Downtown Tucsonan - January 2009 - (Page 6) vital signs Tucsonans set to be immortalized in the new 4th Avenue Underpass by Jamie Manser he tucson Portrait Project is currently shooting photos of locals for a large scale tile mosaic that will incorporate a diverse sampling of tucsonans. the objective is to have a representative portrayal of tucson faces, in warm sepia tones, totaling close to 7000 head shots. now imagine your mug being a part of that, or your friends or family members, placed on a four inch by four inch glazed tile and incorporated into the new 4th avenue underpass to be seen by anyone, and everyone, walking by. the underpass, which has been under re-construction since the summer of 2007, is scheduled to be finished by summer of 2009. the public art aspect of the new underpass, as part of the $26 million rehab, will be situated on the north and south entrances on four panels. taking the photos and handling the portrait project is Patch and clark design. the idea was Gary Patch’s, said darren clark. “He thought it would be interesting to have a cross section of portraits representing tucson in the year 2009.” Photo shoots began this past november and as of the end of december a total of 3300 pictures have been taken. “we need to have the 7,000 portraits taken by the end of February. the portraits will then be placed at random by the computer onto the four panels. the tiles are being produced in Brazil with a new photographic process where pulverized minerals are used instead of inks. the minerals are sprayed onto a glass substrate and then baked into the tile making the image integral. this guarantees uV properties, a must in our sun drenched climate,” clark said. If you’d like a chance to be a part of public art and the new 4th avenue underpass, and everyone who is photographed has very good odds of being included, you can get shot this month at the following locations. January 4: tribal Powwow craft Market at Rillito Park; January 10: arizona Home show at tucson convention center; January 17: square dance Festival at tcc; January 19: MLK March at Reid Park; January 24: dillinger days at Hotel congress; January 30: Raul Grijalva’s office. For more information, visit www.tucsonPortraitProject.com. T B e l o w : R e n d e r i n g s o f t h e n e w F o u r t h Av e n u e u n d e r p a s s . L e f t , a v i e w f r o m t h e s o u t h s i d e . R i g h t , a v i e w f r o m t h e n o r t h . 6 downtown tucsonan.january.09 http://www.TucsonPortraitProject.com
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