These Bronze Samara, located in Maple Valley, WA, became an award winning, competitive public art project (from a 1% for Art, Public Buildings fund) with Seattle Arts Commission. A samara is a fruit, but to the untrained eye it appears to be a seedpod. Often used for amusement in ‘helicopter’ games by children in the Fall, these fruits are winged in their shape and spin like propellers when floating through the air. Due to their ergonomics, they are able to sail a far distance from their parent tree and thus have an aptitude for greater germination and survival. These specific samara were produced in Trouton’s studio and at a local, Seattle, Foundry. Originally the design was for the seeds to be “scattered” in and around the trees and ferns directly about the Maple Valley building.” The samara were enhanced, through the delicate and time-consuming process of “lost wax chasing,” with selected quotes from literature to engage viewers in contemplation as they pass.

These sculptures were created with the support of Seattle Public Libraries and assisted by The Seattle Arts Commission.

The lovely bronzed winged seeds that remain today in the Maple Valley Library, carry these two quotes: “Libraries are the carriers of civilization,” by Barbara Tuchman and “Reading is the basic tool in the living a good life,” by Joseph Addison.

The Waterworks is located in a politically sensitive area of Northern Ireland, which witnessed terrible sectarian violence throughout the fraught period of ‘the troubles.’ This work, ‘Waters of Life,’ was created as a project of hope-building. The location of the stairway, between two reservoirs that used to provide water for Belfast, is symbolic as a bridge or a ‘stairway’ to peace. Horizontal zig-zags were cut into the grassy slopes of either side of the embankment to represent the universal and healing power of water. The stairwell was painted with blue and green words as a reference to the calming messages in water and were specifically taken from mythological places of paradise such as the Kingdom of Shambhala, The Heavens, Elysium, Eden, Shangri-La, Utopia, Nirvana, Hesperides, Valhalla and Lemuria.

This Public Art was part of the Horsehead International Sculpture Exhibition with British Columbia Arts Council funding.

Created with a story to tell of the changes brought to the land, in PA, by a newly constructed freeway and adjacent sound barrier wall. The “tail” symbolizes the change/chaos of a dragon’s energy as is symbolic in Oriental lore… traveling down the slope and acting as a continuation and yet, diversion, of the original concrete sound barrier. The juxtaposition of the hard concrete sound barrier against this earthwork creation and the ‘soft’ earthwork sculpture, call to mind our own strength and mortality. This sculpture was in place for two years, during which time it gradually disintegrated back into the earth. Made ‘by hand’ by what some have called an early form of post-millennium ‘craftivism.’ This land art piece was constructed by making walls which were formed from a slurry of earth, then compressed in ‘formwork’ (which was then removed). This project encompassed several hundred hours of human labour of moving tons of earth and reforming it.

Thanks to over 100 juvenile offenders, community members and students who helped to create this work.