NORFOLK, Va. - A new public art sculpture has landed in Norfolk!
Presented by Norfolk Arts, "Navigator" is a monumental blue heron made from decommissioned plane parts and structural elements of steel and aluminum with hand blown glass eyes. It is fittingly on display at the Norfolk International Airport.
The 24-ft. tall heron, which has a 44-ft. wingspan, was created by Don Kennell and Lisa Adler of DKLA Design of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The sculpture celebrates the miracle of flight and Norfolk, a place blue herons call home.
The artwork arrived at the southwest corner of Azalea Garden Road and Norview Avenue on June 3 and took about two days to assemble.
“As artists, we love the idea of transport. We hope to transport the viewer outside their daily lives to spark imagination. The idea also relates to material as we transport rigid metals into something dynamic and alive. When we use recycled materials, we further demonstrate the process of transformation by changing what has been discarded into something with a new life of beauty and possibility,” says Adler.
“People coming and going at the airport get inside aluminum birds every day. 'Navigator' serves as an open-armed welcome and a good luck farewell to those travelers and everyone coming and going. We are all on a journey somewhere including the herons and wildlife that call Hampton Roads home,” says Kennell.
Norfolk Arts is the City of Norfolk’s art program that manages the public art program, the Arts & Humanities Commission and the Offsite Gallery. For more information, click here.
