Four newly installed pieces of art are gracing Greeley’s traffic cabinets and adding a little color to drive time. The art is part of Greeley’s One Percent for Art Program that invites artists to submit designs to be used on outdoor traffic control cabinets as public art ‘murals.’ Jury-selected artists have their designs reproduced on vinyl wraps that are applied to the traffic cabinets throughout the city.
The four murals installed most recently are:
“Utility Box Anatomy”
By Chloe Kummerfeld | 20th Street and crosswalk to Union Colony School near Clubhouse Drive
Chloe Kummerfeld, a high school student at the time she submitted her artwork, graduated from Union Colony School, which is close to where her art appears. Chloe said the art she submitted was “inspired by the purpose of the utility box and is a special glimpse of what truly lies within the box, which has forever been a mystery to the average Greeleyite.
“Rather than covering the utility box, I would like to think that it celebrates the nature of it. It is like a glass door which opens all the new possibilities for not only the city around the box, but for the box itself.”
“Fox on a Box”
By Julie Marie Dillon | 10th Street and 54th Avenue, north side
“The fox has such beautiful and natural coloring that I felt it would be great subject to portray on my utility box concept,” said artist Julie Marie Dillon.
“The design uses the idea of a foxes’ fur coloring and the contrast it demonstrates with the setting sun and dancing stars beginning to fill the sky when a fox may be playing or hunting for the evening. I chose purple as a base for the background, because I feel it best highlights the colors in the fox, and it reflects my vision of an early spring evening in Greeley. I also used the color purple for the Front Range, with the last bits of white spring snow, that we often see when heading west on one of the many bike and walking paths throughout the city.”
“Rattlesnake Kate”
by Katelyn Mai-Fusco | 10th Street and 39th Avenue, northeast corner
“As a Greeley native, my youth consisted of many summer evenings watching the sun set in a sweet union with the dry open sky,” said Katelyn Mai-Fusco. “This is the scene I imagine Kate Slaughterback experienced at the end of her triumphant defeat of 140 rattlesnakes in 1925. A moment of peace and acknowledgement of her resilience; resilience as a mother, daughter, wife, and overall protector.
“I put the dress at the center of the illustration to show the duality of her character at the time,” she continues. “…A woman who can piece and sew together what she had slaughtered. A tender and feminine product of something so violent.”
“Knitting Compassion”
By Mel Calderon | 10th Street and 28th Avenue, southwest corner
Mel Calderon said her artwork for this cabinet is “an art tribute to my grandmother, Jean Frisbie, who passed away this past fall. She was an incredible longtime member of our Greeley community.
“She and my grandfather were both fierce advocates for education and the arts and believed in sharing your gifts in service to your community. My grandmother was a very talented knitter and for as long as I can remember was constantly making things for others. Baby hats for infants at Northern Colorado Medical Center, shawls and hats for patients in chemotherapy, and blankets for those who were grieving loss. She called them ‘yarn hugs’ and didn’t create them for accolades or attention, in fact all her work was anonymous. She did it out of compassion for a human being in her community, no matter who they were.”
Public Art in Greeley, Colorado
The latest traffic cabinet designs are part of Greeley, Colorado’s public art collection. Greeley’s Public Art collection consists of over 350 works of rotating indoor art and more than 160 pieces of outdoor art that have been donated, gifted or purchased since 1967. The collection is continually updated with new artwork as the Art Commission purchases several pieces of art annually.
