11/11/2009 6:00:00 AM Local sculptors create public art for Des Moines library
For local sculptors Mark Twain Stevenson and Sarah Ohman-Ybarra Lopez, a longtime dream combining romance, environmental awareness and public art came together just up the waterway from here on Saturday, Oct. 24. On that day, their bronze sculpture "Turtle Island, Puget Sound" was dedicated for the Des Moines Public Library in Des Moines, Wash.
The couple have been hard at work for the past 10 months forming the kindly turtle that carries the world on her shell, in this case our immediate world of the Puget Sound basin and the surrounding Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges. From her wizened face to her tail, this turtle measures 6 feet long and stands 2 feet tall.
King County Library System commissioned the piece for the Des Moines Public Library to be placed outdoors, greeting visitors from a grassy mound in front of the library. "We're known as the 'Waterland Community,'" said Managing Librarian Barbara Blue. "So this turtle sculpture provides a natural connection with our identity."
Stevenson used satellite imagery to faithfully sculpt on the shell, also called a carapace, the land and waterways that include the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, Hood Canal inlet, 31 islands, 26 rivers, 24 lakes, and prominent mountaintops such as Mount Baker and Mount Rainier.
Beginning the sculpture with a welded metal armature, the artists built up the form until sculpting clay could be added for the fine detail. "For the face, we aimed for a combination of friendly, wise and curious," said Stevenson.
"We sculpted some of the scales on the legs by pressing into the clay lima and fava beans, and even Jordan almonds, to form different-sized scales," added Ohman.
The turtle was cast in 18 pieces at Valley Bronze in Joseph, Ore., and was reassembled at the artists' Carapace Arts Studio in Port Townsend.
Stevenson based "Turtle Island, Puget Sound" on creation stories of Turtle-Who-Carries-the-World, told throughout time in various forms by many cultures, among them Native American, Japanese and Hindu. "Our work combines our interest in mythology in new forms for public sculpture," Ohman explained.
"We hope," said Stevenson, "that this sculpture will remind us of our dependence on the natural world in a way that is playful and inviting."
It is worth noting that native turtle species of the Northwest were nearly extinct when, in the 1990s, Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, the Portland Zoo, Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Nature Conservancy and other government and private groups began to work together to nurture hatchlings to release into area ponds, bringing these creatures back from the brink.
Barbara McMichael, chairwoman of the Sculpture Project Committee with members of the Des Moines Library Board, first conceived of a plan for public sculpture in 2005. "The whole community has come together to support this project, from schoolchildren to business and local politicians," McMichael said. "We are so pleased with this wonderful turtle - it will provide accessible public art in a place where people of all ages will be able to enjoy it on a daily basis."
For artists Stevenson and Ohman, this sculpture is the culmination of a longtime dream. Ten years ago, Stevenson hoped to see a large version of Turtle Island made for a public park. The couple met over this venture and married five years later. "The turtle has become a totem for our relationship," said Ohman, "and by extension, our relationship with home in the Puget Sound region. It's as if we are riding on the turtle back, on Turtle Island, and turtle has been carrying us along on this remarkable journey together."
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Article comment by:
Ebrahim Wahab
Hello Mark and Sarah, Congradulation on his great accomplishement! I know you have worked hard on this project for many years and it is so good to see it come to fruitation. With love from the Wahab family.
Posted: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Article comment by:
Ann Johnson
Sarah and Mark, It is so fantastic to witness the culmination of your Turtle project after seeing it in various stages! Wonderful!
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