Paseo Colorado Fountain

The Paseo Colorado in Pasadena merits more than one Mosaic Monday entry. The Paseo is on Colorado Blvd, between Marengo and Los Robles. Today, we concentrate on the 2nd level fountain, designed by Anne Marie Karlsen. It's titled "Eye of the Beholder," and it went up in 2001. This picture of it comes from Fine Arts Services, which manages public art projects.

I've gotten much more cavalier about using photos from other sites. Two reasons: one, no one seems to mind when I ask permission--in fact, they are either thrilled or simply don't respond. The second reason is that I'm busier and cutting corners. So if I offend anyone or step on toes--just email me and I'll take the photo down, I promise.

The fountain, along with most of the artwork in the Paseo (including at least two more mosaic works) is here thanks to the Pasadena Arts Commission. "Eye of the Beholder" is made of hand-painted, handcast, high relief ceramic tiles, according to the artist's website.

Here's a closeup of one small section--more closeups are available on the artist's website.  I hope she doesn't mind that I used this one. Her site also has an incredible shot of the fountain from directly above.

Artist Anne Marie Karlsen has designed and installed a lot of public art throughout the county, including the kaleidoscopic glass panels in the tower of tiny Lawndale's new library, and the painted tile murals at the North Hollywood Red Line Station. Both of those are mosaic-like,but not really mosaics, so you'll have to click on the links to see the pictures. Karlsen teaches at Santa Monica College, and she's currently working on a couple of abstract mosaic panels for the building at 129 Raymond in Pasadena.

Pasadena Roses Mosaic

One week before the Rose Parade, this seems appropriate.

The rose mosaic at the Garfield Promenade of Paseo Colorado -- as well as the smaller pictures above the circular benches -- were installed ten years ago in 2001.Since there's a lot of traffic there, minor damage has been done, according to the City of Pasadena's website . Conservation is in progress.  The work is being repaired, pieces of the Venetian glass will be regrouted, andit will all be cleaned.

The artist is Margaret Nielsen and she is standing on the mosaic in the picture. Her work is titled Pasadena Panorama. Trizec Hahn development installed the piece, and the city's Public Arts program paid for it. Beyond the large rose mosiac, the pictures along the curved benches were also designed by Nielsen.

Margaret Nielsen is from Canada, but all of her training has been here in SoCal: Chouinard Arts School, Cal Arts in Valencia, and Loyola Marymount in Westchester.

One of her paintings, called LA Dialogs, is in the Metro Headquarters Building, and another is somewhere at the Union Station Gateway. A set of mosaics designed for the Motion Picture Association of America building on Ventura Blvd in Encino is in storage, sadly. The 21 Venetian glass mosaics show scenes from famous movies. Or so says LA Magazine's website, but I hope there are plans to restore them somewhere.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed her work recently.

Pasadena Mosaic

I've passed this beautiful mosaic a few times, on Raymond Ave.and Holly Street, right across Raymond from the Pasadena Memorial Park buildings. There are actually two mosaics, which explains the title of the artwork: TWO URNS.

The artist is Anne Marie Karlsen, and the mosaics were installed in 2009. They are about 15 feet tall by 5 feet wide, and made of stone and glass.

Exactly what type of stone and glass is listed in detail on the City of Pasadena's Art Search page.  The mosaic is designed to change as the sun moves across it during the day.

The address is 125 N. Raymond, and the building next door is a theater, restored but originally built in 1921 as Jensen's Raymond Theater. The mosaic art was designed to reflect the appearance, inside and out, of the Raymond Theater--now combined with the building next door to form the Raymond Renaissance, a retail and living space.

From an undated Atlas Obscura article, I learn that the theater was owned by David Lee Roth's father in the 1970s, which is a nice bit of trivia. Then, sold to a new owner named Mark Perkins, it became Perkins Palace, a rock venue. Guns N Roses, R.E.M. and other bands played there, and the performance scenes in This is Spinal Tap were filmed on its stage. The exterior was used in Pulp Fiction.

Much more is related at Cinema Treasures, which adds The Rose and The Bodyguard to its film credits, as well as several music videos.  A detailed history focused on the Perkins Palace years can be found at Hometown Pasadena.

It was the manager of the theater during this period, a lady named Gina Zamperelli, who waged a 20-year fight to save the theater from developers - actually, from one particular developer who even drove a bulldozer into the side of the theater out of spite.

So ... that's the building next door. The mosaics are inspired by that place, but sit on a newer 5-story brick building that went up in 2008, and is now largely condos, except for the ground floor. I saw one rental available, a one bedroom, for $2800 a month.

You can read more about artist Anne Marie Karlsen here. She's done a lot of public art works - many that I recognize. I blogged about the Nordhoff Station of the Metro, Orange Line and  the fountain at Paseo Colorado. Karlsen also created art on the parking garage at Santa Monica Place, the Lawndale Library, and several mosaics on cruise ships.