Artist Juan Martinez painted this Carlton Radial Drill at Commerce Grinding on behalf of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group.
The group, which awards a $10,000 contract to an artist for public art every year, had focused on this drill for its 2014 award.
Artists Scott Shubin and Julie Hulcy won the contest with their idea to turn the drill into a “steam-punk bird,” but the owner of Commerce Grinding didn’t like the design. So Shubin and Hulcy built their bird anyway, and it was installed outside Metro Paws Animal Hospital in October.
The Fort Worth Avenue group instead hired Martinez to paint the drill more to the business owners’ liking.
“The way we see it, we have two new pieces this year on our corridor for about the same investment as we were committed to for one piece,” says David Lyles, the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group’s president.
