Adding form to function: Artists turn Montrose utility boxes into works of art
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There’s one artistic shape that Vicky Rees won’t outgrow — circles.
The graphic designer/illustrator swayed her paintbrush back and forth on a plate of lavender paint Saturday. She stood at the corner of Ramsdell and Montrose avenues.
A gray utility box served as her canvas.
“They’ve always been a thing for me,” she said, as she filled in the circles. “Creating them is a meditative thing.”
Rees, a La Crescenta resident and mother of five, said the piece was more than just circles.
“All the circles are different shapes and colors. They’re individual, but they coexist, kind of like a melting pot,” she said. “The rings represent growth like a community that’s changing and evolving.”
And that’s similar to how Rees sees Montrose as one of 11 artists chosen by Glendale’s Arts and Culture Commission for the second phase of the “Beyond the Box” program, which expanded into Montrose after success in Glendale’s downtown area this past spring.
The project is part of a $1.4-million plan to establish Glendale as an arts destination, similar to cities such as Pasadena and Santa Monica.
On Saturday, the artists made their way to corners along Montrose, Honolulu and Pennsylvania avenues. Each artist chose a different theme for the boxes, from dinosaurs to children. Many of the artists, like Katherine Warner, were helped by friends.
Warner, a freelance artist, was joined by Van Ly. Both met as students attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Ly stood barefoot on the sidewalk, Warner kept her shoes on, as each brush stroke revealed her work, “Explore Montrose.”
Warner’s piece was a map. Dots marked the location of where the 10 other utility box murals were located across Montrose, and each panel of the box included a staple of Montrose such as a jacaranda tree and an old-school vehicle, a nod to the community’s annual classic car and hot rod show.
“Because this is in such a public space, I thought I would contribute my piece to the other artists and the public,” she said.
On the other side of Montrose, John Sumner just finished the green-and-yellow background for his piece. Dubbed “Community Art,” the final work showed cartoonish hands holding chalk, brushes and crayons to draw the word “Art.”
Sumner, an art director at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios known for its production of Cartoon Network’s “Robot Chicken,” collaborated on the mural with his two children.
His daughter, 6-year-old Gunnar, sketched the flower petals he painted.
“It’s about community coming together to create art and what grows out of it. That’s what the flowers represent,” Sumner said. “I’m originally from Detroit, and there’s nothing like this [Beyond the Box] out there.”
Back at the intersection of Ramsdell and Montrose avenues, Rees painted her circles with dark blues and bright oranges. She was unsure of how the public would take her work, although a group of children begged to help her paint that morning.
“I hope people enjoy it better than a big gray box sitting in the area,” she said, laughing in between brush strokes. “I’m glad to have this opportunity to put public art in [Montrose].
Utility box locations:
- Explore Montrose: Honolulu Ave. and North Verdugo Road (northeast corner)
- Grandpa Cho-Cho: Montrose Ave. and Florencita Drive (southwest corner)
- Art from All Sides: Montrose and Ave. and Orange View (southeast corner)
- Ideas through Marks: The Magic of Drawing: Montrose and Rosemont avenues (northwest corner)
- California Flag: Honolulu and La Crescenta avenues (northwest corner)
- Read Some More: Honolulu and Glenwood avenues (northwest corner)
- Dino World: Honolulu and Ramsdell avenues (southeast corner)
- Color Spot: Montrose and Ramsdell avenues (southeast corner)
- What We Can Miss: Honolulu Avenue and Whiting Woods Road (southeast corner)
- Community Art: Honolulu and Pennsylvania avenues (southeast corner)
- Draw Through Time: Montrose and Pennsylvania avenues (northeast corner)