Facing the Sun

Artist: Lazzari and Evans Public Art
Location: Development Services courtyard, 38250 Sierra Highway
Installation Date: August 2018

Facing the Sun revolves around themes closely related to Palmdale, linking the natural phenomena of the immediate area, environmental elements, and local history. It was created by Lauren Evans and Margaret Lazzari, known professionally as Lazzari and Evans Public Art.

The artists focused on two key features: Palmdale’s spectacular sunrises and sunsets, and local wildflowers.

The wildflowers depicted on the panels are lupine, Indian paintbrush, coreopsis and desert globe mallow, with a Joshua tree bloom crowning at the top. The center pole depicts wildflowers on painted aluminum panels that point in four directions like a weather vane. They are intricately shaped with cut out voids, which cast highly-patterned shadows on the other panels and the ground.

The low, wide concrete base is etched with compass points marking locations of sunrise and sunset on the longest day of the year, the shortest day, and the equinox. It also marks astronomic north and magnetic north and contains diagrams of the phases of the moon. The City of Palmdale logo is etched opposite the sun on the base.

About Margaret Lazzari

Margaret Lazzari is an artist, writer, and Professor of Art at the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California. Until 2016, she was Vice Dean of Art and Vice Dean of Faculty, with budgetary, planning, and personnel oversight for the school. 

In addition to her artwork, Lazzari is the co-author of Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach, an art appreciation text with equal representation of Western and non-Western art. She is co-author of Drawing: A Sketch and Textbook and co-author of an upcoming book on life drawing. Her single-author textbook is The Practical Handbook for the Emerging Artist. Lazzari received a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship for works on paper in 1995. Her Master in Fine Arts (MFA) degree, with an emphasis in painting and drawing, is from Washington University in St. Louis.

About Lauren Evans

Lauren Evans is a Los Angeles artist and full-time faculty and gallery director at Los Angeles Southwest College. She has exhibited regularly for over 20 years and has completed several public art commissions. 

Evans has extensive experience in community outreach and programming associated with public art commissions. She worked with at risk youth on art projects at Covenant House in Hollywood, California, in a program funded by public art monies. She also taught art classes with Cry Help, a rehab facility in North Hollywood, as an educator who was part of their public art outreach program. Evans’ MFA degree with an emphasis in sculpture is from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.