Council to vote on Broadway beautification artwork

Art is a component of the Broadway Street improvements designed to beautify the portal that connects the city to the canyon.

The $700,000 project includes renovated sidewalks, landscaping and irrigation, and is partially funded by a $480,000 grant. Sculptures by Cheryl Ekstrom and Marsh Scott will beautify it, if the City Council approves the Arts Commission’s recommendations at the July 17 meeting.

“This is the first time I have ever won,” Ekstrom said. “I felt like Susan Lucci.”

Ekstrom’s art can been seen throughout town. Two of Ekstrom’s pieces are currently at Montage Resort and Spa, which chose her work as part of its obligation to provide public art as a condition of construction.

Ekstrom’s work can also be seen at Jahraus Park, which has one her 20 “Warriors Against Angst” that she created to assuage her grief at the death of her mother and her brother in 1996.

“Each of the warriors represented a different emotion — sadness, defeat, strength to go on,” Ekstrom said. “I was obsessed and completed all 20 in six months. All of my work comes from within.”

It was the warriors that brought Ekstrom’s work to a widespread audience when they were first displayed at Diane Nelson Fine Art.

“It took a lot of guts for Diane to show work that people in Laguna might not find comfortable,” Ekstrom said. “I will always be grateful to her.”

The warriors were later carted by volunteers up to Moulton Meadows, where a crowd kept an overnight vigil.

“Those warriors have a life of their own that keeps evolving,” she said.

The latest evolution is the “Warriors United,” a tribute to the unquenchable spirit of Laguna, which unites to overcome adversity, Ekstrom said. They will stand guard in a space at Broadway and Acacia Street, designed by landscape architect Bob Borthwick.

Meanwhile, Scott’s undulating, colorful glass and steel sculpture will serve as a handrail along the creek that runs down Broadway, wending its way to the ocean. The proposed “Colors of the Canyon” is more than 70 feet long and mostly 48 inches wide.

“Her piece is an iconic transition from the canyon,” said Sian Poeschl, cultural arts manager.

Scott is a painter as well as a sculptor. She is an exhibitor at the Sawdust Art Festival, but currently is on a leave of absence. Scott has two other public art pieces in town, is a winner of the city’s banner competition, and she was named the 2010 “Artist of the Year” by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts.

“Art was a required component of the grant for the Broadway project, but it represents an element that we as a community consider important,” Poeschl said.

The Broadway project includes $120,000 for three art installations, one of which is yet to be selected.

“Colors of the Canyon” is budgeted for $65,000.

Ekstrom’s sculpture is budgeted at $35,000, which won’t cover her costs. She will make up the difference.

“I fell in love with Laguna as a child,” Ekstrom said. “I remember being driven through the canyon and thinking about being an artist. But when I grew up, I was afraid. I thought all artists went crazy like van Gogh and I liked my ears.”

So she went into business, always on the creative side, such as a director of advertising, until she could no longer stifle her natural bent.

“It all comes from inside me,” she said.

Eight months ago, her husband of 27 years died.

“The night before he died I plastered the violin that I had promised to create for the Laguna Beach Music Festival fundraiser,” Ekstrom said. “It was an obligation and the day after he died, I finished it. I called it ‘Weeping Violin.’

“It was bought by someone in New York and I tried to buy it back.”

She was unsuccessful. For the next half year, Ekstrom’s creativity failed her.

“I have been divorced and I have been widowed,” Ekstrom said. “Being a widow was harder, learning who I am without a husband, a partner.”

She is discovering that with Fallbrook artist J. D. Hanson. They have collaborated on six pieces that will be unveiled at Ekstrom’s Laguna Canyon studio July 28.

The Broadway Improvement Project is scheduled to start in January.

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