The work of art is a bronze sculpture called Water Street: River of Dreams made by the artist Cheri Gaulke in 2003 and it is located at the Lincoln Heights/ Cypress Park Station on the Pasadena Gold Line of Los Angeles. The artist was inspired by the Los Angeles River and the sculpture is of a woman pouring water into a basket. The bottom of the woman’s dress has ripples as if it is made out of water. This sculpture is made out of bronze and the technique used was casting which is an additive process. The method of casting consists of making an original clay sculpture, using armatures to support the weight of the clay, finishing the clay to prepare it for molding, making a mold of the clay sculpture, pouring wax from the mold, wax chasing which is correcting all of the imperfections, spruing a wax, making a ceramic shell, melting out the wax, “casting” the bronze, breaking the ceramic shell, metal chasing, metal welding, sand-blasting the bronze and patinazation. Casting is a long process but the final result is a beautiful bronze sculpture. Gaulke’s sculpture is free-standing or in other words a scultpure in-the-round because it has been completed from every angle. The function of this art piece is site-specific history because it represents a Gabrielino woman from a book with the quote, “The Indian woman who dipped water from the zanja madre and carried it to several households was the city’s first municipal employee, the city’s first waterworks.” The work of art is meant to honor history and the Los Angeles river.
