Art Bikes Unicorn Fleet
On June 30, 2019, Healthy Ride, in partnership with PPG Paints and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, launched five unique bikes into the existing fleet of 550 bicycles. These five bikes are special, each one designed by a local artist or group of artists who hand-crafted and designed their bicycle.
The Art Bike Project celebrates Pittsburgh by bringing mobile public art to its streets and engaging the local art community in an effort to further beautify Pittsburgh neighborhoods. PPG Paints donated not only the 1Shot! paint to professionally create each design, but also their training facility and staff to help make each work of art a reality.
Jes LaVecchia (Jeshaka)
“I am a Pittsburgh artist, born & raised south of the city that’s been living in town off and on for the better part of a decade, currently residing in Crafton. I work for Allegheny Clinic at AGH, a direct partner of Highmark, so that encourages me to participate even more. I show in galleries & coffee shops locally and sell my work at Handmade Arcade, the Mattress Factory gift shop and online.”
Jameelah Platt
“My objective is to create a translation of the spaces that we as community can mutually acknowledge, remember and embrace. When we are approached with something recognizable, we are often faced with emotions that take us as viewers to a memorable space. The rendition of these themes are presented to create comfort through depictions of communal spaces and awaken ideas of nostalgia, comfort and community.”
Zachary Rutter
“I am a professional artist and recent college graduate, living and working in the city of Pittsburgh. My art is my way of spreading positivity to all of those I come in contact with throughout my creative journey. That is why I started my movement called the Spread Love Army, which is set on putting an end to the war on hate by simply promoting a message of Love. Love is very powerful and often overlooked, but It’s something that radiates strongly across our beautiful city. Pittsburgh is full of proud citizens that express love undeniably for our culture, which is the root of what art is about. Art is a representation of the culture it’s created around.”
Jason Sauer
“A large part of what I do focuses on public art and making art accessible to all through custom vehicles such as art cars and demolition derby trucks. The idea of the Unicorn Bike Project really connected things I love together. Public art, custom modes of transportation, and PPG Paint!”
Heather Mallak (Public Studio), Shaili Chibba, Christopher Pandolfi & Melanie Kapogines (Department of Unusual Certainties)
“We are a team of designers who are driven by our natural curiosity to design experiences, spaces and visualizations that engage communities and inspire conversation. We’ve always blurred the lines between the conventional practices of urbanism, design, art and problem solving.
We worked together to create a design that expresses how the act of riding a bicycle is inextricably linked with human emotion through reactions to the sights, sounds and smells around us, eliciting a spectrum of emotion from intense fear to boundless joy. Our work often incorporates both the physical and digital landscapes, and our bike is meant to express the range and fluctuation of feelings visually through a colorful representation of the emotional gradient combined with an augmented reality marker to bring the design to life with a simple and fun digital experience.”
About the Artists:
Lizzie Greenberger
Lizzie finds inspiration in everyday little random things. And she means everything. Lizzie is constantly painting tiny paintings in her head all day long. Her physical art tends to become unpredictable, whimsical, or even unusual like a wandering journey. She believes talent is irrelevant in creating art and the thirst to bend boundaries of paint and being able to experiment with tools and her mind makes life and creating very exciting.
Lori Hepner
Lori is a visual artist working with photography in light painting using LEDs in performative gestures that retrace movements across landscapes from memory. She recently founded River Route, an exploratory artist and adventurer residency program, with a fall weekend hike planned for late September. A desire to experience places that will be changing over the course of her lifetime has drawn her outdoors with a recent focus on the Arctic. Lori lives in Pittsburgh and is associate professor of integrative arts at Penn State Greater Allegheny, is board chair at Silver Eye Center for Photography, and exhibits her work internationally.
Jay Obstarczyk
Jay is a graphic designer based out of Pittsburgh, PA. He spends his days creating pieces such as advertisements and billboards that can be seen throughout the city. Outside of his love for design, Jay enjoys being a superhero fanatic, playing his guitars, and watching movies with his wife and friends from the VIP section of Loews Theater at the Waterfront.
One of the reasons I love Pittsburgh is because the layout of the city offers residents the ability to cross throughout town easily. I was drawn to the Healthy Ride program because of its initiative to keep other Pittsburghers on the move and its promotion of an activity that is affordable and accessible to all.
– Jay Obstarczyk
Jason Sauer
Jason creates art from objects sourced from his environment and uses the art to create dialogue with in his community. From PPG Paint & Alcoa Metal for paintings to smashing cars in the demolition derby as performance art, Jason Sauer shows the power of rebirth with an emphasis on telling stories that reflect the universal connection of longing for home.
Sauer is a 6-year army vet who received 2 medals during his service and was honored as a 40 under 40 by Pittsburgh Magazine. Goodwill of Western PA has recognized Sauer for his work with young men recently released from prison with the “Power of Work Award”. Jason has a Master of Fine Arts from Marywood University as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Edinboro University.
A large part of what I do focuses on public art and making art accessible to all through custom vehicles such as art cars and demolition derby trucks. The idea of the Unicorn Bike Project really connected things I love together. Public art, custom modes of transportation, and PPG Paint!
– Jason Sauer
Peter Zurawksy
Many artists create art to mimic and reproduce the world that they see in order to depict and share the subject of the art with the audience, but other artists create things that they have imagined to express their own thoughts and personality. This is why Peter makes art. When creating art, he strays away from making a replica of life, opting for creating fictional embellishment of reality or fantasies from his own imagination. Many of Zurawsky’s pieces start out with no prior structure or plan. Instead, he simply starts working and finding out where his hands take him, which is the best way for him to truly express his inner thoughts and feelings.
To me, the ability to express completely new and original ideas is the most pleasing part of art to me.