{"id":9843,"date":"2021-06-20T13:33:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T20:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?p=9843"},"modified":"2023-08-23T08:20:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T15:20:28","slug":"orcas-landing-waysides-san-juan-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/2021\/06\/orcas-landing-waysides-san-juan-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas Landing Waysides – San Juan Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This was the Orcas Landing in the San Juan Islands of Washington State a couple of years ago, cleaned up from when there were giant fuel tanks here. In the 1980’s I tied up at this dock, and did it again with another boat in the 1990’s. Now the tanks are gone, a new dock that’s not falling apart is there and, some of my art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received some photos of the final installation and it looks very good, so I thought I’d share it here. It took three years to get this figured out, but my part was just a small piece of it. If you’re waiting in line for the ferry, just walk down the ramp and enjoy the view.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I did two wayside panels here. One about the rich aquatic ecosystem right under the docks – a landscape few of us ever see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a panel about the tribal connections here.  For hundreds of years, the Tulalip tribe would use their canoes with a complicated cedar fiber net system to create an artificial reef to trap salmon. Reef fishing, it was called. Back in the 80’s, I saw some of this actually happening and I’ll bet I’m probably the only artist around that could paint reef fishing from memory. For the bottom part, I used artifact photos from the Burke Museum as references for the tools, and a photo of the planking of our own cedar-sided house as a background. I thought it worked pretty well to tell a complicated story. These two images enlarge if you click on them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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San Juan County removed the wooden decking, added seating and new metal and cement decking, a huge tribal mural painted on the nearby building and some really wonderful iron blacksmithing of bull kelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my mind, this is exactly how public art should be approached. Not ‘art by committee’ where a group selects some strange design by low-bid, but working it out with a broad number of skilled individuals coming together to contribute what they each do best. Check out the seating and native plant garden. I’m proud to have been a part of this, and it sort of comes full-circle for me and my history here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And here’s a story in the local paper on Orcas Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A new experience, three years in the making, awaits you at the ferry landing<\/a><\/blockquote>