In late 2019 I was commissioned by the city of Traverse City, Michigan to design and fabricate a relief sculpture for the exterior of a boathouse building at Hull Park on Boardman Lake. The boathouse is the headquarters for the Cornwell Sailing Center, a popular sailing school run by the city’s recreation department. My inspiration for the “Pertaining to Wind and Water” sculpture was the sails and colorful little boats the school uses for the kids sailing program with a few kayaks and fluid lines suggesting waves and wind. For good measure I included depictions of 5 boating knots that every sailor should know. Whether anyone at the sailing school has taken notice of the knots that are scattered across the abstract composition I can’t say, but I had fun adding them.
The artwork is on the lake side of the building, so it must be viewed by standing on the boathouse docks, from a passing boat or by standing on the Boardman Lake ice in winter. So far I’ve received no reviews from the ice fishing shanties.
As with a lot of things recently, the Chinese Covid virus interfered with this project a bit. Although the sculpture was completed much earlier, I was not allowed to install the sculpture (outdoors!) until the end of June 2020. The city and state had decided I was a non-essential worker.
To see the full sculpture, click on “WIND AND WATER” in the PUBLIC & CORPORATE section of my Portfolio.
