Northgate Branch Art
Artwork includes a stone sculpture by Dr. Rita Kepner, glasswork for the branch by Portland artist Dana Lynn Louis, metal waves for the plaza by Olympia artist Nikki McClure, and glass blocks, birdhouses and resting places by Portland artist Linda Wysong for the sidewalk and path.
“Perch” by Linda Wysong
For the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Linda Wysong created a connection to nature with "Perch." The art elements include 12 glass blocks that depict Wysong's interpretation of a black-capped chickadee, three brightly colored steel birdhouse sculptures and two resting places made of hammered copper tree forms.
The blocks are embedded in the sidewalk along Fifth Avenue Northeast. The birdhouses and resting places are on the pedestrian path on the slope south of the community center along Northeast 105th Street.
Artist statement
Portland, Oregon artist Wysong is an interdisciplinary visual artist known for her thoughtful examination of our contemporary lives. She strives to create opportunities to "re-see" the everyday in a new and revealing manner. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, including in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Rotterdam, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Wysong has participated in numerous design teams and has public art installations along the Springwater Corridor and the Interstate MAX Line in Portland.
About the artist
Portland, Oregon artist Wysong is an interdisciplinary visual artist known for her thoughtful examination of our contemporary lives. She strives to create opportunities to "re-see" the everyday in a new and revealing manner. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, including in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Rotterdam, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Wysong has participated in numerous design teams and has public art installations along the Springwater Corridor and the Interstate MAX Line in Portland.
“Circulation” by Dana Lynn Louis
For The Seattle Public Library, Dana Lynn Louis created "Circulation," a vertical installation of colored circles of glass fused onto glass panels. It is integrated into the book drop at the plaza entry to the branch. Conceptually, the piece refers to the collection, digestion and dissemination of knowledge that occurs daily at the library.
Artist statement
I enjoy enhancing environments by highlighting the energy of a place - pulling viewers around a corner or across a street, inviting them to look at space in a new way, and creating relationships between interiors and exteriors, between our bodies and our environment, between our unique senses of self and our interconnectedness with all. One of my inspirations came from a trip that I took to Timbuktu, Mali. There I visited a library that houses some of the oldest manuscripts in the world. It was amazing to see the illustrations and writings in so many languages. Even though the languages were foreign to me, many of the concepts and illustrations were familiar.
About the artist
Portland, Oregon artist Louis' work includes large-scale outdoor work, indoor installations, individual objects, drawings and prints. For the last 12 years she has worked collaboratively with artists, engineers, architects and community members. Louis considers public art an opportunity to acknowledge the interconnectedness of art in our daily lives. Examples of Louis' work include ceramic and glass tiles and glass vessels that she created for the men's and women's restrooms at the Portland Convention Center, a kaleidoscopic glass drawing for the façade of the new facility at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma and a glass and metal wall in a fire station in Portland.
“The Eddy” by Nikki McClure
For Seattle Parks and Recreation, Nikki McClure created a series of blue-gray metal waves inset with colored glass bubbles. "The Eddy," which is in the plaza, rises out of the back of a concrete wall that curves toward the entrance of the community center. It is back-lit so it is visible at night. "The Eddy" creates a place of rest on a site with many uses.
Artist statement
Nearby Thornton Creek is in Seattle's largest watershed, where many small creeks come together throughout Northgate. The community center also brings people together. The plaza will have many streams of people flowing across it, between the community center, library, park, playground and daycare. People will be criss-crossing the space. How to get all these disparate paths to meet? Create an eddy, a place where the current flows downstream from the parking lot and into the plaza, where it spins off and creates a place of rest.
About the artist
A self-taught artist in Olympia, McClure primarily makes papercuts, cutting each image from a single sheet of paper. She publishes her own calendars and books, which are distributed worldwide, and also has made books for Sasquatch Books. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, including in Seattle, Brooklyn, Tokyo and Sweden. McClure has received public art commissions from the cities of Seattle and Olympia under their Emerging Public Artist programs. She aims to craft environments in which to rest and observe the busy world.
“In Transition is Unity” by Rita Marie Kepner
As you approach the Northgate Branch, look for Dr. Rita Kepner’s abstract stone sculpture to the left of the entrance. Commissioned by the Seattle Art Commission and The Seattle Public Library, the black granite piece was dedicated at the Library’s Central Library in 1978, where it was housed until it moved to the Northgate Branch. A bronze plaque attached to the mount, shares Kepner’s full title for the sculpture: “Rough to Smooth – Hard to Soft – Man to Woman – In Transition Is Unity.”
Artist statement
At the time of the dedication, Dr. Kepner said of the sculpture’s name: “That’s what it’s about – a long time is a short time, a square form is a round form, a hard surface can be a soft surface, rough is relative to smooth, day moves into night, man and woman are part of the same life, life is part of death …”
About the artist
Originally from Binghamton, New York, award-winning artist Rita Marie Kepner, Ph.D., has lived in Seattle since 1967. Working primarily through the medium of sculpture, Dr. Kepner’s artworks have been featured at galleries throughout Poland, Hungary, Germany, Canada and Washington state. A collection of her art has been on permanent and rotating display at City University of Seattle since 2015, and her sculptures have been installed in places such as Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Washington Mutual Bank. Dr. Kepner has been artist-in-residence for the city of Seattle as well as informal visual arts ambassador between the U.S. and Poland. She has also worked as a writer, editor, a public affairs specialist for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and as disaster reservist for FEMA. Dr. Kepner has taught at the University of Washington, Evergreen College, Washington State University, City University of Seattle, and the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) at Emmitsburg, Maryland, as well as at the Department of the Navy in Bremerton.
Special thanks to:
- 1% for Art Program funding through the Library, Parks and Seattle Department of Transportation.
- The Seattle Public Library Foundation for donating additional funding for the glasswork by Dana Lynn Louis.
- Wallace Grantor Trust, which contributed funding in memory of M. Marvin Wallace for the third birdhouse designed by Linda Wysong.