"Poet’s Path, Circle of Laureates" By Troy Corliss

The artwork at the South Natomas Park honors past and present Sacramento Poets Laureate: Bob Stanley, Julia Connor, Jeff Knorr, Viola Weinberg, Dennis Schmitz and Jose Montoya. This project was inspired by Julia Connor during her term as Sacramento Poet Laureate.

LOCATION

South Natomas Park
2901 Truxel Rd.
Sacramento, CA 95833

HISTORY

Regional artist, Troy Corliss, was chosen in 2007 through a competitive panel review process to create a work of art at South Natomas Park that honors Sacramento’s poets laureate. A celebration will be planned after the landscaping around the artwork is completed in May. Click here to see an article in The Natomas Buzz.

The concept for a “Poet Park” was first introduced to the Arts Commission in 2005 by Julia Connor during her tenure as Sacramento’s Poet Laureate. Ms. Connor’s intention was to foster civic pride by creating a poetry project that celebrated Sacramento and affected as many participants as possible. The artwork consists of six unique corten steel sculptures that honor past and present Sacramento Poets Laureate: Bob Stanley, Julia Connor, Jeff Knorr, Viola Weinberg, Dennis Schmitz and Jose Montoya. The sculptures are text-based and in various sizes and forms. Installed in the open space between the South Natomas Library and the South Natomas Community Center buildings at Poet Laureate Park, the sculptures are intended to be read as a unifying whole.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

In 1993, Corliss graduated from the studio art program at the University of California at Davis, where he studied figure drawing and sculpture. Since then he has completed more than 16 works of public art for private institutions and public agencies in California, Nevada, Ohio and Colorado. In the last six years, Corliss has been artist-in-residence at the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, California, the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, and the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis.