PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

PENDING:
Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Fire Station Civic Art Project

AWARDED:
RIDGEWOOD STATION, Ridgewood, NJ.
NJ TRANSIT (2002 - ?)
Pedestrian underpass art

UNREALIZED:
FINALIST:
Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, Iowa City, Iowa
Florida International University/College of Law
(Miami, FL), 2007
NY Penn Station-31st St. Entrance, 2006
Mount Arlington Station, 2006
South Amboy Station,
Secaucus Transfer Station, 2000
Plainfield Station. 1999

BERGENLINE AVENUE STATION Union City, NJ 1997- 2006
COMPLETED PROJECT
INTENTION - DESCRIPTION
AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE
PAINTINGS FOR MURALS
STUDIO VISIT
WE ARE TRANSPORTED
MURAL FABRICATION
MURAL INSTALLATION
STATION OPENING

Bergenline Avenue Station
Plaza Murals

 
Bergenline Avenue Station Plaza

 

Bergenline Avenue Station Plaza

 

Bergenline Avenue Station Plaza Clock Tower

Photographers Cyrus and Chet shoot the site

Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System / NJ TRANSIT
PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF QUADE & DOUGLAS, INC

"BETWEEN MANHATTAN AND MEADOWLANDS" ©2005

Four murals in porcelain enamel on steel:
Clock-tower marquee (13'6" x 8') and
Three street-level vent stack murals (10'6 x 11' )

Commissioned by NJ TRANSIT, with funds made possible by the Federal Transit Administration. The Transit Arts Committee consists of NJ TRANSIT, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.

INTENTION - DESCRIPTION

Vibrant BERGENLINE AVENUE-established, well-orchestrated- is the picture of the true New America. At the site I met Cubans, Mexicans, Argentineans, Puerto Ricans, Arabs and Turks. A clear concern is the preservation of individual identity, while participating in, and benefiting from, a collective community pride.

With this complex tapestry of culture in mind, I take my part to highlight
existing poetry. My intention is to leave the viewer with the resonance of harmony-the sense of well-being found through the balancing of beauty
and significance.

In this, the most populated square mile in the country, the people are accustomed to a full concentrate of stimulating input. Starting with actual local imagery, I polish the rough edges of reality into jewel to then fit inside a framework, a context. A painting within a painting. Refined multiple realities open the way to narrative paths so accessible that anyone can travel as protagonist in their own drama.

ORIENTATION:
Two spectacular panoramas appear and disappear. Intermittently blocked, elusive horizontal vistas peak out in tall slivers down the side streets.

I.
Swirling pattern of the actual rock facing the river at the tunnel opening.
The light rail is 'under ground.' Distant, closer, and speeding by.
captured jumping off trains in the tunnels of the Newark Subway with
the garage foreman.

II.
The bus is nearly actual size- to walk right up to, while a vaster vista draws the viewer into the panorama. This mural refers to the Manhattan skyline segment for orientation, while avoiding skyline cliché.
The yellow street-line, as a true-in-life design element, "arrows" the eye upward. Most of the detailed painting work is at eye-level to be seen at close range. With distance, the depicted scene comfortably lives beside the real---the landscape around the corner...

III.
A color-popping night on Bergenline Avenue is seen
through the donut shop window. Enjambment to the first mural,
the bus passes.

IV.
Reality is 'peeled back' to reveal a view of the
Meadowlands for orientation, framed by indigenous quaking aspens.
The street scene shown in the center mural by night is detailed in the next by day. The building across from the station anchors the right side.
Cultural contrast is quietly referenced with two figures- the bicycle rider, large
in the foreground, do-rag, and a Marine crossing from the recruit center.

AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE
June 2003

At the Edge - Tunnel Opening - Hard Hats
Deep Rocks - Dynamite Hole - Architectural Drawing

To read complete article:
www.janod.biz/documents/worldtunneling.pdf

PAINTINGS AND THEIR DESCRIPTIONS

TO THE POINT


NIGHT BUS


ACROSS THE STREET

BENEATH THE PALISADE

STUDIO VISIT
May 2005

Stan Gdowski, PB chief architect
Sheila McKoy, NJ Transit Arts
Peter Denitz, PB

WE ARE TRANSPORTED
October 23, 2005

A 'happening' hosted by the Fanwood Arts Council at the Kuran Art Center to unveil the four acrylic on linen paintings that form the basis of Mijares' then upcoming public art installation in the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System's Bergenline Avenue Station in Union City, New Jersey. Three street-level murals and a clock tower marquee will inspire and intrigue riders and passers-by for coming generations, but this preview offers a rare opportunity to see the original paintings before the installation of the monumental porcelain enamel on steel reproductions.

WE ARE TRANSPORTED

Six award-winning poets read bus & train poems:
ADELE KENNY  JOHN MCDERMOTT  TOM PLANTE
WILLIAM J. HIGGINSON  PENNY HARTER  JOE WEIL
With a special guest performance by Nashville singer/songwriter
MARK JOHNSON

 

MURAL FABRICATION

KVO Industries, Santa Rosa CA
December 1, 2005

KVO, with Karen Kramer, graphic artist Marquee Porcelain
Pointing Up With Steve & Keith Night Bus Porcelain
Steve Compares Setting Up IV * Across the Street

MURAL INSTALLATION

STATION OPENING

After opening PARTY
with music by Gary "Pig" Gold, Dave Rave, and Mark Johnson