Sketch, showing design at planned installation site on North Monroe Street
“Sun Shine Through” is a colorful mosaic sculpture in progress, planned for completion in April 2023. It is a collaboration with artist Lisa Soranaka (lisasoranaka.com) that we began planning in the fall of 2021. We were awarded a studio residency at The Hive® to build it and host free workshops for the public to make tiles we will incorporate into the mosaic. We were also awarded a SAGA grant in August 2022 to cover the cost of our materials. We have the support of the Spokane Arts Commission and the neighborhoods and business districts that border the installation site on North Monroe. The sculpture represents light and color, community and diversity, and the beauty in shining through dark times together.
Listen to the Spokane Public Radio interview after our SAGA award. The size of the sculpture scaled up after this interview and so some of our descriptions of the materials we would use are no longer accurate.
If you’d like to support the installation of this sculpture, you can donate to our GoFundMe or help spread the word. Thank you!
Forged with Columbia Fire & Iron blacksmithing club, 2019
The concept for this bike rack design in rooted in community. In 2019, I facilitated a weekly blacksmithing demonstration at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers Market with the Columbia Fire & Iron blacksmiths (CFI), as part of our recent SAGA grant award. We wanted to forge a large project over the coarse of the market season and then donate it to the community, and there was need on the premises for a bike rack. I wanted to incorporate the apple tree branch to honor the farmers market and also because of the apple’s association with education, and the bike rack would be installed in front of the SCC Adult Education Center on North Monroe, their parking lot being the site of the EG Farmers Market during the summer. The leaves were forged on-site during the markets, and we later forged and fabricated the bike rack at Morgan-Jade Ironworks with the expert leadership of CFI founding member and professional blacksmith David Kailey. This sculptural bike rack was a wonderful experience of community support and group effort.
Finalist, Shadle Library outdoor public art sketch, 2020
I was thrilled to be a finalist for the Shadle Library outdoor art call during COVID, and though my design was ultimately not selected it was an invaluable experience planning and presenting it. I absolutely love our libraries and Shadle is my neighborhood branch, so I really poured my heart into this, and I drew upon my love of steel, glass, and stone to design a whimsical archway for the lead up to the building entrance. I still imagine how magical it would feel to walk through this arch, with the words “welcome to your infinite potential” inlayed underfoot, on your way to our city’s treasure room of free resources and inspirations. I had enlisted my friend and professional blacksmith David Kailey and local fused glass artist Coleen Lake to be on my team for this project.
Original rendering by Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning, Inc., which I Photoshopped my design sketch into.