For several years Valley-Wide Health System has hosted an
annual fundraising event, the Charity Ball, that provides a
significant boost to the budget of La Puente Home, an Alamosa based
homeless shelter, and the myriad of services it
provides. For 2007, a Grizzly Cultural Totem
Project was planned. This project features life
size grizzly bear sculptures imaginatively transformed
into stunning works of art. Dedicated and
accomplished local artists transformed the grizzly
sculptures into expressions of local culture,
landscape and community.
The project featured a limited edition of 10 life size
grizzly bears sculpted by nationally renowned artist Jim
Gilmore and cast in fiberglass. Ten artists were
selected by special invitation to use the surface of the
sculpture as a canvas to artistically portray a unique
dimension of Valley life and culture.
The Art Department Faculty of Adams State College
were excited to become involved in the Grizzly project.
This project not only gave us the opportunity to
collaborate together on an exciting artwork, but also to
use our artistic skills to give back to our community;
specifically La Puente.
The
idea for our interpretation of the grizzly came about
during several discussions about the grizzly, its habitat
and its current relationship to human intrusions into that
habitat. We wanted to convey how its habitat has been
reduced by humanity, yet keep a light-hearted tone to the
work. We thought about recreational activities and what
icons could represent these. We decided on the Airstream
trailer as a symbol of these activities.
The “Bearstream” evolved into what is seen
today: silver bear with rivets similar to that of the
ubiquitous trailer, with a model of an Airstream within its
belly. The bear attempts to consume that which is consuming
its environment. The fish in its mouth is covered in maps
of Colorado representing its dwindling territory as the
bear symbolically holds on. It crosses a road, which infers
a sense of crossing a boundary, of being on the edge in
terms of its existence in the wild, and the dangers that
all wildlife encounter when crossing a road.
If you would like to support La Puente Home, please visit
their website: www.lapuente.net