Santa Clarita has reimagined the maintenance hole cover with an exciting public art project, showcasing a collection of artistic aintenance Holes. This initiative brings together the work of artists each of whom has used their unique vision into these everyday urban elements. By transforming functional covers into art pieces, the project celebrates both local culture and artistic expression, making art accessible in an unexpected yet impactful way. Here are some examples;
Cloud 9 by Jesse Lindenfeld
Cloud 9 attempts to add an accessible visual language to Maintenance Hole covers, representing not only the purpose of the drainage but also the context of the surronding area. With characters inspired by the many mascots I saw while traveling in Japan, this piece is meant to be lighthearted and fun. Cute and disarming chracters smile with cartoon eyes and bubbly forms while their orientation changes across the cover. The bison represents the interesting activities within Santa Clarita, and the clouds and octopi represent the stages of watershed, beginning in the sky and ending in bodies of water.
Water One by Rose Freeland
Images are inspired by a combination of regional natural landscape elements and aquatic/oceanic wildlife. The designs were created by using traditional woodcut/relief printmaking techniques and then scanned and translated to vector based software in preparation for forming into the stamped relief maintenance covers. were created with Adobe Illustrator for this specific project and is part of a collection of ten works.
Queen Clarita by Katrina Alexy
Design highlights the importance water played in the geological formation of Santa Clarita now and when native cultures thrived on the land. This design is a tribute to the “royalty” of the land which is the water, the earth, and the wildlife of the Santa Clarita Valley.