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Arrows The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
On the northwest corner of Morris and Belmont Streets, the artist Tasha Beckwith added street-inspired color to Indianapolis’ Westside. Using a mixture of different blues, greens, and neutral tones she rendered abstracted arrows on this traffic signal box. Unfortunately, this box was hit during a traffic accident in July 2016 and was replaced with a new, unpainted box.
Caution Trees This installation is part of Indy Art & Seek, a project by the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to pair artists and communities to create site-specific art that encourages neighborhood residents to see their surroundings in new ways.
Wrapping trees as both a cultural and an artistic practice is growing in popularity across cityscapes. In Japan, the Shinto tradition holds that all natural forms are imbued with a life spirit; for thousands of years they have wrapped the trunks of specially honored trees with decorative ropes and streamers. “Prayer trees” in Siberia are adorned with fabric bands to serve as an intermediary between our world and that of the spirits; the bands symbolize a wish for peace and harmony. More recently, artists like Christo and Jeanne-Claude (who wrapped trees in a park in Switzerland in 1997-98), Zander Olsen (UK; ongoing Tree, Line project), and Piotr Janowski (in Tarpon Springs, FL, 2015) have explored wrapping trees in various materials for both aesthetic and conceptual purposes.
For the Art & Seek intervention, tree limbs simulating small trees are wrapped in brilliant orange caution tape. Small branches are wrapped in narrow, solid-color strips, while the trunk and large branches are wrapped in pre-printed tape bearing the word “Caution”. Viewers can interpret the “caution” signal on the trees in a variety of ways. The trees could be cautioning against the damaging effects of man-made climate change. They could also be cautioning against overdevelopment at the expense of trees and human inhabitants.
Lisa Elliott is an educator, land artist, and creative placemaker living on Indianapolis’ west side.
Coneflowers The mural, depicting one of Indiana’s most beloved native flower species being visited by bees, is located on the side of a building at The Forest Flower garden center. Echinacea purpurea (Eastern purple coneflower) is a showy, easy to grow perennial that tolerates moderate drought, and has many benefits including feeding important pollinators and holding soil. The flowers, when dried, can be used to make a tea that reportedly strengthens the body’s immune response system. The mural was painted during an informal artist’s residency in the summer of 2019.
Jules Muck, aka MuckRock, is a street artist from England who learned her craft in the 1990s from Lady Pink and many other legends of graffiti and hip-hop culture. After working extensively in New York, she moved to Venice, California in 2008. She currently works nationally and internationally, with major works in various locations including Miami’s famous Wynwood district, produced with Art Basel Miami. MuckRock’s street works are both invited and unsanctioned, and she has created work for gallery exhibitions.
Every Engine Has a Key The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
Art teacher Michael Schulbaum coordinated a competition for students at the Key Learning Community, where the box is located, in order to select and refine the design for this artwork. The winning design was by 5th grade student Jalen Washington Cordell, showing a brain on wheels heading down the “Education Highway,” expressing the idea of the brain as an engine that takes you anywhere you want to go, and it only needs to be “turned on”. This design wraps three sides, with the fourth side (facing the street) a combination of several students’ design ideas expressing pride in the Indianapolis Public Schools system. Schulbaum transferred the students’ designs to the box and painted them.
Key Learning Community was a K-12 specialty school, the first in the world to be organized around educating students through theorist Howard Gardner’s “multiple intelligences” concept, until it was closed at the end of the 2015-2016 school year and refocused into a K-8 arts magnet school.
Flowers The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
The artist, Olivia Waltz, painted a variety of vibrant flowers on a bold, blue background. She has transformed this once silver traffic signal box into an elevated pseudo-garden that brightens up the northwest corner of Morris and Kappes Street on Indianapolis’ Westside and calls attention to the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center behind it.
Geometric Wasp The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
Andrew Severns is an artist whose work is based on the geometry of hyperspace and fractals. This signal traffic box located on the northwest corner of West Morris Street and Kentucky Avenue, is composed of a variation of yellows, browns, and neutral color geometric shapes that Severns uses to illustrate a race car. The piece is located near the site of the factory that produced the Marmon Wasp, the car that won the first Indianapolis 500 race.
going home Travelers along I-70 west of Indianapolis will notice that the Holt Road interchange is a bit more colorful than most. The artwork entitled going home was designed in 2009 by Kathryn Armstrong, then a graduate student at the Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. The project was a collaboration between Herron’s Center for Art, Design and Public Life, Eli Lilly and Company, and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. (KIB). KIB partnered with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to seek approval from the Federal Highway Department to install the art. The public art installation at I-70 and Holt Road was the first of its kind in Indiana, and reflects a growing trend nationally.
The public art installation marked the completion of a massive landscape makeover at the I-70/Holt Road Exit, which began the previous year. Nearly 1,500 Lilly employee volunteers planted more than 16,000 plants and 150 trees as part of Lilly’s Global Day of Service. Improving the I-70 corridor from the airport to downtown had been an aspiration of community leaders for a long time. KIB has since enhanced several other I-70 interchanges with plants and artwork.
Armstrong, a native of Michigan City, Indiana, specifically designed the 34 colored forms, 10 large and 24 small, to naturally interact with the green space on both the east and west sections of the Holt Road interchange. “Whether entering or leaving the city of Indianapolis, each form marks a point of travel,” Armstrong explained. “The work addresses the space by activating the site with color and suggests a living environment. Although there is no movement associated with the art, my goal was to create a nomadic feeling through the placement of the abstract forms on the green space.” Armstrong later became the director of the same Basile Center that coordinated the project, and in 2016 she became the Executive Director of the Columbus (Indiana) Area Arts Council.
Koi Pond The Healing Garden at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Hospital is intended as a quiet, reflective area, for patients to wander through or to sit and enjoy green space and a bubbling fountain. Its unifying theme is Koi Pond, a multi-element artwork that spreads throughout the garden, centered on a 5-ft-wide dome-shaped sculpture carved with images of koi fish, lily pads, and water lilies. The sculpture is a “finger labyrinth,” meant to be handled and its winding spaces traced as an aid to calming the mind. The visual themes and finger labyrinth function are also carried out on square bench ends that blend with the limestone seating.
Amy Brier is a Bloomington, IN-based sculptor specializing in carved limestone. Her work combines traditional carving techniques with contemporary ideas such as public interaction and image appropriation. In addition to producing independent and commissioned sculpture, she is the co-founder and director of the internationally-recognized Indiana Limestone Symposium, which annually brings artists from across North America, Europe, and Asia to Indiana.
Octopus The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
Suspended in a sea of blue and teal, a stylized octopus floats with its head and two of its arms extending out of the water towards a red sky. This octopus occupies the northwest corner of Kentucky Avenue and White River Parkway West Drive and was created by Indianapolis artist Tasha Beckwith.
Racer--Marmon Wasp The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
This traffic signal box is located on the southwest corner of Harding and Howard street. The artist, Brandon Fields, uses expressive lines to show the fluidity of a race car’s motion. You can almost hear the noise, feel the vibrations, and energy associated with the sport of racing from just looking at this depiction of this single racer who is seated in his bright yellow racecar and surrounded by a crowd of blue silhouetted figures. The piece is located near the site of the factory that produced the Marmon Wasp, the car that won the first Indianapolis 500 race.
Sack Race Kids The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
Artist, Gabriel Lehman, places a whimsical scene on a traffic signal box located near the southwest corner of Harding and West Morris Street. Using a palette of warm colors, Leham, creates an evening sky of orange and red hues and places multiple silhouetted figures of young children who are all racing around this traffic signal box in a sack race.
Served Bold colors and whimsical characters filled Andy Miller’s mural Served, which was painted during the Lilly Global Day of Service in 2011. Served highlighted the community spirit and the many cultural activities that at the time were taking place at Big Car’s Service Center for Contemporary Culture and Community in the Lafayette Square area on Indianapolis’ Westside. The Service Center closed in 2014 and Big Car now operates out of new headquarters in the Garfield Park neighborhood.
Andy J. Miller was born in Indiana, went to middle school in Western New York, to high school in Indiana, and to the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom. He is most known for The Indie Rock Coloring Book, his daily drawing project NOD and his Creative Pep Talk podcast. His quirky style adorns everything from public murals to silkscreen prints to tote bags. Read more about the artist at http://www.andy-j-miller.com/
Served was one of 46 murals commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis as part of its nationally renowned 46 for XLVI mural initiative.
Ultimate Meditation This mural, featuring a skeleton in the “lotus pose” encircled by roses, was created during an informal artist’s residency in Indianapolis in the summer of 2019. It is located on the wall of Tinker Coffee Co., a specialty coffee roaster. A skeleton with roses is one emblem of the iconic rock band The Grateful Dead (1965-1995), as seen on their untitled second live double album from 1971 commonly referred to as Skull and Roses; skeletons and roses are popular elements in street art around the world.
Jules Muck, aka MuckRock, is a street artist from England who learned her craft in the 1990s from Lady Pink and many other legends of graffiti and hip-hop culture. After working extensively in New York, she moved to Venice, California in 2008. She currently works nationally and internationally, with major works in various locations including Miami’s famous Wynwood district, produced with Art Basel Miami. MuckRock’s street works are both invited and unsanctioned, and she has created work for gallery exhibitions.
Unite for Culture and Community Unite for Culture and Community is a mural expressing a cultural call for action. Situated on the southern wall of a building that formerly housed Big Car’s Service Center for Culture and Community, artist Clayton Hamilton’s mural is an example of how simple text can create a powerful visual statement. The Service Center closed in 2014; Big Car now works out of new headquarters in Indianapolis’ Garfield Park neighborhood.
Clayton Hamilton is best known as the “sign artist” behind the constantly-changing slogans on the low concrete wall that is visible driving north on College Avenue at E. 38th St. He first painted on that site in 1988 and sees the 100-ft-long “canvas” as a platform to inspire the community to take action on issues important to their lives. “They’re just humanistic insights that everybody probably has,” he says. “I have a big tapestry. I could say things that maybe people would be interested in, maybe they won’t.”
The mural was one of 46 murals commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis as part of its nationally renowned 46 for XLVI mural initiative.
We Have Landed Undetected The West Indianapolis community (Oliver Street to Raymond, White River to Holt Ave) lies “between the rivers” of Eagle Creek and the White River. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Indy, with many West Indy families having lived here for multiple generations. In the spring of 2015, eight traffic signal control boxes, created by professional artists from designs voted on by a panel representing both art experts and the neighborhood residents, were painted as part of a Great Indy Cleanup project. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy Cleanup program helps community groups organize to combat heavy litter and debris that has accumulated in public spaces such as streets, alleys, greenspaces, and waterways. Some cleanup efforts also include new plantings and community murals, all done by neighborhood volunteers. For more information about the Great Indy Cleanup program, visit http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
Artist Mark Tourney has cleverly imagined a robot-like alien in the shape of a traffic signal control box, settling down inconspicuously on Indianapolis’ Westside and beaming a message (visible on the top of the box) back to its waiting ship. He whimsically asks the question: what if ALL of the traffic signal control boxes are aliens?
West Indy Conceived as a gateway to West Indianapolis, each sunflower in this mural represents one of the area’s vibrant, thriving neighborhoods: The Valley, The Bottoms, Hillside, The Hill, The Holler, Little Valley, and South Harding Street. The mural was painted by volunteers as part of the April 25th Great Indy Cleanup event in West Indianapolis, a program of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful in partnership with the City of Indianapolis.
The Great Indy Cleanup program is a dynamic community empowerment program that provides residents with help and resources to make a difference in their community. Learn more at http://www.kibi.org/programs/beautification/great-indy-cleanup/
(photo courtesy of Ken Norris)
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