High Water Mark

High Water Mark is a set of art panels that integrate with the guard rail design along Cesar Chavez Street in downtown Austin. The new esplanade ambles along Town Lake in the exact location of several historic floods of notable proportion. An inconspicuous marker noting the high water mark of two of those disastrous floods, those of 1869 and 1935, was the point of departure for this project.The project was not conceived as a memorial, but rather an acknowledgement of the impact the repeated flooding has had on the citizens of Austin. It is the artist’s intention that the panels convey the intriguing bit of beauty that refers to the unstoppable force of natural phenomenon. The graphic quality of the work draws the viewer in; and perhaps the regular joggers and walkers will continue to find some meaning in the art over time.