Home Sweet Tacoma Light trail

This piece came to be as a fun intersection of my two favorite art events that I participated in— Wayzgoose and the McKinley Hill public art training cohort. Shortly after our final public art training cohort session we were emailed the link to apply for Tacoma Light Trail’s public art call. I had previously seen the call but I didn’t have any ideas for light art and I wasn’t a light artist, nor had I ever made any light-based artwork so I brushed it off as something that wasn’t a priority. But the email, fresh on the heels of a public art training that had me feeling really pumped for making public art, I decided to noodle a little more intently on a light art concept. I knew this Wayzgoose piece had been a pretty big hit, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I decided to reimagine it as light art. As a printmaker I love how printing requires you to think about layers and how many colors you’re going to print and in what order you’re going to print them. So this piece is essentially breaking a print apart into its layers, and then using light to illuminate it all from behind. I love how this piece shifts as you walk past and your perspective changes and the layers eventually align perfectly.

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The black layers of the original Home Sweet Tacoma print I had printed on acrylic plexi from a sign shop, then I got two blank sheets of plexi for the color layers. I tried a few methods of doing the color, starting with acrylic paint, which wasn’t translucent enough and produced too much brushstroke texture, and alcohol ink which was too transparent and not bold enough. Eventually I decided on colored tissue paper applied with Mod Podge, and I love how it actually looks pretty similar to how relief printed ink looks on paper. Everything is illuminated from behind with 100ft of LED strip lights. Designing and executing this piece stretched my creative brain in new and fun ways and it’s always a pleasure to have my art out and about in Tacoma!

The Tacoma Light Trail art pieces will be all over Tacoma for the duration of January, and there are some great live events that are part of the Light Trail as well, so head over to their website to check out the map of light art as well as dates for events!

“Welcome to Mckinley Hill” sculpture

Back at the beginning of the summer I applied to be a part of Spaceworks’ McKinley Hill public art training cohort. One of my goals this year was to start working towards doing more public art, and I’d gone to a couple trainings earlier in the year through both the library and ArtsWa, but this was a really comprehensive training that gave cohort members the opportunity to submit proposals for public art in McKinley hill and get feedback on the proposals, and learn in a hands-on way while also learning directly from artists actively working in public art. I was thrilled when I got into the cohort and we spent hours in the neighborhood, listening to public artists, community members, and walking the streets of McKinley Hill to get an idea for temporary public artworks we might want to propose. Cohort members had the exclusive opportunity to submit proposals for five temporary public art pieces, plus one permanent public art installation.

When I saw the spot at the top of the hill coming into McKinley from the dome and heard about the long term goal for the neighborhood to have permanent gateway sculptures at the north and south end of the business district creating a touchpoint for those traveling to welcome them to the neighborhood, I knew I wanted to propose a temporary welcome sculpture. It was the perfect spot for a welcome sculpture, being revealed as people drive around the sweeping corner up the hill from the dome district, as well as right beside bus stops on both sides of the street for folks coming into and leaving the neighborhood via mass transit. I initially planned on pitching two temporary art pieces— a welcome sculpture, and then a street mural in the right of way in the middle of the business district, but when I was planning the sculpture I realized I wanted to merge the two ideas and have one side of the sculpture incorporate the mural.

During our cohort training we heard from the neighborhood’s council member as well as community members and it was apparent how deeply the community cared for the neighborhood and how hard they had worked to build it up and invest in making it a thriving and safe place for those who call the area home. The Audre Lorde quote felt like the perfect encapsulation of the spirit of the neighborhood that I witnessed, and I intentionally chose specific imagery that symbolize the work that has been put into this neighborhood.

Kelp: Powerful growth that has a strong anchor in place.
Banana Slug: Slow and steady forward movement.
Ferns: Nature’s fractals showing how small changes compound into larger ones.
Poppies: Remembrance for community members lost, and hope for the future.
Dove + Olive Branch: Peace.
Broken Chain: structural oppression broken through community support. 

This sculpture will live here for about six months, and will then be uninstalled (perhaps we’ll find another home for it if it’s still in good condition!). If you want to go take a look, it’s about a block north of Dusty’s Hideaway!

Huge thank you to my parents, my partner Dan, and our friend Calvin for teaming up with me to get this behemoth installed! And thank you to Jasmine and Spaceworks for allowing me this opportunity, and Rebecca at the City of Tacoma for supporting me through this process! None of this would’ve come to life without the support from these awesome people.