The Chico Experience - 2010

1. The #1 in the upper left corner represents this being the first image in the series.

2. The "lines" that fill each corner of the piece are taken from the steel grates that surround the bottoms of all the trees planted along the streets downtown.

3. You should see a large capital letter "C" in the background, it is the first letter spelling out Chico, and since there are 5 letters in Chico and 5 prints in the series . . . . 

4. Inside the letter "C" are a bunch of words that are intentionally "hard" to read, as I don't want them to dominate the image, but if you get up close and look, you'll see they are the street names that define downtown Chico as well as some of the "famous" wording you see on campus, such as "walk your bike," and "today decides tomorrow." Also, you'll see arrows mixed in with the text, those arrows are the directions of all the one way streets that confuse everyone who is new to town (I remember they make a big deal of that at CSUC freshmen orientation).

5. The date 1887 in the bottom left corner is the year Chico State (Normal School) was established.

6.The roses represent the Chico State rose garden.

7. The 2010 next to the bike wheel in lower right identifies the first year of the Chico Experience and the year this print was created.

8. The bicycle (obviously) is the "bike friendly" part.

9. The grey you see in the image is the metallic aluminum ink.