In 1999, I was commissioned by Brailsford Studio (San Diego, California) to create four works as part of the public art component of the Downtown Transit Mall project commissioned by the City of Santa Monica and the Big Blue Bus. I developed original origami designs for four animals representative of the habitats in and around Santa Monica, which include subdesert, riparian, and coastal environments, fitting into Brailsford’s “River of Life” scheme for the project. The art elements were inspired by geometry, environmentalism, and the Pacific rim; origami, a Japanese art whose subjects include the natural world, was a natural fit. The four animals we chose were a tree frog, sea urchin, dragonfly, and garibaldi. The origami figures were then cast in bronze using the lost-wax process and were installed in drinking fountains at the corners of 2nd Street and Broadway Avenue, 2nd and Santa Monica Avenue, 4th Street and Broadway, and 4th and Santa Monica.

The resulting sculptures were quite popular upon their debut. The full project won the Southern California American Public Works Association’s “Streets and Transportation Project of the Year” award for 2002. In 2003, I was commissioned to produce two more original designs for casting, a sea turtle and a flying fish. They were completed and installed in 2005.