Division 9 – Metro San Gabriel Valley Transportation Building
Forward to the Past, 2007
Raoul de la Sota, artist
Overlooking the main entry lobby to the Metro facility, the brightly hued artwork comments upon the San Gabriel Valley.
Viewers encounter the citrus fields and the mountain backdrop unified by circular molecular - "points of light" - that transform into oranges and limes at the bottom of the composition and rise as oxygen specks to cleanse the region’s air quality.
The points of light disappear into the clear, dark skies and stars at the very top of the painting to form a zoomorphic interpretation of the whale figure, serving as a bond between the heavens and earth as narrated in some of the local original native cultures.
The twenty foot tall acrylic painting on four honeycomb aluminum panels and provides a physical as well as symbolic uplifting quality to the contemporary architecture of the office building.
“My interpretation deals with this geographical area, the improved air quality resulting from public transportation and the indigenous beliefs of the original peoples of this region. Orange and lemon orchards serve to identify the area along with the San Gabriel Mountains silhouetted against the dawn light.”