Luminary Spirit (You Can Make it Here)

These six metal lighted sculptures each tell a unique story about Waco.

Each of the site-specific work was inspired by an aspect of Waco’s culture, character, and history as depicted by Waco based artists Morgan Eyring and Andrea La Valleur-Purvis.

The designs represent local industry, community, wildlife, and architecture with both geometric and organic elements. They create shadow and light effects that change throughout the day and night, emphasizing visual interest to the I35 underpass, which also serves as a gateway for pedestrians and cyclists.

The color palette was chosen to represent the Texas State flower, the Bluebonnet.

This project was a collaboration between City of Waco, Texas Department of Transportation, Creative Waco, Texas Commission on the Arts, and artists Morgan Eyring and Andrea La Valleur-Purvis.

The normally bland underside of the Interstate 35 overpass at Fourth and Fifth Streets will sprout six brightly colored four-foot light globes later this spring, a touch of Waco art in an unexpected place, thanks to the work of local designers and artists Morgan Eyring and
Andrea La Valleur-Purvis.

Carl Hoover, The Waco Tribune-Herald

The adapted color palette draws from the Texas state flower — the Bluebonnet, a blue-flowered "Lupinus texensis". Each of the six designs are painted in one shade of blue, from dark to light, together forming a gradient of blue hues. The other three sculptures are created by artist friend Morgan Eyring.

Public Art Installation — September 2023

42×48” each, Galvanized Metal, Shaped Steel, Commercial Enamel Paint in six shades of blue.

Location

194 J H Kultgen Expy
Waco, Texas 76706

I-35 Exit 4th & 5th Streets at Baylor University

Artist Statement

The site-specific works, collectively named “Luminary Spirit (You can make it here),” serve as metaphors for the ideas, products and experiences that are brought forth from Waco to the world at large.

“You can make it here” can be interpreted literally by the many manufacturing opportunities but more importantly, as you, the person. Surrounded by a community of talented people, access to higher education and research , plus naturally inspiring places, you, too, can make it here.

I designed these three works to deliberately wrap around the circumference of the metal globe structures, aligning elements of each composition to be viewed from below and from across the plaza. With each change in perspective, a new element or pattern is observed.

The compositions were shaped from large metal sheets, then formed, assembled and welded to the globe structure. At night, the lighted works cast complex shadows on the ground and the bridge under-structure, activating the visual appearance of the plaza.