Patricia Leighton

Patricia Leighton has been making art in the public realm for over 25 years, creating large-scale permanent commissions worldwide. Many of her projects relate to transportation, and include elements such as: utilizing excess and available soil on site to create large earthwork sculptures, incorporating stone and indigenous materials to relate to the environment, creating feature markers to be viewed from the air, and siting progressive sculptures adjacent to freeways. Patricia views the integration of art and site as a collaborative process. She is able to work in tandem with professionals from diverse fields such as ecology, engineering, architecture, and landscape architecture, and believes working on a diverse creative and problem-solving team is often the core of successful projects. Patricia’s sculptures function on a number of levels, enabling a wide public to relate to the work. Her earthworks and freestanding sculptures reflect the historical and environmental specificity of their setting. Even when seen quickly from a vehicle, they are intended to captivate their audience and instill contemplation. Most recently Patricia collaborated with Del Geist on Barum Stenning in Barnstable, England, and on Passage, at the US Border Station in Roosville, MT.

Del Geist

Del Geist has integrated art into the public realm for more than 30 years. As an artist, using the natural sciences as a palette, he has developed major site-specific artworks throughout the US and Europe. His environmental artworks elicit unique qualities inherent to a place, fostering a viewer's direct sensory experience. The stone and earth, metaphorically, contain the natural history of a region and its geology, capturing the spirit and flavor of an area.

Among his past projects are Artpark in Lewiston, NY, where he installed a group of 72 slate-on-wood structures; Grizedale Forest Sculpture Park in Cumbria, England, where Silurian slate centered the energy of an old stone quarry; and the University of Papua New Guinea, where Del worked with students installing a teak wood tower using traditional techniques. Other site works are at the West Dade Regional Library in Miami, Florida, in Berlin, Germany, and South-Korea.

Recently, Del Geist and Patricia Leighton collaborated on Barum Stenning in Barnstable, England, commissioned by Devon County Council; and on Passage, at the US Border Station, in Roosville, Montana, commissioned by GSA Art-in-Architecture.