{"id":244177,"date":"2011-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/news-redevelopment-project-beautifies-an-unlikely-landscape\/"},"modified":"2011-02-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-15T08:00:00","slug":"news-redevelopment-project-beautifies-an-unlikely-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/news-redevelopment-project-beautifies-an-unlikely-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"News: Redevelopment project beautifies an unlikely landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martin Jones Westlin | SDUN Arts Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"News:<\/a>
Blair Thornley\u2014a 16-year resident of North Park\u2014created the drawings for the city free of charge as a gift to the community she knows and loves. (Courtesy of Laughing Stock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local artist Blair Thornley said she probably would have been painting wall murals in the North Park of a century ago\u2014which would have left lots of time for sing-alongs and stuff, since 1911 North Park encompassed a whopping three city blocks. Time and growth have swallowed those boundaries into the neighborhood\u2019s three-and-a-half square miles, which accommodate almost 40,000 people and one colossal commitment to the performing and visual arts. The Ray@Night art exhibit program pulls in upwards of 1,500 people every weekend; the restored Stephen & Mary Birch North Park Theatre is a city anchor for lyric opera and other events.<\/p>\n

Enter Thornley\u2019s latest project, an unlikely combination of form and function that city officials hail as a marker for the neighborhood\u2019s artistic temperament. The Art on the Garage project includes 16 oversized line\u00a0drawings spanning the North Park Parking Garage\u2019s five tiers\u2014they reflect artists hard at work in their particular discipline, like the ballerina with the overstated curve to her back and the befuddled chamber orchestra sitting down to play.<\/p>\n

Animals, like the violin-playing cat, have their day as well. And the car theme is never far away.<\/p>\n

At a Jan. 19 news conference, Mayor Jerry Sanders said the project, a year in the making, underscores North Park\u2019s reputation. \u201cIt\u2019s projects like this,\u201d he said, \u201cthat continue to solidify North Park as one of the leaders for art and culture in San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilman Todd Gloria, whose District 3 jurisdiction includes North Park, hailed the work as a reflection of the neighborhood\u2019s commitment to redevelopment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will always be a priority to [North Park],\u201d he said, \u201cbecause we\u2019re unique. We want redevelopment, but we want it on our terms. And that revolves around art and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"News:<\/a>
Courtesy of Laughing Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The city\u2019s redevelopment agency spent $70,000 on the project. Expenses included payment to a Los Angeles firm that enlarged the original drawings. Thornley, a Princeton, N.J. native and a 16-year North Park resident, accepted no commission for her work as a goodwill gesture to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The $14 million garage structure, bound by 29th and 30th streets and North Park Way, was completed in 2006. It accommodates more than 300 vehicles over five floors and sits atop 15,000 square feet of retail space. And for Thornley\u2019s part, it required a different spin on her line-drawing expertise. Her illustrations often include generous use of color, from warm pastels to whimsical greens and pinks. The garage works are mostly devoid of color\u2014but Thornley had an answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe garage,\u201d she explained, \u201chas a lot of different tonality and surfaces, like the brickwork, to it already. I didn\u2019t want the drawings to interfere with that by using too much color. My line drawings are tricky\u2014they already have such odd shapes, and I didn\u2019t want those shapes to compete with the existing structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornley hopes her methods yield the appropriate reaction. The project, she said at the news conference, \u201cShould be something that interacts with people as they walk by, makes them think and, mostly, makes them smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on Thornley and her work, visit blairthornley.com.<\/p>\n

Martin Jones Westlin is the editor and publisher of the theater-intensive <\/em>Words Are Not Enough website at wordsarenotenough.info.com. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martin Jones Westlin | SDUN Arts Reporter Local artist Blair Thornley said she probably would have been painting wall murals in the North Park of a century ago\u2014which would have left lots of time for sing-alongs and stuff, since 1911 North Park encompassed a whopping three city blocks. Time and growth have swallowed those […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1336,"featured_media":244178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"News: Redevelopment project beautifies an unlikely landscape","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}