Riverside Bridge || Art in Public Places

Riverside Bridge

Artist

Carolyn Braaksma

Year

2019

Location

Riverside Ave. & Spring Creek intersection, just south of E. Prospect. Rd.

Description

Artist Carolyn Braaksma worked with project team to design artwork for the Riverside Bridge project. The Riverside Bridge crosses Spring Creek near Edora Pool and Ice Center. Braaksma designed artwork for the wall surface beneath the Riverside Bridge along the Spring Creek Trail. The artist design was inspired by the site. The wall surface is textured and patterned to represent water and the different fish and water animals relevant to the creek near the bridge.

The graphic design of the animals was inspired by the sports and games played in the nearby fields. The chub minnows who swim in schools have a basketball net pattern on their bodies. Sunfish scales look almost like soccer ball patterns. The striped stickleback fish has a spine that looks like the cleats on football shoes.

Different sizes and shapes of wildlife, some even over-sized, provide variation in the wall graphics. The stripes and spots included in the animal graphics create light and dark variations and to provide different depths in the finished concrete surfaces of the walls. The background on the wall surface has an undulating pattern that mimics the waves of the creek as well as the rolling hills in the surrounding sports fields. It also shows the night’s sky at the top.

The artwork is made of pre-cast panels installed on the wall under the bridge. Trail users pass directly next to the wall on the Spring Creek Trail.