Artwork Detail

Merge Conceptual Design, an artist collaborative based in Santa Monica, designed a color and graphics scheme for Allen J. Martin Park to unify the park buildings and to creatively address graffiti maintenance. The artists sought community input for their color scheme and artwork imagery. A Community Paint Day in 2008 attracted over thirty children, teens and adults who spray painted stenciled images onto the park buildings. Additionally, the artists provided healthy food representing the paint scheme colors. This example of artist-initiated community engagement successfully reinforced the neighborhood's sense of pride and ownership in the park and served as a model for future projects. A follow up Paint Day was conducted four years later in 2012 with the park maintenance staff to refresh the artwork and to train new staff. Merge Conceptual Design's paint scheme functions as a creative graffiti abatement strategy. If the buildings are tagged, the park facilities staff has been instructed to paint over the tag using a circle stencil and colored paint. Each new circle adds to the artwork.The park is empowered to address vandalism with an artistic, proactive approach.

Merge Conceptual Design, founded in 2003 and based in Santa Monica, CA, has completed temporary and permanent public art projects for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority and the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Berlin (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). The Merge team includes Claudia Reisenberger and Franka Diehnelt, who are both architecture graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and currently teach at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.