Welcome 1999

Stephen Antonakos made this welcome using neon to light up the square, like a window framing a thought. I'm curious about its emergence, how Antonakos shifted and adjusted the neon to get the color just right, that electric blue that hums against the cement gray of the wall. I wonder what he might have been thinking as he placed it there, this geometric glow against the building. Was he considering the contrast between the industrial and the organic, the manufactured and the grown, the way the tree stands in front of the building? The neon's sharp edges make me think about the work of other artists, like Dan Flavin, who also used light to sculpt space. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, and Antonakos's Welcome is part of that exchange. It's a form of embodied expression, where the cool light and structured form embrace ambiguity, letting multiple meanings shine through.