Winding roads
Arboretum’s dream snake mosaic tracks the stories of our lives
By Ellen Snortland 08/20/2008
You’ll know LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden artist-in-residence Leigh Adams when you see her. Besides being incredibly talented in glass, mosaic and gourds, her whole life has been one giant artistic expression, right down to the color of her hair — which is actually purple and blue.
Sometimes silly, often serious but always fun and exciting, Adams has been commissioned by the Arboretum to create a Dream Snake, a mythical creature of empowerment born in Australia thousands of years ago that will be expressed in mosaic designs built into portions of the Australian section of the gardens on the Arboretum property.
The installation promises to be monumental, with poured concrete used to create the creature’s scale patterns, and the completed reptile having differently shaped mosaics throughout, illustrating its windy, quarter-mile path.
In many ways, Dream Snake is emblematic of Adams’ own artistic mission in life, which is to empower children through public art. To that end, kids who show up while Adams is working on the project will have an opportunity to get involved with the actual Dream Snake creation.
Wait a minute! This is on a par with a small construction project, with contractors doing much of the heavy lifting. Won’t kids just mess things up? The true teacher that she is, Adams says no. In fact, everyone — especially kids — is valued. Everything they do is a lesson to learn from, no matter what happens. Oh, really?
Perhaps part of Adams’ confidence comes from the nature of the creature she is recreating, which to Aborigine natives of Australia thousands of years ago represented the creator of life and not the evil destroyer as it’s characterized by Western Civilization.
But even more importantly, Adams has done this kind of thing before, at one of her teaching gigs at Five Acres, a home for neglected, troubled and abused kids in Altadena.
At Five Acres, Leigh teaches a class where the kids get to construct a permanent mosaic designed, created and installed by members of the group. It decorates the campus — publicly and permanently. For kids whose grasp of “permanence” is often at best tenuous, a public piece of art is a particular point of pride.
“Working with mosaic is forgiving,” Adams observes. “You can drop the tile and the broken pieces are often better than they were when they were whole. One Five Acres resident, a young woman, demonstrated that by intentionally dropping a tile that had a butterfly on it. She picked it up, rearranged its pieces and proudly pointed out how much more interesting it was with the breaks.” The metaphor for their own lives is obvious: Kids from broken homes are beautiful too.
The Dream Snake mosaic offers an opportunity for both kids and adults to participate in the creation of a, well, creation — literally and figuratively — with the snake playing an integral part in the beginning of the Aboriginal people, who still worship it as a god of life.
Public art, says Adams, is important for another reason as well: “When you have participated in something that is public, you always have a place to go back and see what you’ve impacted; the contribution you’ve made. You can visit or you can bring your family and friends to share in beauty.”
An interesting footnote to the Dream Snake installation is that the concrete contractors are from Tonga, a South Seas culture with similar creation beliefs, and have bonded with Adams, who says this is the first time that she’s worked with a crew that treats her with respect, without attitudes about gender.
The Tongans, in fact, are bringing their kids around to help mosaic, and because they love the way Leigh is with children, she’s going to be visiting Tonga next year — to teach mosaic.
I’ve seen her with kids: Tall, but never condescending, her knowledge of art and many other things is legion. It’s clear that she truly loves children. They feel safe when they first see her with her purple and blue hair. That’s because they know she’s all about empowering them to find their own artistic expression.
So if you have a few hours and some burgeoning artists in your family, short or tall, go to the Arboretum and walk the snake. Or be bold and take action. Put your own public mark on it by volunteering to help. Ask for the lady with purple and blue hair and everyone will know exactly who you mean.
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden is at 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Call (626) 626-821-3222 or visit www.arboretum.org.
Contact Ellen at www.snortland.com.
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