Gateway art pays homage to town’s namesake cats
The town of Los Gatos gets its name from the mountain lions who roam the foothills. Now, one of the city’s most trafficked entry and exit points will pay further homage to the big cats with a new art installation.
The soon-to-be-installed metal sculpture bears the town’s name and depicts a prowling mountain lion perched atop a green peak. Seattle artist Matt Babcock created the piece, and in keeping with his signature style, the cat is depicted slightly abstractedly, but its likeness is clear.
The installation marks the first of several “gateway” pieces the Los Gatos Arts Commission plans for entry and exit points throughout the town. The first site will be the median at the intersection of Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Alberto Way.
City arts commissioner Maureen Cappon-Javey, now in her third three-year term, remembers when the project was first conceived of in 2014. The commissioners wanted to revamp the town’s signage to better reflect the rich arts scene. They began searching for the best places to put the new signs, narrowing it down to five spots throughout the town.
In 2017, the commission secured $25,000 in funding from Los Gatos for the project. One-fifth of the budget was spent on recruiting artists to submit options and paying them for the work that went into developing ideas for consideration. The additional funds went to Babcock.
The official request for submissions yielded 14 submissions from a variety of artists; one proposal came from as far as Argentina.
“We were surprised because we’re a little town and this is a little commission,” Cappon-Javey said.
Three finalists traveled to Los Gatos to present their work. Mock-ups were displayed in the local library so that residents could weigh in on the options. According to Cappon-Javey, Babcock’s design was the clear winner.
Babcock’s design was unique, reflecting his background as an architect and welder. He said his slightly abstracted style was influenced by Chinese and Japanese art and writing.
“The kind of process of distillation, economically trying to reveal something about the subject, led me to this kind of calligraphic style,” Babcock said. “It’s based on lines — lines and space rather than lines on paper.”
Babcock lives in Seattle, but he’s been specializing in public artwork since 2008, so he’s developed a way to tailor each piece to the place it will ultimately be displayed. He did as much research as he could on Los Gatos before beginning his design. He was particularly inspired by the origin of the town’s name, and he wanted to incorporate the image of the mountain lion into his design.
“I do make an effort to reflect something that’s special about the communities that I’m designing things for,” Babcock said.
While the arts commission hasn’t yet secured funding for the additional four sculptures, Cappon-Javey is hopeful the town’s recent promise of more arts funding will help make them a reality.
She also said she hopes what she expects to be a positive public reception will encourage the city to allocate more funding to the project.
“I really believe once that cat goes up, we’re going to get a lot of great response and excitement around it,” Cappon-Javey said. “Hopefully enough to say, ‘Hey, let’s keep going and complete the other four locations!’”
The Los Gatos Public Works Department is set to install Babcock’s piece on Monday.