By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | August 12, 2008
Local Fairfield artist Cherise Petker, 27, worked over 600 hours combining concrete, rebar, wire mess and close to 70,000 pieces of Italian glass into her recently unveiled California Golden Poppies Mosaic Sculpture that is on permanent display in downtown Fairfield. Photo by Mike Greener
FAIRFIELD - Downtown Fairfield is starting to grow.
The city installed a trio of outsized California poppy flowers on Texas Street Tuesday afternoon, the latest in an effort to add more public art downtown.
The sculpture by local artist Cherise Petker is a concrete and glass mosaic that depicts three large poppies, the state flower.
The sculpture has tens of thousands of tiny pieces of colored glass, but work on the project only began in early May, she said.
'It has been a lot of late nights, long hours,' Petker said.
A collaboration between the city's Public Works and Community Development departments, the sculpture was installed at the intersection of Texas and Madison streets.
It began with a grant for downtown improvements, with some of the money set aside for an art project, Maintenance Manager Tom Martian said.
The city consulted with members of the Fairfield Downtown Association's beautification committee, who said they wanted to see something accessible, environmentally themed and family-friendly, Martian said.
Petker began the long construction process by putting together a frame from steel reinforcing bars and pouring a concrete base. She covered the frame with tar paper and a mesh of galvanized wire, then covered that with a layer of concrete.
Petker refined the edges and applied a soupy mix of concrete, acrylic paint and bonding adhesive to impart the vibrant green, yellow and orange colors. The glass was inlaid into that, with the mix forming a sort of grout.
The finishing touches are being put on the sculpture, which will eventually be surrounded by rosemary and lavender bushes, Martian said.
Reach Ben Antonius at 427-6977 or bantonius@dailyrepublic.net.
