Project Description

Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza’s tribute to Temple City is a bookshelf of memories, stories and artifacts. The objects on the shelf include: the dome-shaped office of Temple City founder, Walter P. Temple; a medal honoring the many veterans from the city; a bicycle illustrating the city’s varied modes of mobility; the iconic Performing Arts Pavilion where people gather for concerts, tai chi, and farmers’ markets; a historic red car that connected Temple City to its surrounding communities; and a peony flower for the many Asian immigrants who make Temple City home. 

Books on the shelf represent Indigenous communities that once populated the area, the Woman’s Club, Temple City High School, the Camellia Festival, California architectural home design, vegetables (gardening was an early marketing draw for Temple City home buyers) and an unmarked book representing the city’s stories still to be told. 

This artwork was commissioned for Metro’s Through the Eyes of Artists poster series for display in the fleet.

Artist Statement

“A rich past is visible here, languidly transitioning culture and generations as new families seek their first homes in a city that maintains an old-fashioned feel.”

About the Artist

MARYROSE COBARRUBIAS MENDOZA (b. 1966, Manila, Philippines) uses craft, scale, perspective, and replication to recast the familiar in drawings, sculpture and installations. Her work centers on the exploration of identity, history and environment complicated by underrepresentation, marginalization, extraction and cultural amnesia, particularly among the diasporic.  Her work has been exhibited at the Orange County Museum of Art, USC’s Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles’ Municipal Art Gallery, and others. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a COLA Individual Artist Fellowship, and the NY Art Matters Fellowship, and has served as artist-in-residence at Yaddo Artist Residency, Joshua Tree Highlands Residency, and Art Space Yosuga in Kyoto, Japan. 

About Through the Eyes of Artists

In the tradition of celebrating transportation through colorful travel destination posters, Metro Art commissions a diverse range of Los Angeles artists to create original artworks for the Through the Eyes of Artists poster series. Established in 2003, the posters are displayed onboard Metro trains and buses.

View other works in the series.

Display year: 2022