Artist Working on Corner Palettes

Photographer  Vivian Bedoya recently completed her third public art installation, a traffic control box at the corner of Mountain Boulevard and Old Stirling Road.

With three of the boxes in Warren now decorated (the others are on Mountain Boulevard at Bardy Road and ), the total number of boxes in the county project to brighten street corners has reached 22. Bedoya's other project was completed at the corner of North Bridge Street and Woodlawn Avenue, in Bridgewater.

For Bedoya, the public art is a great way to make her work more visible.

"Having a public installation of this scope feels wonderful and somewhat surreal—it never gets old!" she said. Bedoya added that she feels "a mixture of pride, incredulity and joy" when she drives by her work at the corner of Mountain Boulevard and Mt. Bethel Road.

Bedoya said she's especially pleased to have her work recognized and selected for the Gallery 24/7 project, since she's a bit of a late-comer to her art. Although she's practiced photography for most of her life, she did pursue other fulltime work and raise a family, keeping her cameras shuttered for decades.

"Being a proud resident of New Jersey, I’m honored and humbled to be considered worthy of adding touches of beauty to our much-maligned state and I will always be grateful to Somerset County and to Pat McGarry (Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission manager) in particular, for launching this challenging project that allowed me to stretch out of the comfort zone and attempt something seemingly impossible," she said.

"It is my hope that everyone who sees the artful traffic control boxes, now 22 in total, will smile as they drive by as well!" she added.