond, Washington, for assistance in bringing her concepts to reality with concrete. Emil's worked with Cheri to form, reinforce, pour and properly finish the 16 concrete squares which were to become Cheri's canvases. Once the artwork was complete, they would also handle the installation.
To get expert advice on product recommendations for selecting the right product to bring color to her concrete artwork, both Cheri and Emil's relied on the help of Corbin Anderson with Sealant Specialists in Seattle. Corbin recommended Nox-Crete's Acryl Pen sealer and stain as an ideal product. Designed for application to exterior horizontal concrete, Acryl Pen offers consistent color without fading or chalking. As a penetrating, chemically active product, Acryl Pen bonds permanently with concrete and offers the durability to hold up to foot traffic without flaking and protects the concrete from deep within the substrate. Cheri chose a combination of custom and standard colors for her work and also mixed multiple colors together for individual, unique results.
Emil's treated the concrete pieces with a colored shake-on hardener and gave the border of each piece a slate textured finish. Cheri used plywood stencils to score the mural designs to the center of each concrete slab. After proper curing and cleaning of the concrete, Cheri applied the Acryl Pen colors using a variety of rollers and brushes. Cheri says that while the Acryl Pen was thinner in consistency than media she normally uses, she found it very easy to work with and was quite pleased with the results. In all, eight unique designs were created and each was used on two slabs.
For four of the designs Cheri depicted Snohomish river life and the remaining four were designs Cheri says were inspired by the work of the artist Matisse. The installed floor murals now provide area residents with a little culture for their commute.
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