JewelBoats takes its inspiration from the reflective nature of Lake Union and mirrors its constant motion and fluidity in three art installations along Westlake cycle track, connecting the experience of the lake to the path and emphasizing the ongoing transformation of the water's reflective surface.

Glacial Canoes

Glacial Canoes pays homage to the glacier that formed the land and created Lake Union eons ago. The patterns on the sculptures' backs represent the current lake and its surrounding topography. Split like a geode, Glacial Canoes' watery insides provide an ever-changing portal for bicycles to pass through. Their basic shape refers to the history of boats and mirrors the constant motion and fluidity of the lake's surface. Like glacial erratics, Glacial Canoes appear as displaced rocks transported by time and nature.

Stone Dinghy, Crystal Kayak + Diamond Speedboat

Stone Dinghy, Crystal Kayak and Diamond Speedboat echoes the types of boats and recreational usage found on the lake and highlights the evolution or transformation from a pair of erratic stones at the south entrance (Glacial Canoes) to a glistening diamond at the north end of the cycle track (Diamond Speedboat.) The installation is a 2-dimensional expression of their 3-dimensional counterparts to the north and south.

Diamond Speedboat

Diamond Speedboat alludes to both a speedboat and completes the process of geological time and technology in turning stones into a precisely cut and glistening diamond. Additionally, the sculpture references the flight of floatplanes that regularly land on Lake Union and to Boeing's first airplane assembled on the lake's northeast shore.

PlayLand takes its name and inspiration from the 12-acre amusement park that operated along Seattle's historic Interurban from 1930-1961 and was adjacent to its current site. Using the original Playland's grand attraction – The Dipper, a state-of-the-art roller coaster – the work consists of thirteen "peaks," each with its own unique characteristic and theme and is designed to create a multi-layered experience in which something new is discovered with each viewing.

In addition to the original Playland, the work alludes to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and layers of long-forgotten history:  noble forests of Douglas fir and cedar, sprawling rural farmland and a small sawmill operating on the lake in 1913 and responsible for Bitter Lake’s name. PlayLand also points to the neighborhood's future with references to changing seasons and urban development.

PlayLand, part of the Interurban and located adjacent to *FlipBooks, uses salvaged traffic signs and materials exclusively used by Seattle's Department of Transportation, PlayLand celebrates the urban environment and pays homage to the work of our City’s Department of Transportation.

Photography by Jim Tillman

*For the correlating public work, please see PUBLIC ART, FlipBooks

FlipBooks is a larger-than-life flipbook-style animation that celebrates the characteristic splendors of the Pacific Northwest: Mt. Rainier, salmon streams, blossoming flowers, abundant wildlife, and more.

Inspired by a photograph in the collection at the Shoreline Historical Museum depicting a series of Burma Shave-style advertising signs along the original Interurban, FlipBooks playfully animates these quintessential images of our region.

Using the idiom of traffic signs and materials typically used by the Department of Transportation and found in urban landscapes, the artwork whimsically invites users of the trail to experience a sense of movement and play along the public right-of-way.

Photography by Jim Tillman

Located in the Greenlake neighborhood, OctoTree reflects the active path along the lake. The artwork, atop a neighborhood bus shelter, is inspired by natural forms found in the area and is a hybrid of animal, tree, and water.

During the renovation of Bergen Place Park in Ballard, five massive cedar posts were salvaged and symbolically turned back into “Witness” trees (markers for the first U.S. land surveys in 1851.) These noble trees become storytellers, each revealing a layer of Ballard's geological, botanical, and cultural history. 

Immigrant Tree is inspired by genealogical trees and the mythological Nordic tree Yggdrasil. The blue and white "cloud" palette is influenced by maritime trade of blue and white porcelain that made its way into many cultures finding an enduring legacy in the Danish patterns of Royal Copenhagen and can be seen as a metaphor for cross-cultural immigration to Ballard. Traditional embroidery from Norway sows the seed of Immigrant Tree's flower motif. 

Fossil Tree reflects the countless eons of rich marine life in Shilshole Bay. 

First Tree is derived from what scientists believe the first tree looked like 420 million years ago and was inspired by the intricate paper cut-outs of Hans Christian Andersen. 

During the construction of the Chittenden Locks in Ballard, giant mountains of clam shells were found that had been discarded over centuries by the early Coastal Salish Lake People who were one of several bands which formed the Duwamish tribes. Clam Tree takes its shape from Coast Salish clam baskets and the mountains of clam shells are a depiction of those remains. 

Six Norwegian Maples were felled to make way for the park’s new design. New Growth Tree metaphorically grafts the old and the new and represents the very moment in which the park takes on a new life. 

Photography by Jim Tillman

Yesler Houses/The Collectors, a site-specific temporary installation at the Yesler Houses was part of an exhibition entitled “Here and There” curated by ten Seattle-based artists. The show explored artwork in public places versus art in traditional venues. Each artist created a temporary piece of art in a public setting as well as a corresponding work at the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA.)*

As a resident of the Central District, my initial motivation to do a work at the Yesler Houses was to generate a series of ongoing activities and gestures that would bring the dormant houses to life and stimulate dialogue and community interest in the potential use of the site. I saw the houses as metaphors for the continuous shifts and transformations that have occurred in the Central District in the past century and wanted to create an artwork that addressed the cultural, societal, and personal histories of the neighborhood.

Through the use of impermanent materials – chalk drawings in the windows, mud houses containing wildflower seeds, plantings, and excerpts from oral histories written directly on the houses in charcoal –  each mark made on the houses or grounds was fleeting and eventually disappeared leaving only a trace of my presence. I hoped to reflect the passage of time, the nature of memory, the voice of recollection, and the multi-layered history of the houses, the corner, and the neighborhood.

*For the correlating work at CoCA, please see INSTALLATIONS The Collectors