Lucette de Rugy Click photo for larger image. Related article Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass: French artist will paint four Downtown buildings with light

It didn't take any convincing to entice Lucette de Rugy, a French light artist whose work is in demand internationally, to come to Pittsburgh when she was invited to do a project here.

Pittsburgh had long been at the top of her list of American cities to visit.

"Because of the history. Because of the art. Because of all of those fabulous people [in the late 19th century] who helped art develop," she says in a softly accented voice that's both refined and peppered with enthusiasm. "The architecture in your city is really amazing. You have a great orchestra -- I love music.

"For me, it was just obvious."

Rugy was speaking by telephone from her home in New York City. More than 10 years ago she founded Artlumiere, based in New York and Paris, and serves as its executive director.

Artlumiere, which had its origins in staging for opera and theater, floods the facades of buildings with colored light, transforming and accentuating them. The group has completed projects around the world, including in Japan, Australia and Singapore, as well as in Europe.

Rugy says she's been focusing on America since she moved here a couple of years ago, though she returns frequently to France, where she has family.

After talking with her Pittsburgh sponsors during an earlier visit, Rugy walked through Pittsburgh by herself to get a feel for the city and to look for appropriate sites.

Among her considerations in selecting sites are how easily they are reached by the public as well as widely viewed. "I would never do something enclosed in a very small lane that people couldn't get to," she explains. She also looks at how it's located within the city and how easy it is to obtain proper permits.

The places she chooses aren't always the most apparent.

"Something I love is to transform unexpected surfaces," she says. The choice needn't be a "heritage building -- nothing special, in a way. To transform ordinary architecture."

Katz Plaza, Downtown, had particular appeal because it's "surrounded by theaters, including Heinz Hall, which I would love to work on one day."

Once a building is considered, she looks at "the environment, whether we can locate the equipment required to make it possible, its visibility and thematic concerns." The latter category may address "the history of the city or the history of the building or just the architecture or the theme of the event." The event theme was most heavily weighted for Pittsburgh.

The architecture is always a major element, Rugy says. The ideal is a light-colored or white surface. "When the stone is very dark, we can only transform into gingerbread or chocolate," she says with a small laugh. Even gray or yellowish exteriors will affect the way the light is received.

An Artlumiere staff member will remain in Pittsburgh for the duration of the project to ensure that the lights remain on, she says, since the technical demands of the projectors are not well known in the United States. They were first developed in France for theater and to project elements of French history onto castles for tourists.

While Rugy has a core staff, she draws upon others in various countries with the specialized skills in this narrow field.

"I like to be free to choose the team according to the project and choice of the equipment," she says.

Parisian Corentine Buron, a graduate of the exclusive Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, was the designer for the Pittsburgh buildings. Rugy praises her as "absolutely perfect" for Pittsburgh.

Buron is also planning a design for the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal in New York, which will display in December. It's part of a six-year contract that Rugy describes as "a very challenging project." Artlumiere worked on the first installation, which was presented last December, with the artist group Casa Magica, whose work includes scenic designs for major European opera and ballet companies and light projections at the pyramids in Egypt.

Plans are for that design to be repeated in 2008 and 2010, and for Buron's work to appear again in 2009 and 2011, "to give people who missed it a chance to see it."

But more immediately Rugy is looking forward to bringing to life the renderings that have been made for the four Pittsburgh sites.

"We have the vision in ourselves -- how it's going to look. But we only see it really when we project."

The 66-year-old artist began her professional life in marketing, explaining that in her generation art wasn't seen as a serious career or as a secure way to make a living. She says she feels blessed to have attained her achievements.

"What I'm doing now is the result of several chapters in my life."