Artists’ Work for River Trail Nearing Finish

When the new six-mile Ventura River Trail finally connects the Pacific Ocean to Ojai’s Libbey Park this fall, it will offer an aesthetic as well as aerobic experience.

Eight Ojai and Ventura artists are putting the finishing touches on different works of art that will dot the trail, set to open in October.

Selected by the city of Ventura’s Art in Public Places advisory committee, the works will reflect aspects of Ventura County’s history.

Ojai sculptor Ralph Massey has completed his life-size models of a brown pelican and a great egret, each of which will perch on a 10-foot pole by the trail near Stanley Avenue.

The birds, native to the area, will be cast in bronze. Massey researched the birds’ proportions at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

“I want them to look like they just perched for a moment when you see them on the trail,” said Massey, the consulting sculptor for the California Vietnam Veterans’ memorial in Sacramento.

“It’s a similar concept to Jeff Sanders’ ‘Orange Trace’ sculpture. His will be a scattering of sculpted oranges that look like they just spilled off a car on the train that once ran from Ojai to Ventura.”

Sanders, also from Ojai, is at work on a second project for the trail that also will be practical: a drinking fountain.

Besides offering a cool drink of water, “its design will celebrate a legend about the beginnings of Chumash society,” said Alice Atkinson of Ventura’s public art program.

Ojai’s Annette Fourbears is at work on a sculptured iron totem, or “wheel commemorative pole.” Her interpretation of “travel in different time periods in Ventura County” will stand over the north entrance to the trail at Foster Park.

Landscape art will be Venturan Ryan Ilhy’s contribution. Sunflower beds will be planted along sections of the Ventura River Trail “to call attention to the toxicity of the trail’s oil-producing section.”

Final permission has been granted to Ventura’s Allen Quigg to create an etched tile mural along levee retaining walls near the OST Trucks and Cranes yard, Atkinson said. The mural will depict themes related to the railroad and oil industry.

A kinetic sculpture resembling a windmill and composed of old railroad ties is being constructed in Wyndra Roche’s Ventura studio.

Four practical trash cans that will depict wildlife found near the trail are in the works at Valerie Temple’s Ventura studio.

Jud Fine, a USC fine arts professor and lead artist on the project, is creating 33 10-foot-high “Midden Markers” that will be placed at the mile, half-mile and kilometer points along the trail.

Construction of the $2.5-million river trail is set to begin in May. The art will be the final step in construction, to avoid damage while the trail is being built. The art will add $150,000 to the cost.

Atkinson said an exhibition and panel discussion of the artists’ designs are set for April 18 at Ventura City Hall.