Hubert Massey will return this summer to install seven more mosaics on the dugouts at Stoepel Park this summer. Before he begins a public art project, Hubert asks the surrounding community for their ideas about how they want their community represented. On Saturday, April 4, Grandmont Rosedale residents will get their chance to share their vision for the mosaics at Stoepel. So come to GRDC, 19800 Grand River, this Saturday at 2pm to the Mosaic Visioning Workshop and share your ideas! For more information or to RSVP, contact Becki Kenderes at 313.387.4732 ext. 101 or bkenderes@grandmontrosedale.com.
Here’s some more information about Hubert Massey and some of his other public art projects:
Want to know what Peck Park on Brush Street, the pedestrian bridge over 75 in Southwest Detroit, the Atheneum Hotel, Children’s Hospital, the Federal Reserve Bank, Campus Martius, the Detroit Athletic Club, and the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church have in common? They all contain works by world renowned Detroit artist Hubert Massey. As of last summer, Stoepel Park can be added to that list!
Before he creates public art Hubert asks the community about “their ideas of how they want to see their community portrayed.” Last summer,when Hubert asked Grandmont Rosedale kids what they wanted on their new dugout, the kids said they wanted a baseball theme, a happy day, and lots of different kinds of kids. When you stop by Stoepel off of Westwood you will see the kids’ vision realized in blue, yellow, orange, and white: a baseball player, sporting a Detroit ball cap is throwing not a ball but the sun while hands of many colors reach to catch it. According to Hubert, the mosaic was “totally inspired by the kids. They all seem to like it. This was a big experience for a lot of them.”
Hubert knows a thing or two about creating things that are big. In fact, most of Hubert’s work is large-scale. When Hubert cites the dimensions of his work as 30 x 30 or 6 x 47, he means feet, not inches. He prefers the big projects. In fact, Hubert’s first training as an artist prepared him for such large scale and long-term projects. Before he graduated from Grand Valley State University with a degree in art, Hubert was hired in Detroit as a billboard sign painter. Back when billboards were hand painted, Hubert climbed up above freeways and on the sides of buildings and painted advertisements. He became a sign painter on the advice of one of his mentors (who himself was an assistant to Diego Rivera), who told Hubert that if he really wanted to learn how to draw, he should become a sign painter. As a journeyman sign painter not only did Hubert learn how to draw, he also learned how to run a crew of people which is what he does now with his public art work. “A lot of disciplines come together when you create public art,” says Hubert. Structural engineers need to be involved to be sure the structure can hold the art, architects need to be there as well and painters, fabricators, tile setters, laborers, and of course, the artist.
Hubert Massey offers bus tours for people who are interested in seeing his many works of public art around town. That bus tour might soon include a stop in our community, at Stoepel Park to see the mosaics on our new dugouts!