Legend
Salvaged Steel | 8’ x 7’ x 4’ | 2021
This site-specific sculpture was created to commemorate the vibrant artisan district that was once a vital anchor within Bellingham’s creative culture. Through redevelopment, several trades businesses (including my own) were forever displaced. This sculpture is a study of an old growth red cedar stump, used as a metaphor of the cultural and environmental transitions that have unfolded within this region and at this specific site over a relatively short history in time. It was a great honor to create a work that not only celebrates our regions legacy but also the incredible community, friends and coworkers that I have been so fortunate to collaborate with.
The following is my project statement engraved on a nearby plaque:
Once, this place was blanketed under a great expanse of ice.
Then water.
Then rock.
There was a time when the trees along this bluff reached twenty stories tall; a canopy of needles as high as you could see.
Mammoth, Bear, and Coast Salish people have walked in this forest.
Then came the canter of hooves, the whistle of a trolley and the ring of bicycle bells.
For generations the buildings here were workshops constructed from cedar wood boards, and the tinker of tradespeople echoed along this alleyway.
Most recently they were home to a native plant nursery, photography studio, blacksmith, woodworking and community bike shops.
Just a wink in the history of this place where you stand now.
Welcome to a new generation.
With community, creativity and collaboration, may we continue to share this path in reverence of this time and for this place we call home.