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Project places interesting salmon sculptures on Portland streets
Friday, August 24, 2007 | No comments posted.
Looking for salmon in Oregon is a bit like listening to the shrimp-besotted Bubba from the movie “Forrest Gump.”
We have the town of Salmon, the Salmon River, and a salmon license plate. There’s the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Area, salmon berries, and don’t even get me started on salmon recipes.
Oregon’s salmon are most frequently found in its rivers, or on dinner plates. However, 33 painted, gilded, beaded and otherwise decorated salmon sculptures have been landed in downtown Portland, part of a public art and education campaign that celebrates the removal of two dams along the Sandy River.
The Western Rivers Conservancy launched Salmon for the Sandy on July 5, releasing 18 large, 52-inch sculptures into the urban eddies. An additional 15 smaller, 24-inch salmon sculptures were also created, and six of those form the “School of Salmon” traveling display that is migrating to locations throughout the state.
Locating the salmon sculptures in Portland has become a popular scavenger hunt for visitors and residents alike, and is drawing a strong response from all ages, according to WRC Vice President Sue Doroff.
The sculptures are accompanied by an information sheet and map which serves as the Salmon Sculpture Passport. Find the salmon, write down the title, and submit your answers to WRC. Find five, and win a cap and a chance at a drawing for a fly fishing rod and other prizes. Doroff says the idea for “salmon caching” surfaced in the WRC office, as staff developed ways to share the art and conservancy concept with the public. The plexiglass forms were donated by sponsors; the artists were selected by committee from throughout the Northwest.
“The salmon sculptures are catching people’s eyes for a good cause,” says Phillip Wallin, WRC’s president. “They are here to generate excitement around the new natural resource and recreation area that we’re preserving.”
Removal of the Marmot and Little Sandy dams will give Sandy River salmon an unobstructed path from the slopes of Mount Hood to the Columbia Gorge and onward to the Pacific Ocean, opening up more than 100 miles of new stream habitat for fish.
Artist Janet R. Erwin seized upon the concept of migration with her sculpture, a fascinating piece she calls “What I Saw On My Trip To the Ocean.” The pink-bellied, green-backed salmon features four, steel-framed viewing windows along each flank, and has a suitcase handle mounted on top. It was the perfect selection for the Hotel Lucia, where it will reside until the first week of October.
Erwin filled each window with items that might be encountered by a migrating salmon: grasses, pebbles, and one window filled with clear bubbles, like a cache of discarded contact lenses. There’s a pair of child’s legs, plump and knock-kneed, and a golf ball that missed the green.
In Portland’s Pearl District, the Hoyt Realty Group — an epicenter of spanking new, sparkling highrise condos — appropriately landed the luscious sculpture called “Salmon-Roe-Salmon.”
Artist Scott Schuldt, who works in hand-sewn beadwork and mixed media, somehow located the perfect shade of bead. Richly fecund, reddish orange, the tantalizing swirls and whorls of roe-colored beads completely cover his fish. This sculpted salmon glows with life, as it gazes out over the Fremont Bridge, toward the river.
The Lawrence Gallery is host to Kathryn Menard’s “Shimmering Salmon,” another 52-inch sculpture created from hundreds of glass mosaic pieces, the color of an Australian opal. The sculpture has been creatively placed within a water feature of the gallery’s outdoor garden, captured mid-leap before entering Poseidon’s pool.
“Salmon for the Sandy” concludes with a gala auction of the sculptures on Oct. 24, at the Portland Art Museum. These trophy fish are only temporarily ashore. See them now, before they glide off to their new homes.
For more information on “Salmon for the Sandy” and an online Passport, visit www.westernrivers.org.
Teri Albert reviews art and artists for The World. Comments on or story ideas for this column are welcome, and can be e-mailed to malbert@uci.net.
We have the town of Salmon, the Salmon River, and a salmon license plate. There’s the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Area, salmon berries, and don’t even get me started on salmon recipes.
Oregon’s salmon are most frequently found in its rivers, or on dinner plates. However, 33 painted, gilded, beaded and otherwise decorated salmon sculptures have been landed in downtown Portland, part of a public art and education campaign that celebrates the removal of two dams along the Sandy River.
The Western Rivers Conservancy launched Salmon for the Sandy on July 5, releasing 18 large, 52-inch sculptures into the urban eddies. An additional 15 smaller, 24-inch salmon sculptures were also created, and six of those form the “School of Salmon” traveling display that is migrating to locations throughout the state.
Locating the salmon sculptures in Portland has become a popular scavenger hunt for visitors and residents alike, and is drawing a strong response from all ages, according to WRC Vice President Sue Doroff.
The sculptures are accompanied by an information sheet and map which serves as the Salmon Sculpture Passport. Find the salmon, write down the title, and submit your answers to WRC. Find five, and win a cap and a chance at a drawing for a fly fishing rod and other prizes. Doroff says the idea for “salmon caching” surfaced in the WRC office, as staff developed ways to share the art and conservancy concept with the public. The plexiglass forms were donated by sponsors; the artists were selected by committee from throughout the Northwest.
“The salmon sculptures are catching people’s eyes for a good cause,” says Phillip Wallin, WRC’s president. “They are here to generate excitement around the new natural resource and recreation area that we’re preserving.”
Removal of the Marmot and Little Sandy dams will give Sandy River salmon an unobstructed path from the slopes of Mount Hood to the Columbia Gorge and onward to the Pacific Ocean, opening up more than 100 miles of new stream habitat for fish.
Artist Janet R. Erwin seized upon the concept of migration with her sculpture, a fascinating piece she calls “What I Saw On My Trip To the Ocean.” The pink-bellied, green-backed salmon features four, steel-framed viewing windows along each flank, and has a suitcase handle mounted on top. It was the perfect selection for the Hotel Lucia, where it will reside until the first week of October.
Erwin filled each window with items that might be encountered by a migrating salmon: grasses, pebbles, and one window filled with clear bubbles, like a cache of discarded contact lenses. There’s a pair of child’s legs, plump and knock-kneed, and a golf ball that missed the green.
In Portland’s Pearl District, the Hoyt Realty Group — an epicenter of spanking new, sparkling highrise condos — appropriately landed the luscious sculpture called “Salmon-Roe-Salmon.”
Artist Scott Schuldt, who works in hand-sewn beadwork and mixed media, somehow located the perfect shade of bead. Richly fecund, reddish orange, the tantalizing swirls and whorls of roe-colored beads completely cover his fish. This sculpted salmon glows with life, as it gazes out over the Fremont Bridge, toward the river.
The Lawrence Gallery is host to Kathryn Menard’s “Shimmering Salmon,” another 52-inch sculpture created from hundreds of glass mosaic pieces, the color of an Australian opal. The sculpture has been creatively placed within a water feature of the gallery’s outdoor garden, captured mid-leap before entering Poseidon’s pool.
“Salmon for the Sandy” concludes with a gala auction of the sculptures on Oct. 24, at the Portland Art Museum. These trophy fish are only temporarily ashore. See them now, before they glide off to their new homes.
For more information on “Salmon for the Sandy” and an online Passport, visit www.westernrivers.org.
Teri Albert reviews art and artists for The World. Comments on or story ideas for this column are welcome, and can be e-mailed to malbert@uci.net.
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