Description and Background
The development of a new artificial sports field at Merkley Park, named in honour of Olympian and community champion Karina LeBlanc, provided an opportunity to create a new public artwork on the concrete gathering space for spectators and residents.
Field of Dreams was created by Glen Andersen through a commission by the City's Public Art Steering Committee (PASC). Andersen worked with Ms. Kira Sinow's class of athletic leadership students at Maple Ridge Secondary on this project to develop site specific themes that were inspired by the Merkley family heritage, indigenous history of the site and Karina LeBlanc's story. The new public artwork is a combination of mosaic and stamped designs that celebrates active living, sport and heritage.
Andersen explains, "I chose the title of Field of Dreams as a metaphor that applies on many levels to Karina's story and all the other aspiring athletes who use the field, but also the dreams of previous users in the past and to multiple species. A follow-the-bouncing-ball motif is the overall visual template, with footprints following alongside and coming in along the edges, almost as if the turkeys, bears, goats and barefoot humans have stepped in wet cement, but also suggesting the multiple users of the land over time and eons, culminating in the cleats of a contemporary athlete, Karina LeBlanc. The turkey footprints are a reference to Don Merkley and his family's farming practices at this site previously."
Artist: Glen Andersen
Glen Andersen is a Vancouver-based sculptor and mosaic artist. After studying film at Simon Fraser University, he shifted directions and committed himself to making what he describes as “accessible, human-scale, handmade pedestrian-friendly” public art.
He is best known for his mosaics, which he has created on his own and in collaboration with community groups. Andersen's art may be seen in parks, plazas, school grounds, residential neighbourhoods and private gardens throughout the northwest.