PUBLIC COMMISSION
San Francisco Public Library Portola Branch. “California Wildflowers” 2009
This Public art project commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Before an artist does a public commission, they meet with the public to get their feedback. When I worked in Portola it was distinguished as the most diverse (& happily so) neighborhood in the city. This was not reflected by the people who came to the art planning and feedback meeting for the soon to be built new library.
The people who came to the library meetings were the people who had time on their hands, the white seniors. They remembered the neighborhood, back in the day when it was mostly cow pastures and plant nurseries, being near the flower mart.
I decided to represent and stylize 20 natural California wildflowers.


The flowers are made from kiln casting glass powders in a mold onto a glass sheet. The vertical 5 panel glass screens are installed onto steel poles. The screens rotate and have locking positions so the librarian can adjust the bright sunlight that comes into the front magazine reading room.
Below is a slide show of panels, each 18 x 24″
PRIVATE COMMISSIONS
In addition to public commissions, I have done many private architectural glass commissions. Moving from the SF mission district to the Oakland hills after the fire had recently destroyed 2,843 homes, I worked with an architect/builder team creating high end spec houses and was part of rebuilding the neighborhood. Published nationally with that work enabled me to get commissions in other parts of California and across the country. I am honored to have work in a Julia Morgan home in Grass Valley CA and
in two Maybeck homes in Berkeley and Los Gatos CA.
Designing and fabricating glass tile, window and door panels, I cut designs out of sheet copper and melted the designs between two panels of plate glass which provides design, transmits light and obscures the view. Below is a small sampling of this work.














Hi Dana; your “California Wildflowers” is absolutely spectacular! I hope to someday see it in person. I’m Lisa Rosenberg from Maryknoll Ave; I live now in NYC and have a house in the Catskills.