The traffic control box near Eunice Jensen Park will be painted with a new design next week. (Photo by Nick Sestanovich)

Staff Report

The first phase of the Arts & Culture Commission’s Public Art Initiative will commence next week when two young artists paint the traffic controller signal box at the corner of First and Military.

Last year, the Art & Culture Commission unveiled its new project, which aims to install more public art in Benicia, including murals on buildings and traffic control boxes. The first phase of the project consists of painting art on traffic control boxes which will take place over the summer, beginning Monday, June 11 when two Benicia Unified School District students paint art on the box at the start of the pathway leading to Eunice Jensen Park and the Benicia Public Library.

The artists are Jiana Lyons and Samantha Johnson, who this fall will be entering ninth and 10th grade at Benicia High School respectively. Through the supervision of retired art educator, working artist and former Benicia resident Karen Norton, Johnson and Lyons submitted a proposed to the city a design consisting  of a reader enjoying a book while underneath a tree, selected from shelves of books in the background. The proposal was approved by the City Council.

Both students are experienced artists. Lyons was enrolled in advanced art at Benicia Middle School and won the 18th District Napa-Solano PTA Art Reflections Contest with her poster collage of hand-painted and paper cut snowflakes representing the theme “Diversity Means…” In addition to painting, Lyons also takes piano lessons and plays soccer competitively.

Last year, Johnson won first place and best in show in the Solano County Office of Education’s Art Fair with her graphite drawing “Who are You?” beating out more than 500 middle and high school students in the county. She is also a singer and member of VOENA.

The work will begin the same week the library plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary on East L Street.

The remainder of the traffic boxes will be painted by other artists whose designed were approved by the council. Lisa Kankkunen will paint a box, Cody Frisinger and Kerry Lee Laird will paint two each and Bill Gian will paint three boxes. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.

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