Arts for Transit and Urban Design

Tarrytown

Holly Sears

Hudson River Explorers, 2012

Laminated glass

Inspired by this great river’s majesty and informed by the region’s rich history of discovery, exploration, and travel, Hudson River Explorers by artist Holly Sears, features 11 laminated glass panels fabricated by Tom Patti Design, in the newly constructed South and North Overpass corridors at the Tarrytown Metro-North Station.

With allusions to the romanticism of the Hudson River School of painting, Sears’ exquisitely rendered views of six above-water and five underwater riverscapes are populated by groups of creatures. The scenes are fantastic, magically real, yet firmly grounded in naturalism. From east to west, the panels in each overpass create the experience of one day—from dawn to dusk with light, color and subject. The masterfully painted plants and animals in this watery, dreamy realm include an unexpected combination of native and exotic species—a bobcat and house cat, polar bears and black bears, white-tailed deer, ducks, shad, seahorse and sturgeon, hawks and owls, herons and swallows, elephants and horses. Sears places a particular emphasis on those animals that are threatened or endangered enjoining us to consider and protect the natural world that surrounds us.

The trip down the length of the corridor is one of discovery, and an analog to the explorers’ experience depicted in the scenes. The viewer will witness the passage of time through the transition of light and color in the sky and river, and the astonishing variety of plants and animals that inhabit each scene offers intrigue and imaginative contemplation.