Villa Park welcomes residents and passersby into the neighborhood of Villa Park.  The gateway displays imagery of neighborhood bungalow homes, rolling hills, trees, a creek and flowers, with incorporated wording “Villa Park.”  Done in the style of papel picado (Mexican paper art), Villa Park is a fabricated steel panel, approximately 7 feet tall by 8 feet wide, powder-coated, with a masonry flagstone base.

Gary Sweeney is an acclaimed artist who has shown nationally and internationally for over 20 years.  He was born in Los Angeles, CA in the 1950s, and both his father and grandmother were artists.  Sweeney’s text-based artwork is known for its mix of humor and intelligence, and his public art pieces are popular attractions in civic centers and airports from Los Angeles to Charlotte, NC.  His work includes painting, sculpture, photography and neon.  Sweeney also uses plastic cups, beans and rice, chain link fencing and discarded signs as his media. He is in several museum collections, and has shown in Vienna, Paris, Florence and Tokyo, as well as extensively throughout the United States.