Icons of western heritage enhance new parking garage

Artist Mike Mandel may hail from the Boston area, but that hasn’t stopped him from capturing the spirit of Fort Worth’s frontier roots in a new Fort Worth Public Art installation at the Western Heritage Parking Garage.

The garage is bordered by the new Museum of Science and History and the Fort Worth Community Art Center.

Fort Worth’s history as a pioneering cowtown is a guiding theme in Mandel’s work. Using photographs from the archives of the Museum of Science and History, the Amon Carter Museum, the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Mandel selected iconic images of individuals and events that capture the spirit of Fort Worth’s heritage.

The installation includes four heroically scaled, 33-foot-by-9-foot glass and porcelain tile mosaic murals inset on the exterior of the garage, adjacent to the corner towers of the multilevel structure.

The image that the artist selected to represent the cowboy tradition is a self-portrait photograph of Erwin E. Smith from 1908 titled “The Outlaw,” from the Amon Carter Museum. Smith had always wanted to be a cowboy and an artist, but when he was growing up in Fannin County, the era of the great trail drives was over and Smith feared that the old ways of the cowboys were disappearing. Smith eventually chose photography as his way to preserve a record of the open-range cowboy life.

Mandel’s images of a cowgirl, an equestrian and a longhorn have similar origins in real people and events.

He has embellished these close-cropped portraits with images of Art Deco architectural details from the nearby Will Rogers Memorial Center.

In a proprietary process that Mandel developed, each of his mosaic murals begins as a photographic collage that he enlarges and pixelates. Each pixel in the design is translated into 1-inch-square porcelain or glass titles. The mosaic murals are fabricated by hand in the artist’s studio.

Fort Worth Public Art is a city program whose goals are to create an enhanced visual environment for Fort Worth residents, commemorate the city’s rich cultural and ethnic diversity, integrate the design work of artists into the development of the city’s capital infrastructure improvements, and promote tourism and economic vitality through artistic design of public spaces. The Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County manages the program.

Houston Street garage provides convenient parking in Central Business District

Whether it’s an afternoon at the Water Gardens, an event at the Fort Worth Convention Center or other business in downtown Fort Worth, the new Houston Street Parking Garage provides a safe, convenient and economical place to park.
The garage is at 1200 Houston St., just north of the Omni Hotel. Vehicles enter on West 11th Street.

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