The Art of Love

An unusual public art program unveiled its newest piece Wednesday--an ornate table and chairs installed along The Strand in Manhattan Beach, incorporating beach glass, abalone shell, inscriptions and other mementos of the 70 years of Frank and Caroline Dubose’s marriage, and placed at a spot that the couple, now ages 90 and 91, have frequented for decades.

The words love and respect are inscribed along the sides, along with Auburn, the town in Alabama where Frank first spied Caroline across a basketball court as each practiced with their respective college teams.

For this couple, who still unabashedly cuddle and kiss, the sculpture is a present, paid for by their four children, 10 grandchildren and extended family. It is a symbol of all the days they have spent raising children, looking at each other across the kitchen table, taking walks along The Strand. A strip of gold and silver stretches across the tabletop to commemorate their silver and golden anniversaries.

For the city, the piece is the latest addition in a program that invites residents to commission and place personal pieces of art to commemorate their lives or the lives of loved ones. So far, the unofficial program has drawn four very personal, yet public, installations.

“Public sculpture allows a community to remember and to think about its past and reminds them of the people who shaped their community,” said Howard Spector, cultural arts manager.

The Dubose piece--recycled lightweight concrete set up to look like cozy living-room armchairs and a coffee table--adorns a spot just three blocks from the couple’s home and is on the route they still walk on their daily stroll, hand in hand.

“It will be a nice thing for us to see when we go on our walk every day,” Frank Dubose said. “It will be a place where we can meditate or eat lunch.”

Like the Dubose installation, each public work has been sponsored by private residents instead of city funds. Spector said that while there are no criteria for the works, each exhibit must be approved by the City Council.

The first piece is the Mariposa Pathway, erected in 1992. A wooded trail takes visitors past seven stainless-steel butterfly totem poles, illustrating the stages of its life.

The exhibit was commissioned by former Councilman Jason Lane, in memory of his wife, who died of cancer, and was created by Encinitas-based artist Christine Oatman.

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The community raised about $20,000 to create a memorial for Martin Ganz, the first police officer in the city to be slain while on duty. A circular granite patio in Live Oak Park lists the virtues: faith, hope, charity, justice, wisdom, temperance and courage. Ganz’s name is inscribed on the north and south faces with the dates of his birth and death and is surrounded by 10 concrete seats for visitors. In the center is a bronze pedestal holding his bronzed gloves, motorcycle helmet, sunglasses and keys.

Only a block from the Dubose exhibit, Carol Escobar installed a bench at the spot where she found solace watching the sunset each night as she was dying from cancer. Set into it are the shells she gathered over the years and brass screw shavings that reflect the sun.

In between the words sit and stop, emblazoned on opposites side of the bench, the meaning of the sculpture is spelled out: “Contemplate this view which I have enjoyed for so long, Carol Escobar.”

David Hertz, the Santa Monica artist who created the Dubose and Escobar pieces, waited to fill in a corner of the bench until Escobar died in 1994. As she had requested, he mixed a portion of her bone fragments and ashes from the cremation and affixed the block to the corner that shows her lifeline: 1931 to 1994. “Carol got a lot from this city and wanted to give something back,” said Hertz, who created the $20,000 sculpture in 1993. “It was a last goal of hers, in a way. Once she had left behind, it made it easier for her to leave.”