Colette Crutcher – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Dahlias at Cabrillo

Posted by Cindy on March 22, 2018

Mar 222018

Cabrillo Playground
853 38th Avenue
Outer Richmond

Cabrillo Playground, and its attached club house were completely renovated with $45 million dollars from the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond. The budget for the art was $35,970.

These lacy flowers are by Colette Crutcher and were inspired by the Dahlia Garden that is attached to the park.

Photo courtesy of SF Park Alliance

The artwork is comprised of flower imagery fabricated in galvanized iron lacework, incorporated along fence panels on 38th and 39th avenues at Cabrillo Avenue, with an overall dimension of 121 in. by 299 in. at 38th Avenue; and 121 in. by 222 in. at 39th Avenue.

Colette Crutcher is not only a friend of this author, but has been in this site many times before for her work throughout San Francisco.

The wire sculpture was manufactured by Lace Fence.

The Clubhouse was originally built in 1938.

Arelious Walker Stairway

Posted by Cindy on May 5, 2014

May 052014

Innes Avenue
Bay View / Hunters Point

This was the proposal that was written for the Call for Artists by the SFAC:

The Arelious Walker Drive Stair replacement is a dynamic community project in partnership with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the Department of Public Works to create ceramic tile mosaic steps on the Arelious Walker Drive extending uphill from Innes Avenue to Northridge Road in the Bay View Hunters Point neighborhood. The stairway provides a vital connection from an isolated low-income community to the India Basin Shoreline, the Bay Trail, Herons Head Park, and future development at Hunters Point Shipyard. The mosaic steps project will enhance the character and livability of the surrounding area so that it becomes a gathering place consistent with the nature and spirit of the neighborhood. The project will also beautify the site by landscaping it with California native plants, succulents, and other drought tolerant species to attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.

The new stair comprises 87 equal steps, each measuring four feet wide (4’) and seven inches high (7”). Each riser will be faced in ceramic tile mosaic ½ inch thick.

The artists chosen are the same lovely ladies that are responsible for two tiled stairways in Golden Gate Heights, Colette Crutcher and Aileen Barr. Both ladies have been in this website many times before. The cost for the installation was slated to be $90,000.

La Madre Tonantsin

Posted by Cindy on November 27, 2012

Nov 272012

3495 16th Between Sanchez and Dehon
Castro District

Colette Crutcher is a multi discipline artist. Her career began with painting and printmaking, but now covers a broad spectrum, from very large to very small, from public to intensely personal, from abstract to figurative, and across a range of media: painting and drawing, collage, assemblage, paper mache, concrete, ceramic and mosaics.

According to Collete’s website: This mural is a renovation of La Madre Tonantsin, a similar mural I painted there in 1991. The original fence was rotting, and along with it the mural. A grassroots fundraising campaign, helped by a grant from Precita Eyes, enabled me to create this new version. Rather than sticking to paint alone, I incorporated a variety of semi-sculptural media. (The mural was done in 1998)

The piece was made for the headquarters of the Instituto Pro Musica, an organization dedicated to the performance of music old and new from Spain and Latin America. I sing with their choral group, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, and used my artwork to express feelings evoked by this powerful musical heritage. The goddess represented is Tonantsin, the mother of the Aztec gods. I am not particularly well-versed in pre-Columbian religious practices; I just used the theme as a springboard for my imagination.

Playthings of the Wind

Posted by Cindy on November 24, 2012

Nov 242012

1199 Mason at Washington
Chinatown
Betty Ong Chinese Recreation Center

Colette Crutcher’s mosaic mural, titled Playthings of the Wind, located in the playground of the new center, honors China’s 2000-year tradition of kite making. The mural depicts a young child, in traditional dress, holding a string attached to a butterfly kite, which is joined among the swirling clouds and sun by two other kites in the form of a “flying lizard” and bat. The mural continues onto an adjacent wall with a depiction of a dragon kite. Using a combination of stained glass, mirror, broken fragments of Chinese cookery and commercial and handmade tiles, Crutcher captures the kites’ simple, yet fanciful, geometric forms that make it possible for them to defy gravity.

Ocean View Branch Library

Posted by Cindy on December 16, 2011

Dec 162011

Ocean View Public Library

345 Randolph, San Francisco

The front of the Ocean View library is adorned with two marvelous sculptures on either side of the door. It was done out of cast Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete with integral color.

The left panel shows a young tree, with landmarks of the old Oceanview District, some still standing and some now gone, in the background.

The artists are husband and wife team Mark Roller and Colette Crutcher. According to Colette’s website it was made under the auspices of the San Francisco Arts Commission for the new branch library in the Oceanview District, at Randolph and Ramsell St., near the southern boundary of the city. Neighbors from the area had petitioned the City for a new library in this sadly neglected community. They wanted aspects of the history of their neighborhood to be included in the artwork. Colette and Mark have been in this website before and will be featured in the future as well. Not only are they friends of mine, but they are a vital part of the public art scene in San Francisco.

The panel on the right features a mature tree and a representation of the present/future of the District. Both trees bear fruit adorned with letters and symbols representing the languages and traditions of world culture

The round circles are letters from various alphabets around the world, the one on top is Thai, the one on the bottom is cyrilic.

Ocean View Branch Library was the 15th branch established in the San Francisco Public Library system. The first Ocean View Branch Library opened in 1903 on Broad Street near the corner of Capitol Avenue. The new Ocean View Branch Library, at 345 Randolph Street, was opened on June 7, 2000. It was the first branch building to be built in San Francisco since 1969. The San Francisco Bureau of Architecture designed the two-story building. The cost of the building was $2.5 million. Private funds were raised for the equipment and furniture within the branch.

Mission District – 24th Street Mini Park, San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on July 1, 2011

Jul 012011

24th and York

This is another mosaic by Colette Crutcher, this time, in collaboration with her husband, Mark Roller and friend Aileen Barr. The park is at 24th and York in San Francisco. It is a wonderful little mini park in a terrific part of the Mission District. This giant mosaic statue of the Mesoamerican snake-god Quetzalcoatl and it’s playful fountain is the focal point of the park. Quetzalcoatl started as a concrete structure and then was covered with broken commercial tile, and hundreds of handmade tiles.

The park used to be a neighborhood eyesore, filled with pretty scary folks just lounging in the park, but thanks to a million-dollar 2006 beautification project, the 24th & York Street Mini Park was transformed into an urban oasis.

Across the street is the vintage St. Francis Soda Fountain, where you can get milkshakes and sandwiches like when you were a kid, or just hang out and wait for the strolling ice cream carts to come by.

This part of town is covered with murals, thanks primarily to Precita Eyes. Precita Eyes was established in 1977 as an inner city, community based, mural arts organization. I will be coming back to them from time to time as I explore the murals in this neighborhood over the next few days.

All of Quetzalcoatl with the fountain running. This is one of those fountains, that turns itself on and off and surprises you, but it is so warm in this part of town, that it is often welcoming.

Most of the walls in the park are covered in murals. Many of them by Michael Rios, who designed many of Carlos Santana’s album covers in the 1970’s. Carlos Santana and Rios grew up in the neighborhood and Rios still lives there.

These three pieces are pierced steel. They remind me of pierced steel lamps you find all over Mexico, but I could find nothing about them, nor who made them.