URBANA — The Urbana Park District recently acquired two marble sculptures for its permanent art display at Meadowbrook Park.
Sculpted into a slab of swirling diverted petals, artist Jon Isherwood titled them “The Gifting Angel” and “After Giverny,” referencing impressionist artist Claude Monet’s waterlilies.
His pieces are displayed as a part of the park district’s sculpture program, paid for by the Robin Hall Fund for Public Art. The program began in 1998 as the vision of the former director of Urbana Park District Robin Hall.
With the goal of creating spaces for people, art and nature, the Wandell Sculpture Garden was brought to Meadowbrook Park. The park currently has 57 sculptures on display.
“Public art is, I think, tremendously important. It equalizes access, right? When you come to public park, you don’t have to pay to get into a museum or anything like that to really experience fine art, said Kelsey Beccue, development manager for the Urbana Park District who oversees the sculpture program.
Drawing inspiration from nature
Isherwood said his inspiration for “After Giverny” was a combination of his time visiting Giverny and a conversation with Kenneth Noland, who was famous in the 1960s for his abstract expressionism.
The two were walking along a river and Isherwood recalls Noland asked him what he saw in the water, pushing him for a more acceptable answer than “the water” itself.
“Suddenly, it sparked this thought that it’s not just the water, it’s not just the surface. You’re seeing through it. You’re seeing into the water,” Isherwood said.“You’re seeing into the base of the river. You’re seeing natural material, organic material through that water as a lens.”
Upon the surface of “After Giverny” lies a pattern of petals etched to varying degrees of depth, some eventually deep enough to see through.
“Through nature, there is oddly transparency,” Isherwood said.
Janet Austin is a multimedia sculptor whose work, “Mr. Big Beetle Finds His Way”, is featured at Anita Purves Nature Center in Crystal Lake Park and is a part of the sculpture program. It was permanently acquired and unveiled in April.
Austin’s work is about the emerald ash borer, an invasive species and type of Asian beetle that harms ash trees in the Midwest. She said that being able to create public art for parks allows her to focus on themes that coincide with nature.
“It’s called ‘Mr. Big Beetle’ because I made it oversized,” Austin said. “But at the same time, for such a little fellow who’s about 3/4 of an inch long, he’s done an amazing amount of damage to be able to kill 100-year-old ash trees in the millions.”
Public art increases accessibility
Art is visual poetry that should be accessible to the community, said Isherwood.
He said he’s honored his work is to be displayed as public art.
“We all do this — we like to listen to music when we walk that somehow complements where we’re walking, what we’re seeing, what we do,” Isherwood said. “And I think sculptures in public places do a similar thing. It adds a little bit of a highlight to that moment.”
Isherwood invites park-goers to touch his pieces and experience them fully.
Kelsey Beccue with the Urbana Park District agrees.
“Our goal is to expand the program and have a piece of art in every park in Urbana,” Beccue said. “We try to do local [artists], all the way to international artists, geographically representing a lot of different locales. We also try to represent artists from underrepresented communities as well.”
Austin said when she creates public art, she enjoys making a puzzle to interact with the viewer. She said she hopes they learn something from her art.
“This is a great example for a teaching moment to think about the environment, and it’s a piece that draws people in because the mosaics are so lovely,” Austin said.
“It’s sort of a conundrum in a way because you’re drawn in to see this beautiful beetle and you think it’s so lovely and then when you delve a little bit deeper, you find out that the story is more than just a pretty insect.”