Southern live oaks are icons of the American South. Our aim was to depict the trees as they might
appear lining an idyllic street in New
Orleans. The panoramic format of the work spans across a children’s play space, transforming a banal
fence into a two-sided mural. We borrowed
techniques from the classic Lite Brite toy to construct the project. Functioning like the colored pegs
of the toy, thousands of transparent acrylic squares, each the size of a playing card, form a pointillist
image of the trees. The squares are like little pieces of stained glass that refract the sun and project
colored light onto the fence. While Shady Lane honors the storybook history of New Orleans, the
shimmering squares catch the attention of kids that are drawn to a video game aesthetic.