Day 130: Public Art Near Convention Center

Downtown Sacramento is home to a number of public art pieces, as detailed in this self-guided walking tour brochure from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.  In my travels around the downtown grid, I often pass by these artworks and realized that I don't always take the time to notice and study them, although I'd certainly miss them if they were gone and appreciate having this aesthetic element as part of the urban landscape.

This morning, I was struck for some reason by the tall sculpture located just outside of the Convention Center at 13th & K Streets:

Perhaps it was the glowing quality of the morning light in the slightly humid air that caused the statue to catch my eye.  This piece is called La Familia, by artist Eduardo Oropeza, a native Californian who currently lives in East Los Angeles, according to the Wikipedia article.

I don't know quite what the two larger figures, presumably the parents, are lifiting into the air, although it looks as though they could be protecting the smaller figures (their children?) from some type of potential accident.  And each figure also has a hollow in its torso area that looks to be filled with straw or wooden dowels.  The elongated figures of the adults imply almost extra-human force to support the heavy object that threatens the entire family group, and the children below cling to their parents to close the family circle and show solidarity with their parents' efforts.

I couldn't find any other online information to further elucidate the background or meaning of this work, but perhaps that's for the best.  After all, an artist's vision and inspiration don't always translate directly to his or her viewer, which is what can make art appreciation so fascinating and personal (and perhaps frustrating!).