OGX Bus Rapid Transit Public Artwork Project

In the preliminary planning for the OGX Bus Rapid Transit line, Ogden City Arts proposed public art installations for each of the 13 stations along the route. Ogden City Arts wrote a nationwide call for artists and assigned each selected artist a neighborhood to research in order to inform their work based on the people and history of Ogden City. The artwork tells the story of our city with the intention to enhance, inspire, and bring together BRT riders, local neighborhoods, visitors of Ogden City, and the community as a whole.

With support from UTA and funding from our donors, including Ogden City, Weber County RAMP, Weber State University, and Intermountain Healthcare, we were able to produce this creative engagement project, complete with glass panels to display and highlight the vibrant work from each of the contributing artists.

You can read about each artist and their work below:

Vision

My vision for this project was to capture the history of the railroad and its contribution to Ogden City. Primarily emphasizing its role in creating a transportation/cultural hub for the city. This railroad brought a conglomerate of individual and lifestyles to Ogden, and I believe it is important to acknowledge that achievement. I wanted to underscore the primary elements and symbols related to this topic, illustrating the story of a railroad that helped transform Ogden. The piece demonstrates the strength of transportation, calling attention to examples of its ability. Furthermore, it places a sharp focus on the labor force that built the industry. Tying together numerous forms of subject matter was vital in conveying key narratives that are often forgotten. I hope this piece speaks to the prominence of the railroad and how it contributed to Ogden City.

Cole Eisenhour is a Utah based artist specializing in realistic painting and drawing. He graduated from Utah Valley University with a BS in Art and Visual Communications. Eisenhour’s work is a visual pursuit to capture individuality from his subject matter. He constantly searches for new and compelling imagery motivated by the natural beauty of the world. Through this appreciation, he’s found a love for capturing the realism of a subject and making a piece come to life. Eisenhour’s primary focus is figurative work and channeling narratives through a well-executed painting. He works to highlight the beauty within individuals, in hopes of capturing the purest rendition of reality. Through realistic painting and drawing he finds new ways of abstracting and capturing his visual language. Eisenhour’s curiousness pushes him to explore new subject matter and new ways of conveying his ideas. This process is constantly evolving and changing. He doesn’t remain stagnant in his approach or application. For him, experimenting keeps the spark alive and his skills ever evolving. Eisenhour believes that through his explorations he may provide the spectator a reality viewed through his lens.

Vision

As someone who grew up in Salt Lake, I always knew Ogden as the cool little sibling up the road a bit. It has the most beautiful art deco buildings, real jazz and a solid underground music/counterculture scene, a wider racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, and always seems to be producing incredible visual artists. With this piece I want to underscore that ethos with both literal commemoration and evocative abstract imagery. The focal point - and I believe best distillation - of what I always saw as Ogden’s je ne sais quoi - is the legendary saxophonist Joe McQueen. Other cultural elements included are a ballerina, a skater, Ogden High School, a historic train engine and a local train car with a well-known art piece painted on it. My hope with this artwork is that I can convey a little of that sense of “cool” I’ve always associated with Ogden, Utah.

Chuck Landvatter was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He holds a BS in Interpersonal Communications from the University of Utah (2008), and an MFA in Drawing & Painting from Utah State University (2013). Chuck taught art and design for nearly a decade at USU, Weber State, and SAU in various capacities including assistant professor. Chuck’s work speaks to changing perceptions, is informed by his experience growing up in the Intermountain West and is executed with a hybrid approach involving traditional techniques, contemporary design, illustration, and graffiti.

Vision

"There You Are" is an invented map of the history of Ogden, layering familiar map like imagery–bodies of water, topographic lines, mountain ranges, and layers of sediment–with imagined data inspired by historical resources. Delicate lines suggest the footsteps of the Native peoples who first inhabited the site, the routes of immigrants who came to Ogden to work on the transcontinental railroad, or the movement through the landscape of the railroad itself. Using the familiar visual language of the map as a starting point, "There You Are" folds blocks of bold color, graphic shapes, and sinuous lines into a multi-layered landscape inclusive of multiple histories (and futures) ... Its title is a riff on the adage, “wherever you go, there you are,” inviting present-day visitors to feel connected to the site and aware of their place within it.

Ann Tarantino is a multimedia artist investigating the relationship of the natural world to the built environment. Through drawing, painting, installation, and site-specific public art, she engages viewers in a dialogue around the relationship of landscapes to time, space, culture, and movement. Her work has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, with public art installations appearing in various settings including museums and galleries, botanical gardens, and city streets. A New England native, Tarantino spent her formative years near the ocean – a constant that continues to inform her experiences of the landscape and the form of her work. Movement through time and space have been ongoing fascinations as she has traveled back and forth between continents, living, and working variously in Japan, Brazil, Europe, and the United States, with each landscape leaving a distinct imprint on her work. Recent exhibitions and projects include a major public commission for Pittsburgh’s Office of Public Art; a new installation created for the Pittsburgh International Airport; a public-scale painting commissioned by the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority’s DotART program; a solo exhibition of new paintings with Davis Editions (Phoenix, AZ); and large-scale exterior murals created throughout her current home state of Pennsylvania. Tarantino was featured in New American Paintings in 2005 and 2007 and was a 2016-17 recipient of a Fulbright Core Scholar Award for artistic practice in Brazil. She earned an honors degree in Visual Arts from Brown University and her Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Painting from The Pennsylvania State University. She currently lives and works in State College, PA.

Vision

Jefferson has been my home for years, and I believe it holds a special place in Ogden. It is one of the longest residential streets in the city and stretches through a wide mix of neighborhoods that reflect the cultural diversity of Ogden. All of the portraits in this collection were taken along Jefferson Avenue in 2022. There are photos of people in their own front yards and others who were on Jefferson to visit family or walk their dog. Some of the photos were taken near this station and some were on stretches of Jefferson that are miles away. They feature people who have lived on Jefferson all of their lives, and others who just recently moved to Ogden. All of them are part of Jefferson Avenue.

Benjamin Zack is a photographer in Ogden, Utah. His work is built on a foundation of community-focused photojournalism and works to expand the ways that people interact with documentary photography. Zack worked in education, community development and natural resources, before earning a bachelor's degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri. He went on to work as a freelance and staff photojournalist for publications around the country. In 2013, he moved to Utah to work as a photojournalist at the Standard-Examiner and has been based in Ogden ever since. He currently works as a photographer with Weber State University and other community arts organizations. His work in photojournalism has been regularly recognized and he has been named the Photographer of the Year by the Utah News Photographers Association and the Best Multimedia Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists on multiple occasions. Due to a love of public art and community engagement, Zack has long been interested in ways to present documentary photography in a non-traditional manner. This has included large-scale, outdoor photo installations and community photo projects. Zack also founded and runs Ogden 52, a community photo project where hundreds of photographers have documented Ogden over the past five years.

Vision

By honoring the beauty of the west, the changing seasons, and the unique plants and flowers of Ogden, De Carvalho created “Dreamscapes of the West” to commemorate Bernard DeVoto, "Utah's most accomplished writer.” The artwork is inspired by Utah's natural beauty and DeVoto's eloquent writings advocating for the preservation of America West's grasslands, rangelands, forests, mountains, canyons, and deserts. The art pieces are divided into two panel paintings, which will be installed on bus stops on 25th Street and Monroe Boulevard, the same street where Bernard Devoto grew up with his family. During his adolescence, DeVoto loved the mountains' serenity and proximity, and when Ogden was only around 16,000 people and the east bench was still years away from completion, he spent a lot of time hiking and climbing in the foothills east of town. As he once stated: “It is imperative to maintain portions of the wilderness untouched so that a tree will rot where it falls, a waterfall will pour its curve without generating electricity, a trumpeter swan may float on uncontaminated water - and moderns may at least see what their ancestors knew in their nerves and blood”. The piece is dedicated to Devoto's preservation efforts to protect natural habitats and conserve biodiversity.

Priscila De Carvalho is a Brazilian-American contemporary artist who is known for her paintings, sculptures, murals, site-specific installations, and permanent public art. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship Award and has served as an artist in residency at Sculpture Space, Aljira Emerge 10 Fellowship, Lower East Side Printshop, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning Workspace Program. She made her first solo debut with Passageways in the Jersey City Museum, opening March 19, 2009.

Priscila’s work has been exhibited by the Brooklyn Bridge Park (New York, USA), The Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, USA), Socrates Sculpture Park (New York, USA), the Basque Museum-Center of Contemporary Art (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain), Deutsche Bank (New York, USA), the Grand Palais (Paris, France), the Nepal Art Council (Kathmandu, Nepal), the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (New York, USA), The Jersey City Museum (Jersey City, USA). She was also a celebrated participant in El Museo’ Sixth Biennial in New York City, the first AIM biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and The Kathmandu International Triennial in Nepal, where she represented her home nation of Brazil. She also took part in the Chromazone Mural Festival in Minnesota, Kolor kathmandu in Nepal, and the Metropolitan Hospital Center for the Arts in Medicine program in NYC, among others.

The NYC Department of Education, MTA Arts and Design, and School Construction Authority have commissioned her to do large-scale, permanent public art throughout the city. She has a number of upcoming projects, including an etched glass for the newest Women's and Children's Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, a permanent artwork for the Adams Street Library in Boston, as well as the Phoenix Valley Metro Rail System, her largest and most ambitious project to date. She lives and works in Queens, New York.

Vision

The series is called "Fields, Folds, and Fabric", 2022, it is an amalgam of digital work alongside pictures of tactile objects, collages, prints, fabric, pixels, landscapes and art deco elements exploring the ambiguous realms that we as a society are currently navigating. Anything latent has an infinite potential of becoming, within the field of the unfolding. The fabric of life is embodied through the sensations, the human experience synthesizes this emergent field, where the tangible and the virtual seek emotional connectivity. Outlines from the Ogden High school (1937) ArtDeco building, interior and exterior can be found in between the shapes and colors, skyline and horizon delineating the city and mountains. The colors are inspired by the works of Gio Ponti and De Chirico both major influences in the Art Deco movement that was born in Europe and arrived to the USA.

Monika Bravo (b. 1964 in Bogotá, Colombia) is a multi-disciplinary artist who currently resides in Miami Beach. Her work integrates a wide array of disciplines, from psycho-technologies to immersive sculptural environments. She was recently awarded the Civitella Ranieri Visual Arts Fellowship, in Italy. Recent and upcoming public art commissions in 2022 include: OGX BRT in Ogden, Utah, LIMINAL, a poetic glass intervention for the Airport Foundation MSP, at St Paul International Airport, Unus Mundus, by the City of Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture and the Boston Art Commission for a large scale mosaic and glass mobiles in the East Boston Police Headquarters. An interval of time, 2020 by the Landmarks Public Arts program at University of Texas for the Jackson School of Geoscience and Duration for the MTA Arts + design Prospect Avenue subway in Brooklyn. Bravo has exhibited her work (inter)nationally including at the Rubin Museum of Art; 56th Venice Biennale representing the Vatican City-State at the Pavilion of the Holy See; The New Museum in New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Museo de Arte del Banco de la República; and the Museo de Arte Moderno Bogotá, The 5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea, CAB in Spain, Site Santa Fe and Stenenser Museum of Oslo, Norway.

Don Rimx’s unparalleled artistry sets him apart from the rest. As a classically trained fine artist, graffitist, grand scale muralist and new school tattoo artist, Don does it all. Originally from the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, he moved to Brooklyn in 2009 and is now living in sunny Florida. City life had a profound effect on his works of art. Through the use of intricate lines, wood and brick elements and rich color treatments, Don Rimx has comprised breathtaking skeletal structures exploring the synthesis of man and his city. Don has participated in national and international urban beautification projects including Los Muros Hablan New York & Puerto Rico, Beck’s Urban Canvas Miami, Muraleo Puerto Rico, Fiesta de Colores Ecuador and Beyond Walls Lynn where he was given the key to the city for contributing to the local culture. He has realized more than a dozen murals across the United States. In 2021 he created five beautiful grand scale murals for Ogden City Arts. And more recently, he painted the façade of the new Electronic Arts building in downtown Orlando’s Creative Village.

Vision

The narrative showcases a beautiful Shoshone woman dressed in traditional garments. Across from her is an elk, and culturally relevant elements such as the wild rose, rivers, mountains, sun, pinyon pine-cone, and traditional motifs serve to pay homage to the nation's first people. The color palette runs from warm to cool to represent the four seasons.

I have always been interested in ancestral knowledge. I enjoy speaking to elders and listening for the wisdom that arises from witnessing natural law long enough, so often different from information rooted in intellectual understanding alone. For this reason, when Weber County Heritage Foundation’s Dr. Katie Nelson presented the idea to create artwork surrounding the Shoshone history I jumped at the opportunity, both to honor the native people and gain insight into the Shoshone culture. It’s a storytelling project for me. I learned about different prominent figures and decided that I really wanted to use a young Shoshone woman to honor the feminine and the Shoshone’s vision of Earth as the Mother. With this in mind I reached out to Taylor Haskett, who was the 2017 Miss Shoshone-Bannock, exchanged my vision with her, and requested to use her image as part of the artwork. She was happy to work with me and together we found the perfect solution for this vision. She counseled me on the significance of the northwestern area to the Shoshone, and made me aware that various bands consider it to be their original ancestral territory. The thoughtful title of “Our Home” is Taylor’s contribution and an ode to the land itself.

Jhonattan “Anón” Arango is a Cuban-born, Florida-based artist who makes geometric murals and studio arts. His work employs thousands of triangles to make highly organic, three-dimensional compositions that deliberately weave in and out of the abstracted form. His visual language explores the broad theme of interdependence by playing with both size and color of each triangle, calling attention to each piece as an important part of the larger whole. Anón’s body of work includes over two dozen placemaking projects throughout the United States. Besides making solo murals, he often works with a community format that allows for people to paint murals together. Through this social experience he has facilitated projects where hundreds of spectators become the artists, using art as an agent of peaceful collaboration and community building.

His work has been featured in a number of shows and gallery exhibitions in South Florida, to include Miami Art Basel and Aqua Art Miami. He runs a boutique brand consulting and design studio with his wife Samantha, and often incorporates a passion for hand lettering into his practice. Anón holds a BFA in graphic design and pursues a life of art-making with his wife and son in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Vision

Our vision for this piece was one of diversity. Utah has very drastic contrasts in its nature and agriculture, depending on which part of the state you’re in. Even within specific locations such as Ogden, there is a wealth of nature which coexists, while also standing apart in unique and beautiful ways. Therefore, it was important for us to find ways of creating unique fields of color and foliage, which also integrate with, and compliment one another. The human element in the piece is our way of communicating our connection to, and coexistence with the natural world. Places are defined by their nature, and their communities, and we wanted to represent the beauty of that symbiosis.

NS/CB is a collaborative, visual arts team based out of Miami, comprised of Nicole Salga & Chuck Berrett. We began painting public art in 2013 in New York City. Public art is the heart of what we do. In all of our public work, we have paid tribute to the area and it’s history. It is extremely important to us for the work to connect with those who will live with it everyday. We have been fortunate to work with community projects such as: Centre-fuge Public Art Project (NYC), Titan Walls (Chicago), Walls For Women (TN), Tippecanoe Art Federation (IN), Kotis Street Art (NC), Akumal Art Festival (Mexico), Wabash Walls (IN), Hope Murals (Miami), Art Over Hate (Israel), Errekaleor Mural Project (Spain), Beyond Walls (MA), Sancturce Es Ley Mural Festival (Puerto Rico), Amigo Skate (Cuba), Artemural Espana (Spain), and many more.

We also focus on collaborative work with youth in communities such as; Hope Murals and AMI Kids in Miami. Schools such as Diamond Minds and Carrol Gardens have also given us opportunities to paint with their students. The two of us now reside in the Miami area, where we work as professional muralists and fine artists. NS/CB Studio is our company and it has evolved through the years as we gained a wealth of experience working with high end interior design firms, and servicing a wide variety of clients. We spend a great deal of the year traveling for the purpose of working around the globe.

Vision

I wanted to capture campus in its quiet moments of serenity. Weber State is blessed with a beautiful, scenic landscape. I wanted to soften the noise, the hustle and bustle that is typical college life, and show those moments of tranquility, while showcasing some of Weber’s most well-known features. I minimized my color palette to evoke a dreamlike state. Each side represents the soft moments of dawn and dusk, a liminal space. Those spaces that feel like we’re in a dream and existing between our physical world and what we can’t see or imagine. College is a big transition, a transformative space in which we are on the threshold to “what comes next” in life. Transportation operates in the same way, giving us time to ponder as we transit from one place to the next in our daily routines. I wanted the space to feel like somewhere soft and comforting, that we could relax in and consider our ponderings and daydreams.

Alicia Nicole Hall is a Weber State University graduate, earning her BFA in graphic design with departmental honors in visual arts and graduated Magna Cum Laude. She was also the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate in Graphic Design award. Alicia considers herself a creative, dabbling in myriad forms of creative expression, stretching from cake pops to illustration, and all sorts in between. She landed on graphic design through a love of playing with type and the visual form of words. Her goal in design is simple: create work that conveys the intended message through a visual system that grabs the audience’s attention and engages them to look further. Her design solutions are often whimsical and playful, backed by strong hierarchy and structure. Inspiration strikes as fast as lightning or bubbles around her like a daydream, often leading to jumping up in the middle of the night to make a hazy, heavy-lidded sketch or thought before the idea escapes.

Vision

Thinking about making art to represent Weber State University at the Dee Events Center OGX hub, images of all kinds went through my mind. Weber has a long, rich history in Ogden, and the Dee has been home to sports and commencement exercises for decades. My hope was to somehow capture a fraction of the story of dreams happening here — over more than a century — in a few panes of glass.

I love layers and color and felt both of these elements would be useful tools to convey the message of a vibrant community. The images themselves, especially the people, are intentionally devoid of detail. They are meant to represent something of everyone, past, present and future, who was, is and will be part of the WSU story. From the trains that brought thousands of people through Ogden and connected the east and west, to the Moench building that provided a place of learning for many students in its 99 years of service, to the Dee Events Center that ushers student athletes in one door and graduates out another, Weber and Ogden have been central to the story of people achieving their goals and dreams.

Weber’s story has often been compared to being like the acorn becoming a mighty oak, and the repeating oak leaves and acorns motif remind us of that analogy. Leaves come and go, but our roots are deep and our branches expansive. WSU started as a small academy and has grown into a large university that attracts a diverse student population from around the world — another reason for the vibrant colors and layers. Ogden is a place that welcomes all. Its rich history of early inhabitants, notorious residents and adventure-seeking visitors charm the story lover in us all. The world may know Weber best for nursing and basketball, but the community knows it is the jewel of this mountain-metro area. I hope that as the sun shines through the glass panes, a little of that beautiful light lands on you and inspires you to make a dream happen.

Hillary Hegstrom Wallace grew up in Southern California and still misses living near the ocean. After living near the coast in Texas, Virginia and Spain for the first half of her life, she has adapted to mountain living and now calls Ogden, Utah home. She graduated from Weber State University with a BFA in 1998 and was the Outstanding Graduate in Visual Communication. After graduating, she worked for several years at an ad agency before starting a 20+ year career at Weber State as a graphic designer, art director and creative director. She considers herself more of a designer than artist, but loves illustration and telling stories through images. You will find her work all over the community in the form of logos, ads, magazines, brochures and more.

Vision

Looking through glass windows on the bus provides a natural reflection and casts a shadow that changes throughout the day, which caused me to think of our natural places. And when I think of travel, I think of the horizon lines connecting that make up our journey. This piece highlights our glorious views that we enjoy from any location in Ogden. From Ben Lomond to Mountain Ogden and the Wasatch mountains that circle around our city this piece attempts to include them all. Ogden offers its transit patrons, traveling from point A to B, magnificent vistas that are represented/interpreted on this transit station.

My artwork interprets landscapes through elegant, bold, flowing lines. My creative thought process was to create a piece of art that is composed of a line that emboldens the mountains horizon lines, used colors, locally sourced pigments, representing the variety of colors you can see in Ogden throughout the season, and give patrons the opportunity to reflect on the area around them as they travel.

For over twelve years, I have had the privilege of teaching art in Ogden’s public schools, while also working as a professional artist. I continually encourage and empower my students to share their art with the community as well. My involvement in this project provides our students one more example of artists’ community involvement. We don’t simply live here; we enjoy and appreciate Ogden. When I need to recharge, I hike into the mountains with our dog, taking time to look back at the town as I reflect and gain a new perspective. On days when I hang out with friends, we find places in town, enjoying a meal or our many art galleries and exhibits.

Erica M Lyon has been creating art professionally for seventeen years. Twelve of those years have been spent living in Ogden working as an art teacher at Ben Lomond High School and being an active artist in Ogden. Her work simplifies emotions in nature that she feels in hopes to share with others - the simple beauty of nature with the use of flowing lines and bold colors. She has lived in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, California, and West Africa. She attended Western Washington University earning a BA in Fine Art and later in life a Masters in Education at Utah State University. Erica has called Ogden, UT home since 2010 working as a high school art teacher and professional artist. Her art work is a representation of her thoughts without words, her travels in the vertical world, travels to faraway places, and those inward travels of the heart and soul.

Artist - Ever since Erica could stand at an easel she has painted. She is inspired by the natural spaces in which we get to play. The open, clean lines and bright colors draw you - the observer, in. Her paintings are not only representations of places she goes, but represent what she loves about a particular area, captured onto paper, canvas, or wood.

Teacher - Erica takes what she learns as an artist and teaches it to her high school students through visual art. Teaching everything from beginning painting, printmaking, all the way up to AP and college credit courses offered at the high school. Daily, she is inspired by her students and challenged to improve her own art abilities. A cycle of knowledge takes place through this process of teaching and learning.

Steward - Erica has helped raise thousands of dollars by donating art to nonprofits and causes that relate to what she’s passionate about: the Yosemite Climbing Association, Ogden Trails Network, Access Fund, and Salt Lake Climbers Alliance to name a few. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer, combining her love of travel and art while teaching art to Deaf students in Ghana. In addition, she has raised four guide dogs, one of whom is the current classroom therapy dog.

Adventure - Erica has lived all over the Western half of the US and in West Africa. Climbing, paddle boarding, skiing, camping, mountain biking and hiking - with the love of her life, Tom and their dog, Griffin, is what feeds her soul.

OGX Bus Rapid Transit Public Artwork Project

OGDEN CENTRAL | OGDEN FRONTRUNNER STATION

COLE EISENHOUR

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KIESEL AVENUE | THE JUNCTION

CHUCK LANDVATTER

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WASHINGTON BLVD.

ANN TARANTINO

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25th ST. & JEFFERSON

BENJAMIN ZACK

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25th ST. & MONROE

PRISCILA DE CARVALHO

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HARRISON BLVD. & 25th ST.

MONIKA BRAVO

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HARRISON BLVD. & 28th ST.

DON RIMX

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HARRISON BLVD. & 32nd ST.

JHONATTAN ARANGO

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HARRISON BLVD. & 36th ST.

NS/CB STUDIO

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MAIN CAMPUS | WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY

ALICIA N. HALL

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WILDCAT VILLAGE | WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY

BENJAMIN ZACK

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DEE EVENTS CENTER

HILLARY HEGSTROM WALLACE

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MCKAY DEE HOSPITAL

ERICA LYON

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25^th ST. & JEFFERSON

25^th ST. & MONROE

HARRISON BLVD. & 25^th ST.

HARRISON BLVD. & 28^thST.

HARRISON BLVD. & 32^nd ST.

HARRISON BLVD. & 36^th ST.