The art of driving
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
At 60 mph, motorists can only catch a glimpse of the paintings along Texas 114. But, when traffic grinds to a halt — ahh — that's when the intricate brush strokes are revealed in colorful detail.
The four hand-painted images are visible to motorists going past the new Gateway Drive overpass that connects Southlake to Grapevine.
The artist, Victor Puzanenko of Siberia, used the freeway's concrete retaining walls as his canvas. He found room to paint in the Texas-shaped images that the Texas Department of Transportation carved into the concrete walls for aesthetics.
Each painting is about 3 feet wide. Two of them feature images of bald eagles draped in American flags. Another painting contains World War I airplanes flying above sun-splashed clouds. Another depicts a countryside scene with a nature trail, trees and a stream.
"They say it's going to cure road rage," said Brian Pleasant, an office manager at Scott Derr Painting Co., a subcontractor hired to gussy up the freeway.
Not long ago, the management team at the Friendswood-based painting company discovered Puzanenko at an art institute and hired him away for the express purpose of providing extra artistic details to the company's highway projects, Pleasant said.
The Southlake job is not Puzanenko's first. He also has created an outer space painting on a freeway near the NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and an oceanic display — complete with dolphins dancing in the water — on a road near the Texas coast.
Each work of art takes one to two hours, said Don Gandy, who oversaw the painting company's Texas 114 effort.
Southlake officials, who contributed $25,000 in local money so that the state would use special colors and preformed rock shapes along Texas 114, were surprised to see the paintings this week. They were expecting the Texas shapes to be painted a solid color.
"It's a nice touch," said Charlie Thomas, a city engineer. "The shape is easy to see, and it makes an impression on you."
But city officials do have one concern: whether art-loving motorists will be able to keep their eyes on the road.
ON THE WEB: www.cityofsouthlake.com/whats_new/hwy114.asp