When Fred Lunger spotted the old shovel in an antique store, he had to have it.
But how could the Parker artist alchemize it into a piece of art?
As he sat on his back porch, contemplating the tool, a few noisy magpies and crows crowded his yard, barking a few ideas into his ears.
“The age and wear of this shovel led me to imagine the shovel was left out in the garden or field after a hard day’s work,” Lunger said. “Knowing crows have a tendency to raid a farmer’s garden, I pictured a crow sitting on the shovel deciding on what it wanted to steal, and at the same time defending or guarding the garden from other predators.”
That daydream led to Lunger’s finished bronze piece, “Guardian or Thief,” that now stands near the southwest corner of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum on Vermijo Avenue and North Tejon Street.
“Guardian or Thief” by Fred Lunger
It’s one of a dozen new pieces in the 27th annual Art on the Streets, an award-winning outdoor public art exhibit put on by Downtown Ventures, the charitable nonprofit affiliate of Downtown Partnership. The year-long exhibit, which ends in May, is supported by U.S. Bank and other sponsors, donors and foundation grants.
Lunger believes in public art’s ability to bring beauty to otherwise sterile areas.
“If you walk around any downtown you just have buildings,” he said, “but if you add art you have some attractions. It brings interest and helps people migrate around the city. You might have a store on a side street that doesn’t get as much visibility, but if an art work is down the street you might wander down to see it and see the store. It has advertising capabilities as well.”
“Precarious Equilibrium” by Hans Droog
This year’s exhibit attracted almost 150 artist proposals from around the world. Four murals, seven sculptures and one mural sculpture installation made the cut. Selected artists are from Colorado and the U.S., and one, It’s Mancho (Angela Manchola), hails from Madrid.
It’s Mancho’s mural, “Our Stage, Our Voice,” on a wall south of Bijou Street, on North Tejon Street, features female figures, fauna and flora, and addresses themes of feminism, migration and environmental protection.
Art on the Streets juror Nancy Rios noted several of the mural proposals featured female figures.
“We thought that was really important to be represented because of the political moment we’re in,” she said. “It was speaking to us. The story of this artist is she’s Colombian and now lives in Spain.”
Rios, a member of the Art on the Streets committee since 2020 and Colorado College’s director of belonging and engagement, and two other jurors whittled down the artist proposals to the final 12. They primarily considered artistic merit, but also installation logistics, maintenance and safety, as well as making sure the works represented a diverse range of perspectives.
“It was making a good representation of not just what we were identifying as ideas that are prevalent in our community, but bigger topics that folks could connect to,” she said.
In the installation, “Icons,” by Bethany Yetter of Castle Pines, the artist uses a mural and small sculptures to explore how the relationship between humans and nature can positively affect mental health. Rios likes the way Yetter depicts iconic places in Colorado Springs. It’s north of Cimarron Street, near Cascade Avenue.
“Yetter was a younger artist and we wanted to support this kind of work they’re developing,” Rios said.
Jurors awarded Chad La Fever’s “Doomscroll” this year’s grand prize. The Redlands, Calif., artist won $10,000 for his sculpture depicting a standing person staring down at the phone in their hand. The piece is on North Tejon Street in front of MacKenzie’s Chop House.
“Doomscroll” by Chad La Fever
“It’s almost like a mirror,” Rios said. “We thought it was a fitting selection. Well-executed. To have these reminders in public — that’s what good public art does.”
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Jurors gave second place and $2,500 to Manchola for her mural, and third place and $1,000 went to John Bannon from Chicago for his painted steel, stainless steel and cast urethane sculpture, “Drop,” which depicts a drop of dew on a blade of grass. It’s at the southeast corner of Wahsatch and Colorado avenues.
“Drop” by John Bannon
Honorable mention and $500 went to Yetter. And a $1,000 People’s Choice award from last year’s exhibit went to Monument blacksmith Jodie Bliss for her “Seeds in the Wind” sculpture. The public can vote for next year’s winner by going online to DowntownCS.com/AOTS.
“I love the way our public spaces tell the stories and history of an area, through buildings, architecture and the layout of the city,” Rios said. “Art helps to tell that story. To see and engage with it helps us learn and think about our society beyond what we read in history books or consume from documentaries or in classrooms.”
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