Press Release

The Solar Walk duplicates for participants along the one mile walkway of NW 8th avenue, the positions and distances of the planets in regards to the sun in a one billion to one ratio. Hopefully, the sculptures in this Pedestrian Solar Walkway will convey to the viewer a whimsical and inspiring experience of the stars and heavens, through the use of color, drawings, embedded stones, jewels, crystals, good design, composition, poetry, ancient and modern sayings, and astronomical data.
It is safe to assume that, in our lifetimes, none of us will ever really get to experience the planets in our solar system beyond a knowledge that is scholarly and academic. Participants on The Solar Walk bridge this problematic gap of time, space and distance by making the journey to the heavens, stars and planets through the medium and vehicle of art. The Solar Walk sculptures are to be experienced as large extracted metaphorical and symbolic core samplings of each planet.
Made of concrete, the sculptures lend themselves to having a look of rock and matter regardless of the actual real chemistry of each planet.
Achieving just the right color for each planet sculpture, and the system of creating recessed, embossed and embedded areas was worked and reworked on a smaller concrete scale. Smaller works were created in the same manner that traditional prints on paper are created - for the purpose exploring and developing ideas for a larger scale work.
Color choices for each planet were in part based on an awareness of the actual known color look of each planet, as well as on the associational feelings and meanings that have evolved for certain planets over time.
For example, while Venus has been described scientifically as having an orange brown color, an Apricot hue was the final choice, a color that continues our mythological associations with a feminine Venus remembered as the Goddess of love.
In actuality, both Mercury and Saturn share a pale yellow look. For artistic reasons, I let Mercury alone herald the color yellow and chose a more violet shade for Saturn based on my intuitive interpretation of the ancient mythological God Saturn as well as on my intention that the total look of The Solar Walk become a progression of incremental colors down the walk way.
The Planet Sculptures may possibly be standing along NW 8th avenue for many hundreds of years. With this in mind, the Planet Sculptures are created in a way that would insure a standard of visual quality beyond our lifetime. While the Sculptures now have painted accents and special features on them, they were designed to look complete and beautiful many years into the future when the painted areas have worn away with time. They then could be appreciated in much the same way that we now value the elegant lines and structural beauty of the Parthenon, though it was originally painted by the ancient Greeks.
The quotes on the sculptures were chosen for their obvious meanings, but also because they were from a wide variety of authors at different times in our history and poignantly reflect the many thoughts our collective humanity has entertained about the heavens over time.
My artistic intention in the creation of the Solar Walk project was twofold: to make the walk as experientially potent for the participant as possible, and to feature as an equally important component of the Solar Walk, a recycling theme through the use of recycled materials. The following lists includes the types of donated materials used and the donors.
The City of Gainesville and Alachua County Solid Waste Divisions donated recycled materials which include, recycled glass, brick and plastic, Made possible by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Recycling and Education Grant Funds.
The bricks features were donated through a cooperative effort by The University of Florida Center for Construction and Environment, The Campus Planning Department, Cherry Tree Recycling and Americorps National Civilian Community Corps Volunteers who removed mortar from the bricks. The Bricks were salvaged from the demolition of Hume Hall built in 1950.
The Recycled Star shaped Plastic Collars used on each sculpture were made from recycled bottles and jars by The Plastic Lumber Company and were purchased with grant funds by the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Solid Waste Divisions.
Glass aggregate from processed glass bottles and jars was donated by Moriah Recycling.
It is my hope that this Artwork illustrate the creative use of recycled materials and also serve as a model and example in this and other communities of what can be done with recycled materials in the future. In this respect, my intent for the Solar Walk displays an intertwining theme, one that hopes to revere and bind us to our ancient relationship with the heavens while we pay homage and respect to the earth by taking care of it through recycling. With these thoughts in mind, it is my belief that The Solar Walk has significant potential to further define, expand, and enhance the identity of Gainesville and of Florida.