Pavia Justinian: Artist Tells Story Behind Her Downtown Pieces

Pavia Justinian is a local artist who went to Colorado Mesa University and majored in studio art and art history. She's a sculpturist and muralist and told us she was Dave Davis's apprentice, who started Art on the Corner. Unfortunately, Dave passed away last year but left behind a legacy and a lot of talented apprentice artists.

Dave cultivated a love for found objects and things you already have, and so does Pavia. Whenever Dave found a pulley and gave it to Pavia, that's when she knew she wanted to make a kinetic sculpture and that's when Felicia the sculpture was born.

Pavia says her favorite medium is epoxy mixed with concrete. She says it's great because you can sculpt it a lot like clay, but without firing it. Pavia says this medium also allows her to incorporate her next favorite medium -- found objects.

Pavia's Colorado pieces are:

• Zafira - Aurora, Colorado
  • Third place in Art2C on Havana contest
  • Has mosaic glass and lots of colors
• Mahina - Fort, Collins
  • Illuminated piece
  • Made from army mats from the Vietnam War
• Untitled - Palisade
  • In front of CAVE/W 3rd Street
  • Abstract piece made steel and wood
• Felicia - Downtown
  • In front of Heirlooms for Hospice
  • Kinetic, solar-powered piece

Pavia says she usually comes up with the name for her pieces later. She says she'll find a name that matches the theme of the piece.

As you can see in the video above, we went and visited Felica in downtown Grand Junction because I wanted to see her art up close and personal and hear the story behind it while looking it at. Felicia is one of the only kinetic sculptures Pavia has created and she's also solar-powered. She says she's a very happy sculpture who you can even dance with.

Pavia is currently working on two sculptural benches. The next piece that you'll see in the Grand Valley will be downtown at the Mesa County Library's Discovery Garden. One of the benches is called 'Iris' and it's a memorial bench for Cindy bennet, who started the Dog Ears program at the library. (It's a program where kids read to dogs to help improve their reading skills.)

Pavia says you can expect to see the sculptural benches in the spring of 2020. Stay tuned for a trip to Pavia's studio, which we can't wait to see.

You can see more of Pavia's amazing work here.