Make and install public art - PEP BB community.sand.art

Hi Permies!

Today I made a garden bed/ art installation / bee haven in front of my house. It is accessible from the road, easily visible from the road as you drive by, and technically not on my property (under the power lines). My neighbour came over just to see what I was up too! She loved it!

Two BBs in one!

I used:

- Upcycled Marble - They are slabs left over from cutting counter tops
- Bark - For mulching the perimeter
- An old antique bike with planters attached
- An old antique mop bucket I turned into a flower pot
- Old composted & manure/straw/hay/wood shavings
- Seeds! (Xeriscape blend, sage, valerian, peppermint, chives, lemon balm, borage, yarrow, echinacea, calendula, lupins)

The beginning:





I used a pulaski to trench out the area the marble was to go and where the bike was placed. It took a lot of effort to move all the marble to the front of the house and set it in place. I then raked out the bed area.



The upright marble is in place:



Harvesting the compost & mulch:



Marble mulch? Looks neat anyway! Or really slippery stepping stones! I used a rake to mix in the new mulch and compost a bit. There is very little soil in this area but it's well drained.



The seeds I planted:





Making the mop-bucket planter:





Time to seed!



Voila! Functional and fashionable!

Public Art bb submission:

Wood sign was assembled from off-cuts of the PTJ solar dehydrator project with reused finishing nails. Sign was wood burned and coated with linseed oil. The quote and Phoenix image was inspired by Ash’s Bench (the originally intended spot). It seemed to fit the moment with all of the wild fires going on in MT, and the many deep conversations I have been having with all the awesome folks here at Wheaton Labs.

After discussing with some of the members of the community, we decided it might be better to place it in the loft space in the classroom… I think it fits well here, and hopefully, it will inspire folks to keep adding to the coziness of the “couch loft.”

I did something I've never tried before -- carved a garden gnome.  

The gnome was "imprisoned" inside of a neighbor's discarded Christmas tree, and I "set it free" with hatchet and saw and pyrography pen.  Its permanent location is in a community keyhole garden area that I previously branded; but I have a feeling that "Stumpy" is going to venture out into the neighborhood and become a travelling gnome any week now.  

hello! I just finished making and posting a bunch of public art at our local park. Each board represents some of the park's trails. I wood burned custom at for each trail and put them at each trailhead.
pictures of them at their allotted trailheads below.

The requirements mention a permanent location. What if I do rock balancing at the local park? Those only last for a few days usually. Would that work for this BB?

Bethany Paschall wrote:The requirements mention a permanent location. What if I do rock balancing at the local park? Those only last for a few days usually. Would that work for this BB?

I don't think so. But, public art could just be something at the roadside of your property that's visible/accessible to the public. Usually the edge of a property is technically owned by the city and can be taken for expanding the road, sidewalks, etc. I'm thinking art in that easement area kind of exists in a sort of grey zone that works for this BB.

I agree with the thinking that stacked rocks are too transitory to count as permanent public art, but there's a bit of a problem in that there's a picture of balanced rocks in some rapids up at the top of this thread.

Yeah. Thanks for clarifying!

I'm afraid I am taking a page from my brother's book but I couldn't come up with a better public art idea with the time I had. So, thanks Bro!
Per his request, I posted wood burned artwork and quotes that I made at a different park. I would say this whole project took two possibly three hours.

I sealed the plaques with our butcher block oil with two coats. And I seems I didn't take a picture of the seventh one I did. If that is a problem we can drive back over to take one.