Monday, June 21, 2010

Twenty-first Century Mosaic

Culver City is full of public art! This particular mosaic sculpture adorns the entrance to a dental office at 12202 W. Washington Blvd.

Right across the street is more metal sculpture of a completely different type on a vacant building (titled "Three Sheets to the Wind" by Andrea Cohen Gehring), and down the street are murals of every type.

Gary Soszynski, who lives in the Santa Monica Mountains (according to RawStyle.com), created and installed this piece in 2000. The title is "Reach for the Sun" and the reach is 24 feet tall.

RawStyle offers  prints of Soszynski's whimsical work at very reasonable prices (I consider $75 reasonable!) Riffs on Vermeer, trompe l'oiel, and giraffes...lots of giraffes.  The artist calls them "Cartoonees."

Found only one reference to Soszynski in the Times: in the late 1980s, he designed the buildings for Tarzana Self Storage on Burbank Blvd.--which is now Public Storage. Some of his artwork still ornaments the facade, though. The artist called "American Indian Deco." That article says Soszynski's murals and paintings hang at ABC Entertainment Center, Columbia Pictures and the Mulholland Tennis Club--but that was in 1988.

Soszynsky's own website puts him on the Venice Boardwalk at times, selling his wares.

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