Austin Library's New Public Art Sculpture - The Story Behind “Emerging” by Lys Santamaria
An Introduction to My Public Art Piece for the Austin Public Library
This year I created my very first public art sculpture called ‘Emerging’. After a very extensive application process for the TEMPO program, I was selected by The City of Austin to create a piece of public art for the Milwood Public Library. This was the most challenging project I have ever worked on but I’m proud to say that it is installed and ready for you to see in person in Austin, Texas.
When I first started thinking about what I wanted to do for my first public art project, I knew that I wanted to make something that would help people. I saw a lot of pain and trauma in my life and in the lives of my friends and family and I wanted to do something to support my community.
Here is an excerpt from my proposal written January 2021:
Last year was a difficult year for us as individuals and as a collective. We experienced uncertainty and feelings of isolation on a scale that we had never felt before. Health, financial, racial, and political tensions drew us into fear, worry, and anxiety more than ever before. Many of us lost loved ones. Even though 2020 is behind us and many good things did happen, we are still grieving the losses, experiencing hardship, and processing trauma. Although we may not feel it, there is a lot of healing to be done. Emerging is the catalyst that Austin needs to process last year’s extreme events.
Even though I had minimal experience with creating mosaic pieces, my desire was to mosaic the entire sculpture. I had created some flat mosaic portraits before but was always under close supervision and had lots of help. It’s pretty wild that I got commissioned for this piece without even owning the basic glass cutting tools or any glass at all! Thankfully, that’s what the TEMPO program is all about - giving artists a start in public art. And I was very much a beginner in every aspect of this process.
My first step was doing a lot of research and reading stacks of books. I also created a small sample piece (see image). Thankfully, the internet is full of amazing information, and my mosaic mentors, J Muzacz and Dianne Sonnenberg were wonderful resources too!
I created a small sample piece so I could practice the technique.
Here is another excerpt from my proposal to the city:
Emerging is a public art installation that is made up of three colorful mosaic domes located outside Millwood Public Library in Austin. Each dome has a spiraled mirror mosaic center where the viewer can see themselves in the artwork. Radiating from the mirror is a magical blend of colors based on the study of the chakra system, color therapy, and color symbolism. By simply viewing, touching, and interacting with Emerging, feelings of joy, wonder and happiness emerge. When we activate these feelings, our inner strength, transformation, and feelings of hope expand. Through this subtle form of color and art therapy, Emerging will help to promote healing for all the residents of our beautiful city.
The entire process for creating this piece was filled with many challenges and creative solutions. After months of research and trying to do it all myself, I hired a fabricator to create the bases for me. Thankfully, Faith at Flatfork Studios was a joy to work with and made it all so easy. Once the bases were done, the next challenge was finding a studio to work in as my home studio would be way too small - they wouldn’t even get through the door! Thankfully, Austin Create Alliance had a wonderful space for me. And after a lot of stress, my friends and my fiance came through with help and a truck to help me transport the bases. The biggest one already weighed over 200lbs. Thank you Steven, Haley and Matt!
At the end of September, the bases were safely in the new studio and it was time to get to work. I started with the medium-sized base. It was a huge learning process as I had never worked with the adhesives that were necessary - thinset and silicone. I worked slowly and meticulously. It took me one month to finish it. And I still had two sculptures to go. My deadline was November 2021 and I was running out of time. I worried that I would not make it on time.
Unfortunately, during this time my body was not happy with me. I had been working every day in very awkward positions for hours at a time. At first, it was fine but after a while, my back, shoulders, and my wrist/thumb were in a lot of pain and it really held me back and I struggled with motivation. Thankfully, I was able to get an excellent massage from a wonderful therapist, Linda. I highly recommend her. Once I got some relief with a massage, I changed my studio practice to include daily walks, stretches before and after work, being more mindful of my body during work, and dancing during my breaks. This helped my body to recover quickly and work more efficiently.
Since my deadline was quickly approaching, I decided to use part of my budget to hire help. It was a great decision! Abby, my mentee and lovely assistant, helped me to get a lot of the glass pieces cut so that I could focus on design and application. There were also times where I just needed a bit of encouragement and some reassurance on my vision and Abby was there for me - I’m so grateful!
Even with hiring help, I still needed to adjust my mosaic technique to have less cutting. On the blue and red sculptures, I did less meticulous cuts which gives a slightly different look but cut my mosaic time in half. It was worth it! Once all these adjustments were in place, the process became easier, faster, and a lot of FUN.
Grouting was one of the best parts of this entire process because it was the final touch which pulled the entire piece together. I chose black grout to really make the colors pop. Since the pieces were so big, I had to grout in sections. The art studio had lost plumbing during those days and it was an extra challenge to grout with minimal water. I had to carry buckets water into the studio from the neighbors. I developed a rinsing station that involved three different buckets and it worked really well. It reduced water usage which is always good! Grouting took a total of four days and the sculptures were finally done! Thanks to Veronica Ceci who came to helped me to grout.
Finally finished the mosaic on November 19th, 2021!
The next challenge was hiring help to install the sculptures. I hired Mike, who was recommended to me by another public artist. He did a great job despite more challenges on site. There were so many limestone rocks underneath the soil that it took hours to dig them out or break them up. After about 7 hours of work, we finally got all the sculptures installed securely and a mulch barrier to bring them all together. We celebrated with a lovely meal and some Mexican martinis!
The largest piece took three strong people to lift. It must’ve been close to 400lbs.
On site and trying to figure out how to safely unload the sculpture without damage.
Finally installed on November 28th, 2021
Overall, this project was the biggest challenge of my entire artistic career. To say that I learned a lot is a huge understatement. As you can see, almost every step of the process involved asking for help and receiving help. This is often hard for me to do but it would not have been possible without my community. I am so thankful for every person who helped me along the way.
My mom and brother were able to fly down from Canada to see my artwork for the very first time. What a special moment!
I really poured my entire heart and soul into this project and I hope that if you have the chance, you will head over to Milwood Public Library to see my sculpture. It’s outside, so you can see it anytime!
- Lys