Plants, birds and butterflies reach new heights in Sundance Square rooftop murals
See Fort Worth Report article by David Moreno here.
They could learn about the city’s Western history with an up-close look at the “Chisholm Trail Mural” or shine bright in front of the large Disco Cowboy Hat at the entertainment district’s plaza.
But not as many visitors know there’s art waiting to be seen above their horizon. All they have to do is look up to find it.
Sundance Square owners Sasha and Ed Bass recently commissioned artists James Prosek and Youri Cansell to create murals on the rooftops of three of their high-rise downtown properties: the Westbrook, the Carnegie and the Commerce building.
The goal? For the artists to create three distinct artworks — individually and together — that celebrate Texas’ biodiversity and natural history at new heights.
“Sundance Square and downtown Fort Worth has an entire ecosystem of its own,” Cansell, known artistically as Mantra, said. “The murals really highlight this passion and love for the living and how we were able to exchange perspectives.”
The rooftop murals are the latest in a string of public art projects shepherded by Sundance Square.
The large murals were a perfect fit for the downtown district, a Sundance Square spokesperson said, given that the artists are bringing “ambitious and thoughtful artworks” into unique and surprising places.
“Art strengthens people’s sense of identity, memory, and emotional connection to one another and their community, which is why public art is essential to an engaging downtown experience that reflects the culture and heritage of Fort Worth,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Fort Worth Report.
This summer, management will install large soccer balls across the district, hand-painted by local artists in conjunction with the World Cup.
Love for nature brings artists together
Cansell and Prosek never collaborated before painting the mural at the Carnegie together. But before the artists met, each was tasked with creating their own homage to the natural world on separate buildings.
Last December, Prosek painted a 5,000-square-foot grassland scene atop the Westbrook, which Sundance Square has coined the world’s largest prairie mural. The artwork featured dozens of Texas flora, including a prairie shooting star, Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets.
The Connecticut-based artist has spent over 20 years illustrating landscapes and wildlife across the U.S. He completed the prairie piece, the largest in his career, with eight other artists after researching the native plants that historically make up Texas.
The mural brings attention to the importance of preserving green space, Prosek said, similar to the prairie project he completed nearly three years ago in a corridor of the Sundance parking garage on West 3rd Street.
Around the same time at the nearby Commerce building, another artist was paying homage to the planet.
French artist Cansell painted nearly 25 butterfly species that migrate through North Texas across four rooftop panels, including monarchs, common buckeyes and spicebush swallowtails. His artwork created the illusion that the butterflies are in glass cases.
Cansell is known internationally for his large-scale butterfly murals on rooftops and building exteriors.
Painting on skyscrapers gives him the opportunity to turn public art into an architectural experience, Cansell said, as high-rise murals offer creative views for people peering from downtown buildings.
“Sometimes just walking on the street, we forget how we are also living in the city on all these different floors and levels,” he said.
The Sundance Square team brought the artists together in March for a joint project, pushing their creativity to a new level. A collaboration felt natural given their mutual passion for the flora and fauna of the natural world, Prosek said.
“We share a deep love of nature that is a continuation of a childlike curiosity that hasn’t been extinguished yet, but it’s all about this kind of love of the beauty of things that evolution has made over long periods of time,” he said.
Prosek and Cansell spent a month working together to paint a bird mural on roof panels of the 16-story Carnegie building. The mural features dozens of species native to the region, including a cardinal, falcon and yellow warbler.
The artwork can be seen by those walking on the Trinity Trails or driving on Interstate 30.
The joint project expanded Prosek’s mind on his approach to future murals, he said. Prosek joked that Cansell taught him the significance of creating large-scale art with paint rollers.
“Taking on a full color space at that scale was definitely intimidating,” Prosek said. “But Youri walked me through that process and taught me how he works. It was a great experience.”
The artists hope every time visitors look up to the murals, they catch a glimpse of a plant or bird species they hadn’t spotted before.
In their eyes, Mother Nature doesn’t have to only flourish from the ground. Her children can shine just as bright from any level — even the peak of a skyscraper.
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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