<< Previous   of   Next >> For the Enterprise/ MICAH FAVILLE  (click to enlarge) Seattle Pacific University students Lindsey Shepherd, (left), and Laura Spencer work on a mushroom sculpture, one of four art installations for the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden. The finished pieces can be seen at the garden beginning May 7. Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) Senior Crisanna Siegert uses a leveler to straighten a piece of wood as she helps to install her group's art piece, "Fences," Monday, May 4, 2009 at Kruckeberg Botanical Garden in Shoreline. Enterprise/CHRIS GOODENOW  (click to enlarge) Seattle Pacific University art students Shalai Aina (left), a senior, and Sarah Malchodi (center), a sophomore, both of Seattle, stop and take a look at their group's art piece, "Water Droplets," as they install it, Monday, May 4, 2009 at Kruckeberg Botanical Gardens in Shoreline.

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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Art goes up in Kruckeberg Botanic Garden

SPU students design installations

By Amy Daybert
Enterprise editor

Visitors of the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden in Shoreline will have more than the annual Mother's Day plant sale to peruse May 8-10 this year. Four temporary art installations will also be ready for public viewing.

Students from Seattle Pacific University professor Roger Feldman's art class designed art installations to reflect the use and the landscape of the four-acre garden beginning in late March.

"The idea is to have them all done in time for the garden to open this weekend," garden director Sarah Baker said. "We're hoping to keep them up through the summer."

A part of three pieces will begin in the upper garden almost like a "teaser" for the remaining pieces located in the lower garden, Baker said.

"That will be for people who can't make it down to the lower garden … and so people can get a hint of what's to come as they walk through the garden," she said.

In parts of the garden, one team of students installed blue sculptures of various sizes, shapes and textures "meandering around and off trees, causing people to look a little closer at the uniqueness of the plant or the tree it surrounds, while also keeping the element of water as a metaphor for life," according to a garden brochure.

Located in the central portion of the garden, a fence sculpture includes spots for people to walk through, "allowing people to reconnect with nature and with each other" while serving as a "symbol of the owner's responsibility for the care of a park or garden," according to the brochure. In other locations throughout the garden mushroom sculptures "are intended to leave the viewer with a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity for things that are often unnoticed."

The final temporary art installation is a living tree "with viewing windows and doors to see the life inside."

The 18 students in his class have been constructing the installations for the past three and a half weeks, Feldman said.

"Our students were on a fast track to come up with concepts, then made scale models and present those to (Shoreline Parks) board, who voted unanimously to go ahead," he said.

On May 4, the students brought their finished materials to the garden and began installing the sculptures. The project is a collaboration between the city of Shoreline, Seattle Pacific University and the Kruckeberg Garden Foundation. Student artists will be honored at a reception on May 7.

"Installation art engages the viewer more broadly, rather than a single object," Feldman said. "It's more about creating an experience so the viewer will have to discover exactly where they are."


Mothers Day at the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden
Friday through Sunday, May 8-10
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The garden is located at 20312 15th Ave. NW in Shoreline.