Crosswalk Art in the Plaza: “Walking Upstream” 

16 Jul Crosswalk Art in the Plaza: “Walking Upstream” 

Honoring Indigenous food sources.
Artist: Glory Nylander.

Thirteen photos.
Published July 2024.

“It’s awesome to see something that I have been working on for fun and self-care develop into this huge 37-foot art piece.” 

Glory Nylander

A normal, nondescript crosswalk in a very prominent location suddenly blossomed with bright, colorful designs on the morning of July 2, 2024. Artist Glory Nylander calls her design “Walking Upstream.” She told me that her goal was to create a graphic you could see and appreciate from all angles. The key for her, through multiple versions of the design ideas, was to find a way for pedestrians to see the salmon swimming upstream from both directions while walking across the street. The image below shows three of the many early and later versions of Glory’s design.

As you can see from the photos, the crosswalk connects the entrance to Lithia Park with the southwest corner of Ashland Plaza, current location of the Gateway Real Estate office. As a pilot project for crosswalk art in Ashland, this crosswalk has a lot going for it. With heavy pedestrian usage, hundreds of people each day will view the art up close at walking speed, with the ability to stop for a moment to appreciate it. In addition, the auto traffic moves slowly at this turn, which is good for the pedestrians and for the longevity of the art.

Meet the artist

I interviewed artist Glory Nylander a few days after the crosswalk art was installed. I like to ask artists this question: “When did you first think of yourself as an artist?” Glory surprised me by responding, “I was born a musician, but raised an athlete.” Growing up, she was very focused on sports. She had many creative interests as well, but art was not the first one. Due to her mother’s love of theater, Glory helped out as a child, learning “crafty” skills to create sets and props. After graduation from high school, music became her creative passion. A singer-songwriter, she currently lives and performs in the Vancouver, Washington area, playing a range of music from acoustic folk and rock to worship songs.

As you recall, most live music came to a halt during the COVID pandemic years. At that time, she got an iPad and began to create graphic art and graphic design. Her style gravitated toward bold, simple, two-dimensional designs. Here is one example. You might recognize the Three Sisters mountains near Bend.

At this point in our talk, she brought her answer to my first question full circle by explaining: “To be honest, when channel 12 [KDRV] did a local news story about the crosswalk, it said ‘Glory Nylander’ and the caption was ‘artist.’ I took a photo of that on the TV screen, because that is the first time I have been referenced as ‘artist.'” That was a sweet moment for Glory, but also much more. She went on, “This is a huge step for me, my first public art piece. This whole project was very special, a big moment for me.”  

How the art crosswalk came to be

Beginning in 2022, crosswalk art projects were discussed within the Public Arts Advisory Committee and with Ashland Public Works staff. The benefits relate to beautification and traffic calming, as well as finding new ways to artistically explore themes like history, education and inclusiveness. Street and crosswalk art (also known as asphalt art) has been well received in many cities worldwide. This Ashland conversation was also stimulated by Medford’s artistic crosswalks installed in 2021 next to the Craterian Theater and Medford Library. 

According to the City, “This project is part of the City of Ashland Beautification Initiative, aimed at enhancing the visual appeal and cultural richness of our historic downtown area.” After a couple years of conversations about crosswalk art and narrowing the focus of the project, a Call for Artists went out in mid-May 2024. Medford station channel 12/KDRV shared Ashland’s call for artists to design a crosswalk during their news program of May 24, 2024. Glory’s mother, who lives near Klamath Falls, saw the news clip and told Glory about it. The tight deadline for artist submissions was June 7, followed by a Selection Committee meeting on June 10. Five crosswalk art designs were submitted, then reviewed by the eight-member Selection Committee, which included members of the Public Arts Advisory Committee, Historic Preservation Advisory Committee and Transportation Advisory Committee, plus representatives from the Parks Department, adjacent businesses and citizens at large. The goal was to have the crosswalk art installed before July 4^th, the biggest holiday in Ashland, when thousands of people would have an opportunity to see it.

A challenging design process

First, this crosswalk is located between the 1855 Ashland Plaza and the 1916 Lithia Park, so artists were asked to incorporate a historic theme into their design. 

Second, perhaps the biggest design challenge came from the material used to create the crosswalk art. Paint does not hold up well to auto traffic. Even exterior paint or acrylic paint is likely to fade on a roadway in a year or less. Therefore, Ashland Public Works staff installed the design using the longest-lasting material currently available for crosswalks, which is called thermoplastic. A thick and sturdy material, it is heat-bonded with the underlying asphalt for stability. Even with this sturdy thermoplastic, the weight and wheels of automobiles take their toll. Thermoplastic crosswalk art is estimated to last from three to five years before it needs to be refreshed or replaced. 

Because of its thickness and how it is applied to the asphalt, thermoplastic must be pre-cut in large pieces, normally wider than 2 inches across. Designs cannot include fine lines or details, which was a major challenge for the artists who submitted designs. Plus, the thermoplastic supplier has only eight in-stock colors for a quick-turnaround project like this one (though with a longer lead time, it is possible to specify many more colors).

The Selection Committee identified a third challenge posed by this crosswalk art project as they discussed the artist submissions during their June 10 meeting. Unlike art on a wall, the crosswalk is viewed from multiple angles, both by pedestrians and by auto drivers. Therefore, committee members considered which artist submissions could be appreciated from multiple directions. Glory’s quote below shows that she was already aware of that challenge as she created her design.

“I know Ashland has a rich history and my hope was to create a bold piece of art that would be interesting, recognizable, visible from all angles and maybe even informative as people look into the meaning of the images together as they represent the Shasta people and their connection with the natural landscape of Ashland, Oregon.”

Glory Nylander

Glory Nylander’s response to the challenging design

The Call for Artists included a list of downtown Ashland historic references for artists to consider. Glory picked up on the reference to a Shasta Indian winter village at this location when American pioneers came to the area. She said, “I knew this crosswalk design could actually be a bridge in time connecting us to the past. I started researching the Shasta people who lived in and around Ashland and I found that they ate elderberry, salmon, camas flower root and acorn flour. The blue symbolizes the river and crosses at an angle so either direction you can feel as if you are ‘walking upstream,’ in the same way the salmon run upstream in our rivers here in the Pacific Northwest, again connecting us to nature.”

As mentioned above, when Glory began creating art on an iPad during the pandemic, she was attracted to simple, bold designs. Her favored style happened to fit really well with the guidelines for the crosswalk design and the limited color palette. She said, “It’s awesome to see something that I have been working on for fun and self-care develop into this huge 37-foot art piece.” 

Installation before dawn on July 2

The City put out the word on July 2^nd. “Exciting news in Ashland! The new crosswalk at the Lithia Park entrance on Winburn Way was installed this morning. The amazing Ashland Street Division expertly installed the thermoplastic artwork before sunrise in an effort to cause no disruption to downtown traffic and businesses.” 

Glory hoped to be here for the installation, but she missed it by several hours. Her mother lives near Klamath Falls, which is how Glory is connected to Southern Oregon, the two pianos she painted for the Klamath Falls Piano Project, and now Ashland. She and her family were visiting her mother in early July, but by the time they drove from Klamath Falls to Ashland, her crosswalk design had been installed.

Nevertheless, once she got here, she was delighted. She told me, “It was entertaining to see people walk across the street and say, ‘This wasn’t here yesterday.’ It was fun to witness families see it for the first time. This was my first time visiting Ashland and I really enjoyed it. I look forward to coming back to explore Lithia Park further and to show other people my crosswalk.”

A bit of serendipity was the chance meeting between Glory and Derek Severson, Planning Manager for the City of Ashland. Derek took two photos of Glory with “her crosswalk.”

“My daughters [four and five years old] did the world premiere in their pre-school class. It was a memorable and joyful performance for us all!”  

Glory Nylander

A sweet and surprising story

I mentioned earlier that Glory is a multi-talented, creative person. For this story, it is also important to know that Glory is married and the couple have three children, ages five, four and one year. Even knowing about her creative interests, I was amazed by this story she told me. 

“My five-year-old daughter and I went and saw The Nutcracker this past winter. It was the first time for both of us. I looked around the hall and every seat was sold. It was four-year-olds to grandparents in the audience, and also up on the stage. I have been looking for some kind of art or performance art that was multi-generational. My husband is a classical pianist, so I’m always looking for classical concerts or performances that include the whole family.”  

“My daughter was so inspired by the ballet, she came home and was dancing around, saying ‘I’m the Sugar Plum Fairy.’ She started making up this whole story about the Sugar Plum Fairy. So I thought, ‘Let’s write a sequel to The Nutcracker.’ We wrote a whole ballet! Usually, it’s a choreographer or composer making a ballet. ‘Writing a ballet’ is not really a thing – but because it’s not really a thing, you can kind of do whatever you want. We are using public domain music, taking inspiration from songs my husband has played as a classical pianist.” 

“I sent it off to some of my friends who are choreographers and stage managers to edit. We’re looking for a dance company to take it on. In the meantime, my daughters [four and five years old] did the world premiere in their pre-school class. It was a memorable and joyful performance for us all!”  

If you would like to collaborate with Glory on a project, or explore her creative pursuits, please visit her website: https://www.glorynylander.com.

That’s a wrap. In the meantime, take a stroll this summer “Walking Upstream” on the new artistic crosswalk.

References:

Lund, Isabel. “Lithia Park gets new decorated crosswalk,” KDRV TV website, July 2, 2024.

https://www.kdrv.com/community/lithia-park-gets-new-decorated-crosswalk/article_a1ce0006-38dd-11ef-b9f7-8f0a286edd02.html

Nylander, Glory. Interview, July 5, 2024.

Glory Nylander’s website: GloryNylander.com