Desert Hot Springs, California May 13, 2024 (Issuewire.com) – The City of Palm Springs commissioned six artists including the acclaimed artist Bernard Stanley Hoyes to create one of the “Pillars of Palm Springs,” now gracefully lining a main median to the Airport in downtown. The installation includes six individually crafted “Pillars” designed by individual Artists to embrace the themes of Creativity, Serenity, Diversity, Civility, Community, and Equality.

Hoyes’s pillar, “Diversity,” symbolizes the many different social and ethnic backgrounds, gender, sexual orientation, and age as a reflection of the City’s diverse residents.

“I selected the Diversity theme because of my present position as an international artist and being confident in speaking to differences,” said Hoyes. “As an immigrant, assimilated into the American social, political, and cultural fabric, my artistic discourse has always been to identify commonality in our existence. The piece speaks to the procreation of all species and that we share a common DNA, an icon of healing and harmony for transcendence.”

The “Diversity” sculpture is inspired by the artist’s companion piece using the National Birds of Jamaica as a metaphor for the “Mating Dance of Hummingbirds,” installed on historical Duke Street in downtown Kingston, Jamaica. Jamaica’s country motto is “Out of Many One,” echoing the commitment of the City of Palm Springs to creating a community that welcomes all. Similar to the “Mating Dance of Hummingbirds,” is “Diversity”. It weaves its interpretation of the genetic strand, depicting two California hummingbirds, evolving from a living double helix, an icon of DNA that together conveys “Diversity.”

Weighing 350 pounds, 4 feet wide by 4 feet high “Diversity” sculpture emerges from a pyramid shape decorated with a Ceramic tile mosaic on the four sides. Two steel ribbon strips run upward counterclockwise. They are bolted to flanges at each connecting point extending from the center axis pole. At the top, two polished stainless steel body castings of the hummingbirds, with wings and tails, complete the design.

Primarily recognized as a contemporary painter and accomplished large-scale sculptor for over four decades, Hoyes has captured powerful imagery of Afro-Caribbean ancestral spirituality and is best known for his “Revival” series. His work evolves from an intuitive space giving it spiritual significance. His expressive works are masterfully demonstrated with colorful, rhythmic compositions that dramatically capture the mysticism and majesty of African religion and his Jamaican heritage. The colors used in his paintings become personified with symbolic meaning. The combinations express national, as well as spiritual connotations.

As a master sculptor, a few of Hoyes’s inventive creations include the divinely celebrated winged stallion Pegasus. The eight-foot “Roots of Pegasus” is a bronze sculpture weighing over 1,000 pounds. It portrays rhythmic movement, deliberate textural intensity, and mythological insights. He has journeyed to Fuzhou City in China live and worked to craft a six-foot three-ton blue granite sculpture of a bluefin tuna for a private commission, entitled “Grand Catch.”

During the pandemic, Hoyes sculpted the “Mating Dance of Hummingbirds” with two casted stainless steel winged hummingbirds resting atop a stainless-steel ribbon, with a double helix intertwined around a shared axis. Located in downtown Kingston, Jamaica, where Hoyes grew up, the sculpture is a symbol of a one-love doctrine, celebrating the foundation of sacred geometry, coded with evolution, infinite growth, and longevity.

Hoyes has exhibited across the country and abroad with universal appeal and is the recipient of numerous awards of excellence. He is also a creator of profound mural works and is a Master Printmaker creating a non-toxic process for etching. He formed his own Publishing Company to produce and distribute his serigraphs, lithography, and mono-prints, in addition to etching. Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Cole, Steve Harvey, and Keenan Ivory Wayans are among his collectors.

Hoyes has been a member of many art organizations including the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Artists Equity Association, California Confederation of the Arts, Studio Z, the Graphic Arts Guild, Self-help Graphics, and others. Notably his interdisciplinary work is in the archives of the Getty Institute.

Residing at the top of a mountain in Desert Hot Springs, his studio and home, Sycona Mesa, is the creative vortex that allows his work to flourish. To view his expansive portfolio visit www.bernardhoyes.com.