Evans Pool is one of the most heavily used public swimming pools in the city. Built in the 1930s, Seattle Parks and Recreation restored the community center in the ’80s and commissioned Troutner and Marioni to create the artwork. Seven Figures is a five‑by‑26‑foot glass window wall that depicts seven life‑size human figures swimming through water, with details such as fish, seashells, coins and buried treasure. Soft light filters through the translucent underwater scene, made of approximately 300 unique sand‑cast glass tiles. The “sky” in the window scene is made from special, tempered gray plate glass.

The public response to the window was so favorable that a second glass artwork was commissioned by the community to surround the front doorway of the community center building. Marioni and Troutner’s Portal artwork frames the main entrance and is made of rippled cast glass with an underlay of dichroic glass, which appears brilliant blue from a distance, then turns gold as the viewer approaches.

You can watch Seattle Channel’s video about artist Paul Marioni here.

Seven Figures was funded by Seattle Parks and Recreation 1% for Art funds.

-Tamara Gill, Community Development & Outreach

IMAGES: Paul Marioni and Ann Troutner; 1989; Seven Figures, Portal; cast‑glass blocks in aluminum frame; dichroic and cast glass in brass frame; 5′ x 26′ (Seven Figures); 8′ x 8 1/2′ (Portal). Located at Green Lake Community Center.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

A companion piece to his multi-part artwork Incrementally at a nearby stormwater detention facility, Kuby designed Hydro-Bio-Geo to be compatible with the character of Washington Park. The artwork animates the exposed facade of the 14-foot-tall stormwater holding tank. Three pairs of downspouts and weep holes send water down the wall to a rain garden below. These wet zones will soon become lush and green as they become colonized with moss and ferns. In between, faux-bark facades lead to 29 cavity nesting birdhouses embedded in the wall. As the landscape matures, the bird houses will become more attractive nest sites.

Kuby has created permanently sited artworks in the Northwest and Canada and has exhibited his artworks throughout the country. His artworks are collaborations with the built and natural world that aim to foster a sense of connectedness in our environment.  Each project provides an opportunity to explore how human activity and natural systems can better coexist and how art can promote a deeper sense of place.

The artwork is funded with SPU 1% for Art funds and addresses SPU’s stewardship of water collection and drainage.

Getting there: Washington Park is accessible by Metro buses 11, 43, 48 and 84. ADA access to Washington Park is available at the north side of the Washington Park playfield, from the parking lot off of Lake Washington Boulevard East.

For more information: Contact Grace Manzano, Project Manager, (206) 233-1534.

IMAGES: Adam Kuby; Hydro-Bio-Geo; 2012; basalt, cast acrylic, recycled plastic; 14’ x 110’ x 8”. PhotoS by the artist.

In the ’80s, when the City Light Canal Substation was added to the list of city substation renovations, the Seattle Arts Commission selected Noah to work on the project’s design team with landscape architect Peggy Gaynor and the architectural firm of Streeter/Dermanis. Noah participated in all aspects of the renovation, including the color selection for the substation transformers, the overall landscaping of the site, and the design of an artwork for the building.

For Forms of Power, Noah painted images of allegories of power on windows made of sandblasted, multi-colored translucent Plexiglas. The hand signs of the game rock-paper-scissors, representing physical power, are painted on three orange windows. A pink window shows a couple about to kiss, symbolizing the power of love. A scientist conducting experiments represents the power of the mind. And in a green window, a blindfolded figure with outstretched arms, evoking traditional representations of justice, stands for the power of the law. This visual play subtly alludes to the factors that impact the daily lives in the homes and businesses that depend on the Canal Street site for power.

Noah is a Seattle mixed-media artist with experience in painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, public art, installations and digital imaging. She has exhibited in various art venues, both nationally and internationally, and is represented in a wide variety of public and private collections. The city of Seattle’s collection includes over 15 portable and permanently sited works by Noah.

The artwork was funded by Seattle City Light 1% for Art funds.

IMAGES: Forms of Power, 1985, Plexiglas and paint, various dimensions. Located at Seattle City Light’s Canal Substation, Northwest 45^th Street and Sixth Avenue Northwest.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

The striking monumental sculpture stands in the shadow of the Space Needle, its simple z-shape outlining the iconic form of lightning. Sharp edges formed from the juncture of acute angles animate the black steel bolt with alternating planes of light and shadow. Two polygonal bases reminiscent of blacksmith’s anvils support the sculpture.

Bladen began as an abstract painter. He later dedicated himself to sculpture and began exhibiting monumental sculptures in the early ‘60s.  His sculptures are represented in a number of public and private collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the State Office Building in Albany, N.Y.

The artwork was funded by Seattle Center Bond Issue 1% for Art funds and the National Endowment for the Arts.

-Joan Peterson, Public Art

IMAGES:  Ronald Bladen, Black Lightning,1981, painted steel, 20′H x 56′Wx 36.75″D. Located at Seattle Center. Photos (top) courtesy of Seattle Center; (below) by Amy Louise Herndon.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

Technological Transitions: Historical Artifacts from the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum is an historical look at policing technology and equipment used by SPD throughout the history of the city of Seattle. Eighteen images include historical badges, weapons, and montages of past and present equipment. Images are set on a solid black background and include a description of the item and why it was used at the time. All of the actual historical items and their history were supplied by the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, a non-profit organization in downtown Seattle.

The second project, Contemporary Portraits of the Men and Women of the Seattle Police Department, consists of 26 black-and-white portraits of police department employees with more than 35 years of service, as well as recent award recipients. The awardees included in this exhibition are some of the many employees recognized for their hard work, bravery and dedication to the citizens of Seattle.

The SPD photography unit photographed all images in this collection.

IMAGE: Portrait of­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ SPD Pipe & Drum Members, 2012, black and white photograph, 26″  X 36″. Photo courtesy of the Seattle Police Department.

The artist writes, “The fountain’s concept is that of huge polished stainless steel pipes in a sculptural form extended by the shape of water projected out of two intricately designed orifices. These increase the illusion of tremendous volumes of water.”

The next time you’re in the SoDo district, stop at the Operations Control Center to check out this dramatic sculpture.

Ted Jonsson’s commissioned artworks can be found throughout the state of Washington and in other states including California, Maryland and Alaska.

Watch a video of Jonssson talking about the artwork here.

The artwork was funded by Seattle Water Department construction funds (now Seattle Public Utilities).

-Joan Peterson, Public Art

IMAGES: Ted Jonsson, Chimera, 1975, stainless-steel pipe, 10’H x 24’W x 5.5’D. Located at Seattle Public Utilities’ Operations Control Center, 2700 Airport Way South.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

“Parking Squid” will offer accessible bicycle parking along the Central Waterfront. This functional artwork by local artist Susan Robb was originally created for The Next Fifty, the 50th anniversary of the 1962 World’s Fair and installed on Seattle Center campus. The project was presented by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs as part of a series of public artworks that illustrated how artists are shaping the conversation around environmental sustainability.

Parking Squid addresses the expanding need for bicycle parking, as identified in the SDOT Bicycle Master Plan. The artwork was commissioned with SDOT 1% for Art funds and administered by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

 Updated on April 23, 2013 with a photo of the Parking Squid in its new location on the waterfront.

In the early 1900s, during the first stage of the Denny Hill Regrade, the city street improvement budget included funds for the city’s first commission for a statue. In 1907, the committee awarded the commission to Wehn, a local 24-year-old sculptor who proposed a full-length portrait of Chief Seattle.  He based his original plaster cast on the only surviving photographic portrait of the chief, taken in 1864.  Wehn became upset and threw his model into Elliott Bay after he discovered that the city planned to hire an inexperienced local firm to cast his statue.  He only agreed to create a second model after the city decided to hire a New York firm to cast the bronze sculpture.  The artwork was finally unveiled by Chief Seattle’s great-great-granddaughter in an impressive ceremony on Founders’ Day, Nov. 13, 1912.

The sculpture stands atop a roughly hewn stone pedestal inset with bear heads that spout water from their mouths into a pool below. The chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes raises his hand in a gesture of greeting, recalling the amicable relationship he established with early pioneers and explorers.  In 1975, the fountain pool was enlarged and two 12-ton granite boulders were shaped by Seattle sculptor Richard Beyer to fit into the rim of the pool.

James Wehn was Seattle’s first resident classical sculptor and the first chairman of the University of Washington’s sculpture department. He also created the portrait bust of Chief Seattle in Pioneer Park and a profile medallion of Chief Seattle, adopted as the official city seal, which was enlarged in bronze and installed at the former Public Safety Building in 1950.

Chief Seattle was originally funded in 1907 by Seattle Street Improvement Budget. The boulder artworks created as part of the expansion in 1975 were funded by Engineering Department 1% for Art funds.

- Joan Peterson, Public Art

IMAGE:  James When; Chief Seattle; 1912; cast, gilded bronze and granite. Located at Tilikum Place Park, Fifth Avenue and Denny Way. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

Charles Brown directed the work, with William H. Brown, James Starrish, Robert Harris, William Andrews, and James Andrews on the carving crew.  The replica pole left Alaska on a ship headed to Seattle in April 1940 and was dedicated on July 25 with great celebration.

The original totem pole was acquired from Tongass Island, Alaska by an expedition committee chosen by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It was erected where the current one stands now but was irreparably damaged by an arsonist in 1938. The pole symbolizes three Tlingit Indian legends with figures representative of the Raven Clan. The hero of the legends is located at the top of the totem, while Grandfather Raven, a mythological being known as both a creator and a trickster, forms the pole’s base.

The totem pole was a gift to the city from the United States Forest Service.

IMAGES: Seattle Totem Pole, 1940, Charles Brown and other native carvers of the Kyan and Kinninook families, replica pole made of polychromed Alaskan red cedar, 50′H x4’6″ diameter. Photos by Spike Mafford Photography.

Weekly Art Hit is featuring artworks every week from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the city’s public art program.

SPU purchased three masks by Daniel Morsett, Jr., a young Coast Salish artist in his 20s who has been carving since the age of 16. His alder, acrylic, abalone and horse-hair Bear Shaman Mask is stylistically carved and adorned. This mask depicts the moment the shaman is transforming into a bear. Coast Salish artist Ruth Peterson’s Salish Serpents Comb is a meticulously carved panel giving homage to ancient Salish weaving traditions. The double comb depicted in the artwork was historically used to push the warp and weft threads on loomed blankets. The serpent was used on weaving tools to prevent tangles in the yarn. Also on view is the serigraph print Symphony of Butterflies by Susan Point. This print is uniquely contemporary with its flourish of butterfly wings. However, Susan still incorporates her ancestral design elements into her work to keep it distinctively Salish.

“This exhibition features both traditional and contemporary artwork by some of the most influential Native American artists in the region,” states Curator and Collections Manager Deborah Paine. Artists in the exhibition are: Lawrence “Ulaaq” R. Ahvakana, Dennis Allen, Trevor Angus, Rande Cook, Allie High, Maynard Johnny Jr., James Lavadour, Daniel Morsette Jr., Andy Peterson, Ruth Peterson, Shaun Peterson, Susan Point, Mark Preston and Thomas Stream.

SPU’s collection is exhibited throughout the utility’s offices, engaging its employees and visitors by helping to create an interesting and diverse work environment. The purchase was made possible with Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art funds.

IMAGES:
Susan Point, Symphony of Butterflies, 2006, serigraph print, 33” x 27”. Photo by Bob Mathieson.

Daniel Morsette, Jr.; Bear Shaman Mask; 2012; alder acrylic, abalone, horse hair; 31”h x 11”w x 5.5”d. Photo courtesy of Stonington Gallery

Ruth Peterson, Salish Serpents Comb, 2012, carved panel, 25” x 9”. Photo courtesy of the Steinbrueck Gallery.