Art In The Family

Two new pieces of public art grace the walking path of Peck’s Pond Park in West Haverstraw, New York. One is a sculpture in resin and bronze by longtime Palisadian artist Cristina Biaggi, 89. The other is a mural depicting the town’s history as a brickmaking hub by Palisades native Savannah Green, 37. Both were commissioned by the West Haverstraw municipality to beautify its main park and to celebrate the town’s past and present.

The serendipity here is that Biaggi and Green are grandmother and granddaughter, and they were commissioned by the town independently of one another. Biaggi learned of her commission in April and had already asked Green to help her with the project because of the tight production schedule, but then Green learned in June that she too had secured a commission.

“It was so cool,” says Green, “I was going to be with her in a supportive role, but to be side by side together as equals felt like a real evolution.” Green credits Biaggi with instilling a love of art during the many hours they spent painting together when Green was a child, and it makes the commissions especially meaningful to both. “It’s incredible,” says Biaggi, “I feel as if I’m passing it on, you know?”

A student of the classics, Biaggi has always been fascinated by ancient Greek and Egyptian art, but her piece for West Haverstraw was inspired by Post-Impressionist Henri Matisse’s Le Ronde. The sculpture is entitled The Joy of Becoming and features three children dancing joyfully in a circle. Biaggi wanted to underscore the diversity of West Haverstraw’s population, so she chose local children, one Latino, one White and one Black, to model for the sculpture. Green and fellow artist Lou Stainback helped with the clothing while Biaggi focused on the heads and faces. “I could do it in three months only because of their help,” says Biaggi.

Green was in Mexico City working with muralist Jules Muck as part of an artist’s residency when she answered the open call for the West Haverstraw mural commission. She’d discovered a love for painting in public spaces during the residency and was eager to try her hand at more such projects. “Public art is a bridge between working publicly and privately,” says Green. “It’s a portal to where creating can meet a community in real time.” After she was awarded the commission, she discovered how true that philosophy was as people came up to chat with her while she worked. They laughed, snapped selfies and ultimately inspired Green to omit the figures in the foreground she had originally envisioned. “That plan changed when I saw people interacting with the mural,” says Green.

Biaggi recalls witnessing a similarly direct interaction the day her sculpture was installed. A clutch of children spontaneously ran up to the piece and began their own dance - literally embodying the joy Biaggi had worked to capture. Such moments confirm her belief in the power of art to be transformative. “It makes you think, it makes you feel,” she says. “It changes your perspective on things.”

It’s a happy twist of fate that the artwork of a grandmother and granddaughter are sited close to one another at Peck’s Pond, but Biaggi and Green agree that there’s a broader message behind these two works, which is that art, especially public art, is an absolute necessity. “Bringing color and life and things made by human hands is uplifting,” says Green. “Communities need it.”