Sacramento has long championed public art, something Shelly Willis calls "works placed in the path of everyday life."

The city's very first piece, Gerald Walburg's "Indo Arch" – a sculpture some folks didn't like when it was installed near the downtown Macy's in 1977 – still stands. It has since become a local landmark, joined by 750 murals, mosaics, fountains, paintings and sculptures in the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission's Art in Public Places collection, which Willis manages.

The public art scene fairly exploded after a 1979 city ordinance, later adopted by Sacramento County, required developers to spend 2 percent of construction costs on art. Sacramento International Airport's expansion will add $8 million in public art to the landscape.

Public art can be found almost anywhere, from lobbies to street corners and road medians. Some is publicly funded, some is paid for by developers. To the general public, it's all just art.

This morning, with SMAC executive director Rhyena Halpern and a reporter in tow, Willis visits some of her favorite public art in downtown Sacramento, including the bronze woman that can bring her to tears.

As she drives by Fifth and J streets, she points out Deborah Butterfield's untitled recycled-aluminum horse, at the corner since 1983.

"She's become internationally known, so it's very valuable," Willis says. "There is this tendency in our culture with art to want it to be realistic, and she captures the essence of a horse in a few shapes and lines."

Someone (the reporter) raves about another horse, Sean Guerrero's muscular, chrome car-bumper sculpture at the Safeway, 19th and S streets. Willis and Halpern laugh out loud.

"Not a lot of artists like it," says Willis. "It's very flashy, very Las Vegas-y."

Federal courthouse, 501 I St.

New York artist Tom Otterness' series of small "Gold Rush" sculptures decorate the plaza. Two of the pieces, a bonneted woman driving an ox-drawn covered wagon and a camera-wielding tourist, are very literally in the path of everyday life, where unwary passers-by might stumble over them.

"I think about that all the time: How did they get this done?" says Willis. "I think it's because it's a protected plaza, not a park. You're coming here to do business."

Otterness' vignette seems playful until you look closely, says Willis.

"There is always a little edge to his work, which I love. See Indian with the fish, and the bear sadly looking on and thinking, 'That's my food'? What does that say about the environment and justice?"

"Public art blends social commentary with whimsy and does it better than almost any other medium," says Halpern.

In the courthouse rotunda is Larry Kirkland's ambitious "The Decisions," which consists of 12 marble "jury" chairs inscribed with words by former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove and a suspended gold-plated scales of justice.

"I love these chairs," says Halpern. "You can sit in them and be a part of art."

U.S. Bank Tower, 621 Capitol Mall

"I think this is my favorite sculpture in Sacramento," Willis says of Robert Brady's untitled bronze female in the plaza. "I love this piece, I love it. I start to cry when I see this, and that's very rare for me.

"Art is different for everybody. It's like if you go to the top of a hill and look down, and you're just moved. It's hard to articulate. It's a way of expressing yourself that's beyond words."

A decided contrast to Brady's primitive bronze are Michael Hayden's glitzy LED sculptures, "Rapids" in the lobby and "Lumetric River" on the roof.

Ellen Warner, vice president of design and construction for developer David S. Taylor, says that even before the building was completed, she would find people waiting at dusk to see the Hayden pieces illuminated.

"I connected with David, because I love what he loves," says Warner, "being able to do these things in an urban environment where you can help shape the experience people have. He and I feel the art brings that to another level, to create public spaces that make a really strong impression on people that they experience in their own personal way."