Stone sculptures on the corner of Pioneer and Lithia Streets catch the eye of a pedestrian as she walks by. Photos by Amelia Wirts | Daily Tidings

Three new pieces now in place around town

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

Over millions of years, floods of molten rock welled up from miles-long fissures in the Earth’s crust, blanketing much of the Pacific Northwest.

Each successive wave of lava cooled and hardened, forming layers of basalt thousands of feet thick.

It is this rock, with its origins inside the Earth, that Portland-artist Lonnie Feather has used for a new public art sculpture in Ashland.

Columbia River basalt, cut from a quarry in southwest Washington, forms two of the columns.

A third column is made from bluestone — the same type of rock used to form part of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England.

Feather said the basalt is a reminder of the geologic history of the region, while all of the stones, which stand upright in a group, are a subtle reference to Stonehenge.

She noted that Stonehenge was built as a gathering place, although its exact purpose remains a mystery.

Dillon Thigpen, 16, Sophia Borgias, 14, and Lucy Way, 14, enjoy viewing the two sculptures near the mosaic sidewalk on Granite Street overlooking Calle Guanajuato. Amelia Wirts | Daily Tidings

“It represented a place where people gathered and shared their lives and commonality,” Feather said. “Stone has a solidness and represents something that focuses a community. We’ve used it to build structures and buildings. It’s a wonderful material.” The work is one of three recently installed public art sculptures in Ashland. Two others accent Ashland Creek.

Located at the corner of Lithia Way and Pioneer Street, the sculpture by Feather was funded through a bequest from the estate of Everett McGee to honor the community contributions of the McGee and Neill families to Ashland. Members of the two families have been involved in business, numerous service groups, churches, the Ashland School Board, the Ashland City Council and other civic activities.

The Ashland Public Arts Commission invited artists to submit proposals for the public art project using the theme “Nourishing Our Community.” In keeping with that theme, Feather sandblasted words such as community, encourage, hope, cherish and nurture into the stone. She also set translucent circles of glass featuring clasped hands in the surface of the sculpture.

Seattle artist Steve Jensen was working with a water theme for his abstract sculpture of an oyster and another of kelp that now grace the stairway connecting Ashland Creek’s west bank near the Calle Guanajuato with Granite Street above.

He cut and welded bronze to create the flowing, playful sculptures.

“Anything with images of the sea needs to be fluid,” said Jensen, who as the son of a Norwegian fisherman, grew up around water, waves and boats.

The sculptures will be removed after a year and new works will be installed on the pedestals that were built into the stairway area to form a rotating sculpture garden.

The project was made possible by funding from a memorial fund set up by the family and friends of the late Arnie Krigel, a sculptor and one of the city’s first public arts commissioners.

At the top of the stairway, Susan Springer, owner of Illahe Tileworks in Ashland, and her assistants installed a tile mosaic in 2005 using a mix of funding. The mosaic features fish, frogs, herons and other creatures that live in a wet environment.

The flurry of recent public art installations comes after a long drought for new public art displays in Ashland.

“I think it’s really exciting to see new sculptures going up in Ashland,” said Public Arts Commission Chair Melissa Markell.

The public arts commission is continuing its work to promote public art in Ashland.

In June, the Ashland City Council set aside $10,000 in the 2006-2007 fiscal year budget for the commission to gather public input and form a public arts master plan for the city. The fiscal year begins in July.

The public arts commission must return to the city council with a plan for how to develop the public arts master plan before the council will authorize expenditures, according to Ashland Management Analyst Ann Seltzer, who is the city staff liaison to the commission.

The money is not enough to pay for an outside consultant, but would be used for items such as public outreach, renting meeting space and data compilation.

Public arts commissioners will take on much of the work in formulating the master plan, she said.

The commission is packed with people who have experience in the art world.

Markell said the commission has gathered public arts master plans from other cities as guides in crafting a plan.

“We’ll be getting input from the public to see what they want in Ashland,” she said.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.

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