 |
|
|
Bus Shelter Mural Program Gallery
Piper's Creek Watershed
© 1995 Caitlin Evans, Christina Kilday, Todd Mathews, John Wells,
all rights reserved
Medium: Laser-cut steel and mixed media
Located at N. 85th St. & Greenwood Ave. N. in Seattle
Piper’s Creek Watershed
The site of these two bus shelters was once the source a salmon spawning creek that ran north and out into Elliott Bay through what is now Carkeek Park. Much of this creek is now underground, but still runs into Piper’s Creek. In December of 1993, due to efforts to rehabilitate Piper’s Creek, salmon successfully spawned in in the creek for the first time since 1927.
The purpose of this installation is to delight the people of Greenwood and inspire them to a heightened awareness of the watershed that they live on and the salmon and other animals that depend upon clean water. The challenge is to imagine city streets so clean that the water running off of them--and filling the storm drains, and draining into creeks--will be good enough for salmon to run in. In fact, what if the salmon could run right up the storm drains, along the gutters, across the sidewalk and up onto the roof of the Greenwood bus shelter?
The upstream shelter, on the left side of the photo, illustrates the watershed as it exists today, how it is affected by urban development, and how the citizens of Greenwood can help take care of it--thereby taking care of the local wild salmon. The two shelters are linked together by the wild salmon jumping upstream, from the west to the east; a symbol of their jump from the past to the present and, hopefully, into the future.
The downstream shelter, on the right side of the photo, respresents how the land looked before Europeans arrived in the Northwest. Long before the first Europeans settled the Pacific Northwest, wild salmon were a regional symbol of natural abundance and environmental stability. Today, salmon populations are seriously threatened by our presence here. Because we live on watersheds which feed the streams so vital to the salmon life cycle, some of the choices we make in our daily lives literally determine if the salmon will live or die.
Artists: Caitlin Evans, Todd Matthews, Christina Kilday, and John Wells
The artists were selected from an open-call for artists. Three finalists were selected by a jury, and their designs were displayed in the local library for 2 weeks. Visitors to the library voted for their favorite design.
Funding
The 1995 project was funded by the Metro Arts Program and a Department of Neighborhoods "Small and Simple" Grant awarded to the Greenwood Arts Council. The project was also supported by the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge Community Councils, the Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, the Greenwood Neighborhood Service Center, the Literacy Action Center and many enthusiastic community volunteers.
|
