Love at First Light
Author:Lindsey ShookSurprise your Valentine with a unique and romantic gift that will shine for two years! Celebrate a favorite person, group or cause by naming one or more lights in THE BAY LIGHTS in their honor. A Gift of Light is a fantastic gift and tax deductible! Name one or more lights, add a photo and personal message, then download your “Official Certificate” at gift.thebaylights.org. Up the enticement with THE BAY LIGHTS laser-cut card or get the Ultimate Gift of Light with card and handcrafted aluminum sculpture, or the elegant NEW Brilliant Tote and card.
And don’t forget to make a date for THE BAY LIGHTS March 5th Grand Lighting at 9:00 p.m. when the San Francisco Bay Bridge transforms into a stunning illuminated canvas by internationally renowned artist Leo Villareal. Live streaming starts at 8:30 p.m. PST at thebaylights.org. This multi-camera, one-hour broadcast by Media One will send the sights and sounds of the Grand Lighting gala ceremony—and the brilliance of THE BAY LIGHTS—to everyone on Earth with an internet connection.
Party with THE BAY LIGHTS team and Leo Villareal on Friday, February 8th (tonight!) from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at award-winning experience design company Hot Studio, 585 Howard St., San Francisco. It promises to be a fantastic evening with cocktails, light fare and a pre-Valentine’s Day Gift of Light show and sale. Join us! Please rsvp to rsvp@hotstudio.com.
ABOUT LEO VILLAREAL
Leo Villareal is one of the world’s most prominent LED artist with prestigious international commissions and solo exhibitions around the globe. THE BAY LIGHTS is his biggest public art installation ever and the world’s largest LED light sculpture. Every evening from March 5, 2013 through 2015, this breathtaking fine arts experience transforms the west span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge into a monumental, illuminated canvas and global tour de force.
What inspires you?
For THE BAY LIGHTS, I’m inspired by all the activity going on — the motion of traffic, the water, the weather. There’s a lot of very fertile territory to explore as an artist working with software. The end result will be a mirror of the activity around it. There will be no color, no text, no images, nothing but mesmerizing abstraction. I’m not creating a light show, this is a piece of fine art. So, I’m approaching it as an artist. It’s almost like painting.
ABOUT THE BAY LIGHTS
Eight times the size of the Eiffel Tower’s 100th Anniversary Grand Lighting, THE BAY LIGHTS spans 1.8 miles and consists of 25,000 energy-efficient white LEDs sparkling in an infinite array of never-repeating designs, from dusk until 2:00 a.m. every evening for two years. This powerful, elegant project combines technology, engineering and art in celebration of the Bay Area’s force of culture, ingenuity and human connection on a grand scale—it is a bridge after all!
