Love and LIGHT in 2024 - 30 years ago on NYE,
The Red River Bridge, Shreveport, LA.

Wishing you love & LIGHT in 2024

Instagram reel: https://tinyurl.com/ycyepjf7
The Red River Bridge, 1994, Shreveport, LA.
Commissioned by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council.
New Year’s Eve 1993 fifty couples were married just minutes after the Texas Street Bridge sculpture lighting in a mass ceremony ringing in the New Year.

“They came in droves for the much-heralded New Year’s Eve Texas Street Bridge lightning gala. About 38,000 of them. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder under cool skies and a brisk wind…” ~ Kelly Griffith, The Times Shreveport/Bossier City/Ark-La-Tex, Neon Lights Delight Crowd, and Couples say their wedding vows before guests on Red River Bridge, January 1, 1994.
“Justice of the Peace Tom Carleton of Bossier City performed the mass wedding and said Shreveport-Bossier City has a new Guinness Book world record on its hands: the largest assemblage of witnesses, an estimated 38,000.
Officials said the bridge is the largest lighted structure of its kind in the nation.” ~ Fernando Pizarro, The Times Shreveport/Bossier City/Ark-La-Tex, Neon a Colorful Guest at Nuptials, Estimated 38,000 guests in attendance break world record, January 1, 1994.

“But perhaps the bridge’s best image is its most hidden one. If you look closely as you enter the bridge, you’ll see – for just a second – that you’re entering the face of a longhorn.
Why a steer?
“As I studied the layout of the bridge, it kind of looked like a steer to me. I saw the possibility of introducing one fleeting image into the abstract…and this is the TEXAS Street bridge, this has always been the traditional trail into Texas.” ~ Rockne Krebs

“Why isn’t the entire span neatly outlined in neon?
*The random placement of the neon tubes was done so that the bridge wouldn’t look overly designed.

But it’s soooo red!
*Yes, it is. The concept of the red tubes, placed in a seemly random fashion, is called “assemblage,” a method that came about in the early part of the century and was used primarily by painters.
*The bridge takes the concept of assemblage off the canvas and onto the three-dimensional world.”

~ Diana Murphy, The Times Shreveport/Bossier City/Ark-La-Tex, January, 31, 1994, Artist Travels on Light Path.

Published: 12/30/2023