The library is slated for reconstruction in mid-2006, and 2 percent of the project's $6 million budget is earmarked for public art. Those who attended a Nov. 17 art committee meeting told the three finalists they want the new library to retain its cozy feel even though the new building will be more than twice the size of the existing one. And everyone agreed that saving the 100-year-old oak tree out front is a must.

Two of the three finalists said they might use the tree in their designs. Anne Storrs, a Portland, Ore.-based artist who works with sculptures cast in stone, said she could create benches to surround the oak.

"I really like the connection of looking out the window and seeing that tree," Storrs said.

Many of Storrs' designs depict native plants and trees. She's cast stone panels and sculptures for numerous libraries in Oregon. She created five panels in Oregon for the Sherwood city hall and library featuring "made-up plants," in which she pressed pine needles into the clay for texture.

John Rubin of Oakland works with a variety of media that integrates art into the community's existing buildings and roads. Rubin said he could work the oak into his design for the library since the tree is an integral part of the community.

"I think of myself as a cultural anthropologist/artist," Rubin told the assembled art committee members. "I'm interested in the way social spaces are negotiated. I'm interested in the library as an ecosystem for people to come together."

Rubin recently used his art to bring people in a Seattle, Wash., neighborhood together. He designed a "freemobile," a colorfully painted van out of which residents gave away sand candles, handmade books and fresh vegetables and offered services such as drum lessons, custom poetry and hair-braiding.

For a neighborhood project closer to home, in Dublin, Rubin asked residents for personal photos, which he enlarged to poster size and mounted on the front lawn.

"I don't have a medium per se," Rubin said at the meeting. "There's no one consistent method or material I use. The one consistent thing is that it's all collaborative."

David Ruth, also of Oakland, passed around samples of his cast glass at the meeting, inviting committee members to check out how the light played through the colored and clear segments.

"I love abstraction, light and color," Ruth said.

Most of Ruth's work is large-scale sculptures and panels.

"Sometimes [the panels are] countertops, often they're windows and sometimes they're murals," he said.

Ruth said he's working on public art commissions in Berkeley and Portland. The latter involves casting children's drawings in glass.

"That's a possible approach to the Willow Glen Library," he said. "I'd be interested in the opportunity to bring light into the building and give it character and warmth."

The three artists are scheduled to meet with the committee again in early January to present their conceptual designs.

Once the review process is completed, the art committee will select an artist and put together a proposal that it will present to the rest of the community.

An initial selection process involved 30 individuals who represented a cross-section of residents, said Lynn Rogers, senior community development officer for San Jose public art.

San Jose public art project manager Jennifer Easton presented the committee with 10 artists from that pool. A peer group, which the city invited to review the candidates, selected these artists.

The library art committee narrowed the choice of artists to five in the first round of votes, and then to Ruth, Rubin and Storrs, in the second round.

The artists would like to hear from the community with any questions or ideas. Anne Storrs can be reached via email, AnneStorrs@msn.com, David Ruth at Druth@Glass.com, and John Rubin at Jon
Rubin@mindspring.com.

For more information on the public art meetings and how to be involved in the process, contact Lynn Rogers at lynn.rogers@ sanjoseca.gov or visit www.sanjoseculture. org/pub_art/index.html.

For more information on the new Willow Glen Branch library, call 408.535.8450 or visit www.newsanjoselibraries.com.