Neighborhood Gallery Homepage

NEWS RELEASE!
June, 2000

 
   
Neighborhood Gallery Homepage
Neighborhood Gallery History
Neighborhood Gallery Tour
Grants Neighborhood Gallery Awarded for Children
Gallery News Releases

Contributing Artists
Bill Arnio
Ortiz Acosta
Richard Beau Lieu
Beau Lieu Website
Liela Boås
Linda Dudak
DXTR
Ted Fawcett
Bill Grossett
Kathleen Henner
More Henner
Richard Johnson
Helen Kelsey
Charlie McCann
Lois Niesen
N.A.R.P. Grant Children
Neighborhood Children
Laura Paboojian
Linda Sage
Edward Schlatmann
Stan Sternbach
Stan Sternbach (photo)
Pat Stone
Jeff Thomasson
Joan Gersh Zalenski

PAST NEWS ISSUES
December 2003
January 2001
December 2000
August 2000
June 2000

Boynton Beach Neighborhood Art District, sign

Mother and Child
Mother and Child
steel sculpture from Rick Beau Lieu

Palm Beach Post June, 2000

The Boynton Beach
Neighborhood Gallery

422 W. Industrial Ave.
Boynton Beach
.

More than 60 sculptures and paintings are located on property paralleling Industrial Avenue. The site began modestly when the road was widened several years ago. Artists working on the avenue decided to put in new fences and landscape the property, adding coral rocks and man-made hills. Wall sculptures were erected first, and then the informal project just continued to grow. The site is lighted at night, and is open free to the public at all hours.

Neighborhood Gallery - Hompage

Neighborhood Gallery - Hompage

 

Blue-collar employees, sculptors turn eyesore into artsy landscape

By KARIN MEADOWS
Of The Associated Press

BOYNTON BEACH - The six yellow front-end loaders serve a new purpose these days. The once powerful, now rusty machines sit side by side in a parking lot where Ray Marcinkoski plucks their parts for repairs on modem dirt movers. But the grading company owner has to maneuver carefully around the machines their scoops are now easels for colorful 4-by-8 foot paintings in this industrial area turned artsy landscape by blue-collar workers and a sculptor.

Nearby, an urban roadside once littered with old mattresses, discarded refrigerators and mounds of trash now is lined with metal sculptures and other rustic art - a yellow chrome gear, marble totem poles and Picasso-like paintings by neighborhood children.

"There was old cars, refrigerators - you name it. Just imagine 600 yards of junk," said the gruff and tough-looking Marcinkoski, who two years ago made a deal with the City of Boynton Beach to supply dumpsters for the rubbish in exchange for his cleaning up of West Industrial Avenue. Marcinkoski was the catalyst for the beautification. He pushed around sand and dirt encroaching one side of the road to create a bank, then built a wooden fence as a backdrop and hauled in huge chunks of coral for decoration. He hauls in trees and plants he finds discarded on job sites and nurtures them into the bank alongside purchased flowers.

Meanwhile, Richard W. Beau Lieu, a sculptor whose work can be seen in galleries and public buildings across the nation, has turned his landlord's vision into a mission. Beau Lieu, owner of the Neighborhood Gallery next door to Marcinkoski's shop, commissioned artists to create metal sculptures and paintings on burlap and canvas for a streetside garden gallery in progress. The result is not a feminine display, or even reminiscent of most Florida gardens, which are lush and tropical.

The rugged, rocky landscape exudes a man's touch and is almost desert-like. The 60 pieces along the street include chrome bumper art in the shape of a cactus, a purple metal unicycle tucked between two

continued next column


Below: The article as it appeared in the Palm Beach Post Press

Articles from newpapers about the Neighborhood Gallery

In the newspaper article, Richard W. Beau Lieu, the sculptor and proprietor of Neighborhood Gallery, stands in front of his gallery recently in Boynton Beach.

scruffy trees and Jackson Pollack-style paintings by local artist Helen Kelsey. But it is the wildflowers growing among the sculptures and paintings that excite Beau Lieu the most. "You can see what nature is doing," Beau Lieu says as he points at a black metal sculpture tangled with wild red and white bleeding heart. Hot pink bougainviuea peaks over the wooden fence behind it.

At night, the view is different. The once dark street is now flooded with lights that illuminate the sculptures and paintings. A 10-foot post of metal recreated into birthday candle complete with frosting and a flame marks the entrance to Beau Lieu's gallery. Now, people stroll the street to view the art as late as 1 a.m. "The overall benefit is all of the neighbors have joined in," said a sculptor who goes only by the name Dextr. "People come by and say, 'Hey, I've got 100 plants,' or bring money to help out. This place was filled with rubbish. Now you hardly see a bottle on the side of the road."
Neighborhood Gallery beutification project
The scoops of six front-end loaders are now easels for colorful 4-by-8 foot paintings in an industrial area in Boynton Beach, which has been transformed into an artsy landscape by blue-collar workers and some sculptors.

Neighborhood Gallery - Hompage

Neighborhood Gallery - Hompage

Email: beaulieustudios@aol.com

Neighborhood Gallery
422 West Industrial Avenue
Boynton Beach, Florida 33426

Please call for hours and directions.
Phone 561-736-8181

©2000 - 2005 Neighborhood Gallery

HOMEPAGE GALLERY HISTORY GALLERY TOUR CHILDREN'S GRANT GALLERY NEWS