email: annemudge@sbcglobal.net

Artist Bio

Anne Mudge, a native of McKeesport, Pennsylvania earned her BFA after studying at both Idaho State University and the University of Oregon, Eugene. Her work has been exhibited nationally, and includes exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the List Visual Arts Center at M.I.T., and the San Diego Museum of Art.

Works

Pacific Flyway
Terminal One at San Diego International Airport, Curbside Seating and Pavement Enhancements
This highly visible location at the airport’s Terminal One represents one of the first experiences many travelers will have of the San Diego area. It’s therefore important to convey there something essential about this place. Not only is San Diego blessed with a rich natural environment, but it is poised on the edge of the Pacific Rim.

What I began to imagine as I developed this piece were shadows on the ground of things flying overhead. Shown on the seat tops are the fleeting images of birds that inhabit our coastline and inland areas, done in rustic terrazzo. Flying high above them are the outlines of airplanes. Here, San Diego’s vibrant technological resources meet the natural landscape. The seats are sited randomly around each of two palm trees, making each palm an oasis of calm.

Etched into the ground plane are shadows of full scale birds, for example the Great Blue Heron who has a wingspan of 77". Tide pool images drawn from representative area species, including sea stars and octopus, enhance several of the terminal entrance ways. They consist of a Lithocrete matrix of seashells, beach pebbles, recycled glass, and terrazzo imagery.

The imagery for this project was in a large part developed from the work of wildlife photographers. Check the PDF links to identify the different species represented, and for contact information for the photographers who generously supplied their work for this project. Download the PDF.

San Diego State Transit Center
San Diego State University Transit Center, San Diego Trolley Green Line, TapRoots, and Stepping Stones at the Trolley Station, and Botanical Tracings and Universal Symbols at Aztec Green, 2005. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Transit System, San Diego, CA.

I was a design team member with Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership from Portland, OR, and Estrada Land Planning from San Diego, CA, from the inception of the architectural design phase in 1999 through project completion in 2005.

The SDSU Transit Center is San Diego's first underground light rail station, and is located at the heart of the SDSU campus next to Aztec Center, the university's student activities building. Situated 40 feet below ground, the station measures 360 feet long by 80 feet wide.

TapRoots
For an underground station, a recollection of roots, whose delicate geometries hint at the rich environment for growth found on the university campus above. They measure approximately 18' x 6.5' x 6.5'.

Suspended ceiling and window grills: The suspended ceiling was conceived of as a transparent boundary separating the realms of above and below ground. Veiled yet still visible through the layered panels is the ceiling's infrastructure, as well as a neon light that traces the partially hidden contours of an upper ceiling. The neon's curvilinear flow echoes the stream-based imagery of the platform below. A steel grillwork covers the clerestory windows along the northwest wall of the station. Its patterns recapitulate the spiral motif in Aztec Green, and its rhythmic variations echo the movement of trains, people and ideas.

Stepping Stones
Etched into the surfaces of 60 granite "stepping stones" are symbols of various cultural and academic disciplines found on the SDSU campus. The granite stones interrupt and redirect the linear flow of bricks around them, just as ideas impact the surrounding intellectual and cultural environments.

Universal Symbols
The life of the mind engages in symbols. The circle, square, equidistant cross, triangle and spiral are universal symbols found in diverse areas of study. These primary forms also serve as unique seating areas.

Botanical Tracings
A total of 45 botanical images were etched into the terraced seating areas of Aztec Green. Human ideas impact the landscape. Therefore, plants that were cultivated and/or introduced to the San Diego region during three different historical periods are illustrated. Cultures represented are the Kuumeyaay who are the indigenous people of southern San Diego County, the Californios from the Spanish colonial period, and the Anglo migrations of the early 20^th century.

North Park Garden Gate
North Park Gateway at University Avenue and Boundary Street, "North Park Garden Gate," 1999. Commissioned by the City of San Diego, CA.

During the 1980's to mid-1990's, there was a sense of growing crisis in the community of North Park, San Diego's   first suburban community built during the early part of the 20 th century. Experiencing the highest recorded crime rates of the entire city, North Park was facing decline. There was a fear that this once vital area filled with Craftsmen and Mission-style bungalows was becoming an undesirable place to live.

Activists in the North Park community began a concerted effort to reclaim their decaying business district. As part of that program, they determined it was crucial to transform the eastern entrance to the community along University Avenue. Abandoned and neglected, it was a textbook illustration of how a purely utilitarian design thoughtlessly inserted into a community's environment could profoundly effect the entire community's sense of well being.

As designer and builder of this project, I focused the design on two key elements that form North Parks' identity. First, the community is strongly identified with its association with Balboa Park, and therefore the idea of a garden. The community also has a rich architectural heritage. Drawing from its Craftsman Era aesthetic, the two gateway pergolas merge elements of the existing built environment with the idea of the garden, by wedding organically shaped "tree capitals" to a design based on the grid.

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