As we enter another hurricane season, we are reminded of nature’s forces as depicted in artist Leticia Bajuyo’s “Forces of Nature: Blue Skies, Slinkys, and Hurricanes.” Bajuyo’s TRUE NORTH 2020 installation in the 1200 block of the esplanade of Heights Boulevard is constructed of steel, blue PEX tubing and artificial grass. Her sculpture was inspired by diagrams of hurricane development and the spring movement of the “wonderful toy” Slinky (as the longest-running jingle in advertising history so memorably describes it). The triptych sculpture features bright blue circular forms that appear to be large Slinkys connected at the ends into rings and circling perfectly-maintained “lawns” of artificial grass. Bajuyo says, Ultimately, by combining elements that affect our lives on a dramatic scale, those that occupy us in modest moments of play, and those that subterraneously quench our thirst for suburban perfection or agricultural plenty, I aim to manufacture a peaceful, but artificial, grassy eye of the storm.

Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio

Leticia Bajuyo was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and grew up in Metropolis, Illinois. A recipient of Hanover College’s Daryl R. Karns Award For Scholarly And Creative Activity, a Great Meadows Foundation Professional Development Grant recipient and a Visual Artists Network Exhibition residency and grant recipient, she received her BFA from the University of Notre Dame and her M.F.A. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2017, Bajuyo joined the faculty at Texas A&M – Corpus Christi as Assistant Professor of Sculpture. Among her exhibitions, Bajuyo’s installations have been featured in the silos of Site Gallery at Sawyer Yards for Sculpture Month Houston, the Nashville International Airport, the Tony Hillerman Library in Albuquerque and a Northern Mindanao Contemporary Art exhibit in Mindanao, Philippines. She installed “Iridescence” this year at Historic Market Square Houston—10,000 CDs that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.

Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio

Thank you, Leticia, and all the 2020 artists for providing much-appreciated respite during these disquieting times. All sculptures are for sale, and TRUE NORTH artists have generously agreed to donate 20% of any sales back to the project’s designated fund for future exhibitions. We also thank our community- and arts-minded TRUE NORTH 2020 Underwriters—it cannot happen without their support. Please visit our website for more information on the project and for the names of TRUE NORTH 2020’s Underwriters/Website. Contact us at boulevardart@houstonheights.org.

INSTAGRAM @truenorthheightsblvd | @lbajuyo

FACEBOOK @TrueNorthHeightsBlvd | @bajuyo

Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio