Creating art for public spaces may require considerations for weather and security, but comes with many benefits that are not possible inside galleries.  My outdoor installations in Minnesota, Kentucky, and Indiana encourage audience interaction with and at times even sitting on the sculptures.

Canopies: Groin Vaults and Chain-link Fencing, Louisville, Kentucky, 2011

Commissioned by the Louisville Visual Arts Association (LVAA) for the site of the YouthBuild program in Louisville, a new outdoor sculpture will be installed 2011.  This project has been jointly funded by the Norton Foundation, LVAA, YouthBuild, and Hanover College.  This sculpture will add to the site where the students have been working on gardens by adding the opportunity to grow vertical gardens and in the process create shady gathering spaces. 

Bottle Shock, Forecastle, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010

For Forecastle, plastic bottles from individuals, local corporations, University of Louisville, and Hanover College were collected  to create a large-scale sculpture.  The piece arched over viewers as they walked along one of the main sidewalks on the Great Lawn of Waterfront Park in downtown Louisville. Entitled Bottle Shock, the sculpture engaged festival goers in a conversation about plastic and consumption.

Brew History: All Bottled Up, New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project, New Albany, Indiana, 2010

The history of taverns and breweries in New Albany dates back to 1830 with stories of homespun attitudes and community support.  In recognition of this beer chronicle, the primary material in Leticia's sculpture is locally collected, used beer bottles.  Furthermore, influenced by several sources such as the Lite-Brite toy, the song “99 Bottles of Beer,” and Tom Marioni’s social sculpture from 1970 titled The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, Leticia blends dissimilar, pop-culture materials and forms while playfully linking past and present.

forces of nature: hurricanes and slinkys (outdoor), August 2007 - present
This outdoor version of forces of nature: hurricanes and slinkys, was designed for in the Live, Learn, Believe outdoor exhibition, Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky.  Inspired by diagrams of hurricane development and the “wonderful toy” the slinky, the inexpensive Slinky seems so simple, but the physics of the spring and theories of Hooke’s law visualize the limits of stress that can be endured before it cannot be corrected when the stress is removed. This outdoor sculpture combines these two visuals with a peaceful, but artificial, grassy eye of the storm.

islands, yards, worlds, Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, Minnesota, 2004

Designed in response to the game of tennis and the beginning of the war in Iraq, this sculpture focuses on the boundaries and divisions between two identical sides.  Each fence in this sculpture was sixty-feet long.  Starting at six-feet high, the top level of the fence remained horizontal while bottom was cut to fit the hill.  The result was a bridge that as one ascended the fence shortened allowing one to see the other sides of the fence.  At the center was a concrete table with a game of checkers in play; however, this checkers game has all grey game pieces making it difficult to know who is winning.  Lastly, while at the table, an audio can be heard from the fences playing the sound of a tennis match as the ball bounces back and forth over the net.