If plans go as scheduled, the city of Chula Vista will be home to a rather large and unique piece of public art sometime later this summer. Steel artist Michael Leaf, a 2002 graduate of Hilltop High School and a third generation San Diegan, will unveil a piece of art that will serve to memorialize an iconic landmark when it is finally installed at the southernmost end of Bayside Park on the city’s west side.
The location of the 26-foot-tall steel structure is not by coincidence but rather by design. It will be located across a tidelands basin from the former South Bay Power Plant that was demolished in 2013 to make way for future bayfront development.
The artwork, scheduled to be completed in mid-July, is composed primarily of wreckage handpicked and salvaged by Leaf in the aftermath of the implosion.
He calls the piece “Powering the Arts.”
“I’ve built this by using scrap metal from the power plant,” Leaf explained during a recent visit to his workshop in the city’s southern industrial fringe. “It’s exciting to be working with the city of Chula Vista.”
Originally a fine arts designer, Leaf only got into steel sculpture about seven years ago. Amazingly he is completely self-taught in the art of steel working.
Leaf’s 3D steel artwork is built from scrap, designed and engineered at his Chula Vista workshop. He said it is an extrapolation of his early interest in drawing and painting.
“I’ve been drawing since I was a child,” he said. “I think about it and I construct it.”
Leaf, who was involved in professional roller-blading as a teenager, has clearly found his calling in what he terms organic integrated art.
His five-minute doodles are impressive in their own right and show insight into a vivid imagination that can grasp the most abstract image and translate it into something deeply meaningful and even useful.
He has sold many of his creations to private collectors and also accepts private commissions, including designs of functional steel furniture.
Name it and he can imagine it — and build it.
His specialties include fine art, functional fine art, metal art, design, metal furniture, custom art, public art, web design, photography, glass work, jewelry design, drawing, drafting, painting, videography, interior/exterior design and product development. All areas are integrated into his artwork.
“I see a piece of metal and I want to see what I can do with it, explore its variance, see what one piece of steel can become,” he said. “Things come to me so fast I can’t keep up with my thoughts.”
The pieces of the former power plant have a special meaning to Leaf, who literally and figuratively grew up in its shadow, and to the community. He’s sought to preserve that collective memory.
The centerpiece for the structure will be an 8-foot-tall, 1,000-pound steel turbine that will stand on stilts and further support a fanning upper structure of steel ribbons. The entire piece will be installed on a slab measuring 45 by 13 feet.
Leaf said viewers will be able to walk completely around the artwork as well as underneath it and peer skyward.
About 90 percent of the structure is composed of wreckage from the power plant. Leaf said a minimal amount of newer metal had to be used to provide support for the structure.
Leaf, who embraces the philosophy of global energy, said his artwork emphasizes support — both physical and mental.
One of his more sublime pieces, a complex mural-like creation, features 184 figures that all touch.
The power plant structure is not Leaf’s first piece of public art and it will likely be the city’s largest piece of standalone public art.
Leaf’s workshop is located on the premises of the family business, Leaf Sales Inc., located at 2585 Main St. The business held special significance for several years during the 1980s after earning an entry in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for tallest free-standing flagpole in the world. The 191-foot-tall mast still looms over the lot and the city’s industrial zone.
The Leaf family has owned the business for 54 years. Two of Leaf’s grandparents served as co-founders of Rohr Industries: Fred Rohr and Burt Raynes. Raynes, who served as CEO of the aerospace manufacturing company, recently died at the age of 101½.
Everything in Leaf’s workshop is unique. “I can’t replicate sheet patterns or rust patterns,” he said of his one-of-a-kind creations.
For more information on Leaf and his imaginative steel artwork, visit his website at www.MichaelLeafDesign.com.
