Artist Richard Elliott is reflective when it comes to reflectors. They are his medium and his message.
As part of RTD’s art program for the southeast corridor train line, Elliott and his crew affixed 4,000 highway reflectors to the walls and ceiling of a pedestrian tunnel near the Belleview Avenue rail station.
The light-rail line is scheduled to open Nov. 17, and each of its 13 stations will have a distinct piece of commissioned art.
Elliott’s is the first to be installed on the 19-mile train line, said Brenda Tierney, the Regional Transportation District’s manager for the art program.
“I work in geometric patterns found globally in cultures throughout time,” said Elliott, of Ellensburg, Wash., as the final 4-inch-square Ray-O-Lite reflectors were being epoxied to the 100-foot-long tunnel wall. “They are symbolic representations of fundamental patterns of energy. They mirror the cosmos.”
Industrial-grade road reflectors are made from high-quality translucent acrylic “with a diamond pattern in the back that captures light and spins it back out toward its source,” says Elliott’s website, reflectorart.com.
In the highway business, reflectors are used to highlight road structures like bridge rails and abutments. They also can be embedded in pavement to delineate lanes.
At the Belleview tunnel, sunlight at the entrances illuminates the reflectors during the day. Sidewalk lamps help light them up at night. Taken together, the thousands of white, blue, red, green and amber squares will create a “kaleidoscope of time” for rail riders as they walk through the “reflectorized” passageway, Elliott said.
RTD is spending about $750,000 for the commissioned art at stations – an average of about $60,000 per installation, Tierney said. Elliott got $50,000 for his work, she added.
If a painting represents “a moment in time that doesn’t change,” reflectors break that definition by changing constantly in response to light, Elliott said. “They are delightful objects.”
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-820-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
