ESI, Environmental Sculpture Inc., was founded by self-taught sculptor/assemblagist Richard J. Hinger in 1998. Hinger began volunteering his time to teach his unique brand of found-object sculpture to at-risk youth around San Diego. The sight of unsightly, concrete trash receptacles around his home city gave Hinger the idea of covering the receptacles with painted and fired tiles which are ideal for outdoor art because they don’t fade or scratch. Richard made arrangements with the city to implement the project and then turned the paintbrushes over to local artists and students.

What happened next was truly amazing - the residents and children became involved in their community and began feeling that they could have a positive impact on their environment.

Since then, Richard has undertaken numerous public beautification projects with institutions such as The City of San Diego, San Diego Children’s Museum, The San Diego Port Authority, City of Encinitas, Home Depot, and others resulting in more than 100 permanent works of public art and touching the lives of thousands of people county wide.

ESI projects begin by locating utilitarian items around the community such as trash receptacles, tables, benches, walls, planters, etc. which we can transform into works of art. We then facilitate a site field trip and art classes with K-12 students who paint individual tiles for the projects. The larger murals are painted by excelptional students and jury selected local artists who create site-specific murals that reflect the identity of the community. During the process the students learn about the arts, the environment, and community involvement.

Once they are painted, the individual tiles and murals are fired which makes them extremely durable and suitable for outdoor art. They are then applied to the receptacles and other items with which we are working. When the project is completely installed, we host a dedication ceremony to unveil them to the community.

Fired ceramic tiles will last many lifetimes without fading or weathering. They will be as bright and colorful one hundred years from now as they are the day they were fired.

ESI Public Arts would like to bring public arts projects such as those that you see on this website to children, artists, and communities all across the United States. We encourage you to get involved. Please register to receive email announcements to be kept informed of new projects, calls for artists, and other news.