ART THAT LASTS
Yanaguana Garden
Project Type
Sculpture, mosaic tiles
Project Location
Hemisfair Park in San Antonio
Completion Date
2019
PanterAzul (Blue Panther) is probably my best-known work, and it has become the iconic image of Yanaguana Garden. But that project was much more than the Panther. Using an armature of steel, tons of concrete, and thousands of mosaic glass and porcelain pieces, I created sculptures and benches that all together tell the origin story of the San Antonio River, or the Yanaguana as it was known by the Payaya, San Antonio’s indigenous people. I also created the seeded glass splashpads that are so popular with kids.
TELLING A STORY THAT CONNECTS THE WORK TO THE SPACE
Yanaguana Garden is a beautiful children's park that features everything from climbing apparatus to swings, including life-size chess and checkers boards, ping pong tables, a giant sandbox and splashpads.
My commission was to design and build benches with a design that told the Payaya's Yanaguana origin story. I chose to use the shape of the benches themselves to tell this story.
Ultimately, the work included a triptych of mosaic benches and sculptures of the story's major characters, a blue panther, an anhinga bird, and the 'blue hole' -- the spring -- from which the San Antonio River arises. This was a massive construction project, all of which had to be done on-site because of the size and weight of the sculptures. The panther alone weighs seven tons.
The images on this page show both the finished product and some shots from the construction.