Stepping into Eric Sommers' Glass Art Studio

By Stephanie Wang and Sage Passi

Local glass artist Eric Sommers

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

Sage Passi, Watershed Education Specialist, visited Eric's studio that he shares with two artists in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis and witnessed his artistic process first-hand.

"As I walked into his studio, I was awed by the amount of complex equipment and tools required for glass blowing." 

Eric and his studio partners Andrew Shea and Susan Warner, a ceramic artist, often collaborate on projects. Susan and Eric have currently been commissioned to create art for two wall spaces at Minneapolis - St. Paul International Airport.

Last November, the Watershed presented its 2015 Watershed Excellence awards to honor the accomplishments of exceptional “leaders” in water resources management, watershed stewardship and civic engagement. Local glass artist Eric Sommers was chosen to custom design and create the awards.

Eric says he enjoys the challenge of glass-blowing. "Working in glass means creating variations from piece to piece. It has taken me ten to twelve creations to come up with the final six that I use for the Watershed Awards."

Creating glass artwork requires a special kind of patience and a great deal of technical expertise.



The glass-blowing studio where Eric creates his beautiful art

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

The first day of a project is typically spent preparing the molten glass. Batches of recycled glass and raw material silica sand are slowly charged to the furnace. Plenty of heat and precise temperature controllers are needed to bring the 150-pound batch of glass to the target temperature of 2400 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the bubbles to refine and rise to the surface creating the exceptional molten glass. 



The hottest of multiple ovens

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

For the District awards project the creative process began on the second day. Eric drew images of sunfish and crappies on sandblast resistant tape, then cut the images out and attached them to shards of flat, colored glass. Sandblasting etched the fish onto the colored glass. To protect the image and to create a sculptural effect, the etched glass was encapsulated in molten glass.

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

This process was slowly repeated to avoid sudden temperature changes that could shatter the glass. During each step he added molten glass, smoothing and shaping it carefully. Each time the piece was heated in the 2000 degree oven so that it could be shaped and smoothed repeatedly into its final form.

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

Once this stage was complete, the finished products were annealed (hardened), slowly cooling the glass pieces to room temperature over twenty-seven hours, allowing the molecules in the glass to change from a liquid to a solid.

To finish the awards, the sculptures were mounted on blocks of 100-year-old Douglas Fir cut from boards salvaged from a barn in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and then laser-engraved.




At the Recognition Dinner, Eric met the recipients of his work and learned what winning the award meant to these six individuals. Eric had an opportunity to talk about the creative process in crafting the beautiful fish sculpture awards. 

Eric concluded his talk for the award recipients with this wish,

“My hope is that this small sculpture of water and environment will reinforce the importance of clean water stewardship and will resonate with your recipients the heartfelt thanks for their efforts.”








A display of Eric's finished artwork

Photo Credit: Sage Passi

We extend our sincere thank you to Eric for sharing his artistic talents with us and know that the recipients are honored to receive their unique awards.

If you'd like to contact Eric Sommers, you may reach him at 763-566-2274.

Mixing Art and Water - A Natural Blend

By Sage Passi

Let the Creative Inspirations Flow!

I’m always amazed at the way art emerges and calls attention to whatever issues we are trying to address in our watershed. It provides a natural complement to our communication process while advocating for the protection of water. Visual creativity inevitably surfaces in the approaches we turn to engage people, whether young or old, in watershed stewardship.





This year a team of Harding High School Earth Club students spent many Friday afternoons creating tile designs for the Ups and Downs in the Watershed life-size board game for use at WaterFest. 





I have to say, there was nothing more relaxing than sitting down with a group of young people after a long week and putting marker to tile and letting the creative inspiration flow! We continue to build art into our efforts, big and small.


Seed Packet Art is a "Growing" Tradition  

 A few years ago we began collecting art from students each spring to showcase at WaterFest. Out of this has grown a tradition of an annual native seed packet art contest facilitated by our Nature Resources Program.

It begins during our schools’ indoor planting season in late February and early March and is on display in late May at WaterFest. Classes that grow native plants for Watershed projects are invited to create images that are chosen to be printed on the front of seed packets that are given away every year to visitors at WaterFest. Five winners are chosen across grades K, 2,3, 4 and 5. In addition, all the art designs for this contest are scanned and displayed in the Lake Phalen Pavilion during WaterFest.

Merging Art with the Watershed Mission

In 2010 we hired a resident artist, Christine Baeumler, a University of Minnesota art professor, to guide us in seeking ways to integrate art into our watershed projects, communications and messaging. During that time we began working with consultants to develop branding images to create a visual identity for our Watershed District. We are still in the midst of this process. 





Artistic rainwater features at the east entrance to Maplewood Mall

Photo credit: Sage Passi

We took the leap and incorporated a series of bold and artfully designed watershed features at the entrance to Maplewood Mall to call attention to our extensive Clean Water infiltration projects on that site. Situated next to a dramatic storm cloud surrounded cistern, the Rainy Day mural, at the Mall’s east entrance, compels visitors to explore this colorful, evocative interpretation of the natural and built environments that intersect at this shopping area. What an effective way to get people to contemplate the impacts of development on nature!

Upon finishing these art elements the Watershed District engaged an emerging Forecast public artist, Cecilia Schiller, who designed and installed the interactive Water is Life sculpture at the Kohl’s west entrance at the mall in 2014.

Schiller's sculpture at Maplewood Mall is activated by
rainwater from the roof that drains into a turbine, rotates the
branches and plays a melody on chimes inside the trunk.

Art emerges in unexpected ways

This year art has surfaced in our collaboration with the City of St. Paul for the Phalen Freeze Fest. A theater artist’s imagination harnessed the creative hearts of American Indian Magnet fourth graders who crafted a cast of 57 mergansers puppets for the Shingebiss pageant held at Lake Phalen in early February. The puppets, each with their own unique character, brought to life the tenacious personality of this water bird that frequents our backwaters and lakes in the spring and summer. Their creations helped engage the audience in this event that drew 300 people to Lake Phalen. Giant puppets designed by Urban Roots youth and the animal masks created by Harding Ojibwe students, Earth Club volunteers and Farnsworth after-school third graders, also charmed and warmed the audience at this winter celebration.

Two of the 57 merganser puppets

Watershed Excellence Award Artists Deadline Approaching

In 2013 the Watershed District initiated our Watershed Excellence Award program to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations that collaborate with us in our mission of Quality Water for Quality Life. The work of improving the quality of our surface waters engages many different community members including students, teachers, residents, faith-based organizations, businesses and non-profits. 



Eric Sommer, the glass artist who
designed the winning
2014 Watershed Excellence Awards

Each year we like to honor our final award winners with a unique and valued award. We want this to be an
award that is truly a piece of art that they will value and place in a prominent location in their home or office.
The Watershed District is currently seeking artists to develop a concept sketch for our 2015 award design. A stipend of $50 will be offered for artists who develop a design that could be produced and delivered to us by November 9, 2015. The award should be a manageable/normal size and weight. We will be selecting the award design winner by early September. We will be asking you to produce 4-6 awards within an approximate two month period. We will be able to tell you how many we need by early September and are willing to pay $100 to $150 each.


Proposals should include:

• A sketch of the design
  
• A description of the materials to be used
  
• A way to incorporate a small engraved plate for the award winners name, award name and year or way to have the information engraved directly onto the award
  
• The proposed cost of production for each award

The artist will be recognized at the award dinner and invited to attend.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, send an e-mail to Sage Passi and let her know you intend to submit a proposal by August 8, 2015.  Actual proposals can be emailed to Sage at sage.passi@rwmwd.org, or sent to Sage Passi, RWMWD, 2665 Noel Drive, Little Canada, MN, 55117. If you have questions, you may call Sage at 612-598-9163.  
 
We look forward to showcasing your art to honor and celebrate our Watershed heroes!

Glass Artist Eric Sommers Honors Outstanding Watershed Stewards in 2014

By Sage Passi

Eric Sommer, the glass artist behind the 2014 Watershed Excellence Awards.

 

Eric Sommers is a local glass blower and multi-talented artist who submitted the final winning proposal for the Watershed District’s 2014 Watershed Excellence Awards for 2014. Each of the recipients of these awards received one of Eric’s unique and customized creations. His winning design produced 6 clear glass-blown spheres with individualized colorations that evoke the nuances of water.


RWMWD initiated its Watershed Excellence Awards Program in 2013. That year, an artist Aaron Dysart created the design and crafted the physical awards presented for six categories of excellence in watershed stewardship. An image of the 2013 award is available HERE. In 2014 a call for artists went out into the community in late summer to solicit design suggestions. Three proposals were received. Each artist who submitted one received $50 for their concept plan. The Citizen Advisory Commission reviewed the proposals and selected Sommers to be the artist to produce his design for this year’s awards. The Watershed District intends to solicit new design concepts each year for the award program.


Sommers, the glass artist explains his process of creating the awards for this year,

“In its liquid state (2100 degrees F) molten glass is the consistency of honey in a jar.”

A definition for "gathering," one of the glass-blowing terms Eric refers to is this: “The process of free-blowing involves the blowing of short puffs of air into a molten portion of glass called a '"gather" which has been spooled at one end of the blowpipe.” [Source: Wikipedia]
 
Eric explains further, 

"The first gather of clear glass adheres to a heated steel rod and is about the size of my thumb. A thread of blue glass is attached spiraling around the clear core and heated until smooth. The process is repeated a second time.

The piece grows to full size on the third gather and is shaped into a symmetrical sphere. The last step is to attach a larger blue thread around the bottom half of the sphere, below the equator and above the bottom third. Next it is heated enough to half melt the blue thread which can then be pulled with a metal hook tool to make a blue wave pattern. This attachment is organic and textured with the final shaping done with a graphite paddle or cherry wood block.”

 

Eric completed the process of making the awards by mounting the spheres on a block of cherry. He says that’s one of his favorite kinds of wood. He placed a piece of white marble on top of the wood block and had the awardees’ names and the titles of their awards engraved in the wood.

“Glass blowing hooks you,” comments Eric. He studied at St. Cloud State University in the mid 1980’s where he became a regular in the glass blowing studio on campus. Prior to that he learned pottery first at Robbinsdale High School and then went to North Hennepin Community College where he “threw pottery” for two years and as he puts it, ”I got up the guts to do the glass blowing thing.”

Heating up blown glass in a fiery furnace.
(not an actual picture of Eric)

“It’s an incredible material. I love working with clay too. I have lots of interests as most artists and creative thinkers do."

There is a connection between Eric’s art, where he lives and the watershed accomplishments he is honoring with his creations. He explains,

"My wife’s and my home of 22 years faces the Mississippi in Brooklyn Center next to North Mississippi Regional Park. Dawn’s career with Three Rivers Park District and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board shares in emphasizing the importance of clean water. The parallels of the art medium I have been fascinated with for over 25 years and the Watershed District’s mission of clean water are apparent."


In his design proposal, Eric described the symbolism in his art work;

“The sphere represents our shared earth,

the clear glass our intent to protect its amazing resources

and the colorant reflects the movement of water that gives our blue planet life.”
 
That’s a strong visual message that honors the commitment and achievements of each of our Watershed Heroes in 2015. Thanks, Eric for your artistic efforts!


Award winners Ginny Newman (middle left) and Bev Blomgren
(middle right) receiving Sommer's custom glass pieces in
recognition of their outstanding efforts in youth engagement
through service learning projects in St. Paul Schools.

May 24th Celebration : 'Water Is Life' and 'Rainy Day,' two public art installations at Maplewood Mall

By Sage Passi

The leaf blades of the Water is Life sculpture, created by Cecilia Schiller and
Willis Bowman silhouetted against the sky at Maplewood Mall.

On a beautiful spring evening on May 24 in 1983, I gave birth to my daughter, Crystal. I watched her grow up to be an artist and somehow it feels fitting to witness the unveiling of two new works of art on that same day, thirty one years later. This time around there’s lots to be celebrated again. Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District invites the public to the dedication ceremonies for two new public art installations, Water is Life and Rainy Day, at the Maplewood Mall on Saturday, May 24 from 11 AM to 1:00 PM. These works are real labors of love.

The mural Rainy Day, created by David Aichinger, Jessica Turtle, and
Christy Schwartz is enjoyed by St. Peter School visitors.

The stunning public art pieces at Maplewood Mall have been birthed over the past year and a half. The designers/crafters of these two projects have dedicated innumerable hours, tapped into their creativity and energy, masterminded their way around numerous challenges and teamed up to bring their vision and message to light. Their artworks highlight themes about the interactions between water, nature and the built environment.

The Water is Life sculpture waits to be unveiled.  The wood trunk of the tree
(wrapped in a tarp) harbors musical chimes underneath the bark that play when
the turbine leaves rotate.

The festivities will begin at the mall’s west entrance (near Kohl’s) at 11:00 AM with the unveiling of the interactive sculpture Water is Life, followed by a procession through the mall to the east entrance at 11:30 for a ceremony to honor the completion of the mural, Rainy Day. Performances by students from Farnsworth Aerospace, Harding High Earth Club and St. Peter’s School with original poetry will be the centerpieces of the celebration. A reception with an opportunity to mingle with the artists follows.

St. Peter's fourth graders rehearse for the art dedication ceremony on
May 24th at Maplewood Mall.

Artist Cecilia Schiller, together with Willis Bowman, created Water is Life, an interactive, water driven, tree-shaped sculpture to encourage the community to share in the responsibility of protecting water and keeping it clean. The Tree of Life sculpture is activated by rainwater from the roof that drains into a turbine, rotates the branches and plays a melody on chimes inside the trunk. Viewers can also make the sculpture move by turning a wheel on a crank box adjacent to it.

Cecilia and Bowman set up the sculpture at
Maplewood Mall's west entrance.

Rainy Day, the large tile mural provides a dramatic backdrop for the Watershed
District's stormwater management features.

Schiller’s idea for the sculpture was developed over the course of a year by interacting with watershed district staff, volunteers and community members and exploring sites and waterways within the watershed. Its Tree of Life motif carries the message about the interconnections between water and life. Ultimately she chose the location at Maplewood Mall for its unique challenge to use rainwater in creative ways and the opportunity it offered to reach a large and diverse audience while promoting ideas of innovative water stewardship efforts and their benefits in a fun, inviting way.

Tessera Mosaics artists, David Aichinger, Jessica Turtle and Christy Schwartz created the large colorful, playful ceramic and stone tile mural, Rainy Day to draw attention to the interplay between nature and the built environment. Created as a backdrop for the Watershed District’s dramatically decorated cistern and the rain garden surrounding it at the mall’s east entrance, the mural entices visitors to find images embedded in the design that include a belted kingfisher, honeybees, walleye, sunfish, ferns, a mushroom, a lizard, 3 ants carrying a pretzel, a turtle with a crayfish, a western bluebird as well as many other creatures and plants that share the local environment with humans.

A spider, one of the many smaller images
incorporated in the mural.

The mural challenges the audience to contemplate their own actions in the environment. At the same time it inspires an appreciation of the beauty and capacity of long- rooted plants in the mall’s rain gardens to help water soak into the ground and keep downstream lakes and the Mississippi River safe from potentially harmful pollutants that would otherwise run off from the mall’s parking lots, rooftops and roads. Their work helped inspire the poetry that St. Peter’s students will be performing at the event.

St Peter's students write in their journals about the mural's messages.

Schiller received an initial grant to develop a preliminary design in 2012 and additional funding from Forecast Public Art St. Paul in 2013 to build and install Water Is Life at Maplewood Mall. Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District gave input and matching funds. The Jerome Foundation provided additional funds. The Rainy Day mural was funded by Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District.

Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District is partnering with Maplewood Mall, Harding High School Earth Club, St. Peter School and Farnsworth Aerospace School for this event. 

We hope to see you there!!  It will be a great time for folks of all ages.

For more information contact Sage Passi, Watershed Education Specialist at sage.passi[at]rwmwd.org or at 612-598-9163.

The Many Languages of Water: Celebrate Water Is Life at WaterFest! May 31

By Sage Passi

Dej yug siav. Biyo waa nolol. Agua es Vida. L’eau est la vie! In any language, Water is Life!

Harding High Earth Club rehearses at their school for the Water is Life 
celebration at WaterFest.

Join in the festivities at WaterFest to celebrate the many languages of water. Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District and the City of St. Paul invite you to participate in the Water is Life celebration and procession that begins at 11:00 AM on the bridge north of the Pavilion in Phalen Park on Saturday, May 31. Then follow the parade to the dedication celebration at the west side of the lake at the waterfall that has recently been restored by St. Paul. For the rest of the day take part in the many varied activities of WaterFest throughout the park on St. Paul’s Get Out of Doors Day!

Harding High heads off to the Lake Phalen waterfall in late April
to practice for the waterfall dedication ceremony. 

Harding High Earth Club students, Farnsworth Aerospace third and fourth grades and a class from St. Peter School will kick off WaterFest with a ceremony on the bridge that honors the many personalities, roles and seasonal attributes of water. Water drawn from the many lakes, creeks and wetlands in the District will be symbolically merged to acknowledge that “water connects us all.” Bev Blomgren and Sage Passi have been working with students for several months to create performances for both WaterFest and a dedication ceremony at Maplewood Mall for the interactive Water is Life sculpture and the Rainy Day mural unveiling on Saturday, May 24. **Read more about the Maplewood Mall Ceremony here **



Bev Blomgren coaches Farnsworth students who will be
performers in the Water is Life celebration.  The "Eagle"
puppet is one of the many characters in the production.

Water is water.



It is fog, frost and sea.

When autumn comes chasing,

Water comes racing.

Water can be a

Leaf river

A fire snuffer

An eagle flyway

A salmon highway.

Farnsworth fouth-graders dramatize water's ability to "snuff out" fire.

The limestone walled waterfall at Lake Phalen on the western side of the lake was created in the 1950’s. “Originally, there was a well dug with it, and water flowed from the well to Lake Phalen to supplement the water levels, which were receding at times,” says Brian Murphy, St. Paul’s landscape architect who directed the redesign efforts.

The waterfall on Lake Phalen's western shore was built in the 1950s.
Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Dormant for many decades, the waterfall will be “turned on” at WaterFest to circulate water to and from the lake.

Harding High Earth Club prepare for the waterfall dedication
ceremony on May 31st.

A lift station for the waterfall will draw water from Lake Phalen through an intake structure located in the lake. The water will be pumped up the hill to the upper basin and cascade to the lower basin. There are two channels with decorative grates that lead from the lower basin through the plaza to a cascade at the shore where the water will return to the lake.

Shannen Lachkameya, Harding High's Earth
Club advisor and a student in front of one
of the grates that carries water from the
waterfall to the lake.

Efforts to restore the waterfall began several years ago with the development of the updated Phalen-Keller Regional Park master plan, a document that offers guidance for the future of the two adjoining parks that draw more than 1 million people annually. 

Watch on our website, www.rwmwd.org, for schedules and maps showing the Waterfall Dedication and other exhibits at this year's WaterFest on May 31st! 

Art in the Watershed

By: Cliff Aichinger

What is the role of public art for a Watershed District?

Many of us experience public art every day and yet we may not even know that it was a purposeful addition to our landscape or our public buildings. Public art is not always a sculpture or what we might consider an obvious piece of 'art,' rather we experience it by feeling like a place is beautiful, comfortable or interesting.  How is this relevant to an organization like us?


In the past, we often designed water management features or structures in a very practical form. This works well to solve the stormwater problem, but we wanted to go further and let people know why we were doing it.  To help with this, the District started incorporating "artistic design" into watershed projects for the purpose of teaching.


By giving an engineered structure an ‘artistic design,’ we open it up to the public and invite them to really look. Doing so allows us to “make the invisible visible,” as the art functions to interpret the purpose of the structure. Curbs or stormdrains could be shaped like waves, concrete could be etched with a flowing water pattern, or downspouts could be designed as rain chains to show water movement. Even rain gardens can be a form of 'living' art with carefully designed plantings to increase the aesthetic of the yard, park or neighborhood.

A tile mosaic of a wetland scene at RWMWD's office.

The District has had the benefit of an “Artist in Residence” for the past 3 years. This experience has taught us that we can think of our work in a different way that also results in increased beauty and increased public understanding of what we do. We are nearing the completion of a public art plan for the District that will help our Board and staff envision how to incorporate art into our activities.

The District has incorporated art into several recent projects and we are exploring other opportunities. We have found that we can accomplish this objective with very minor additional funding, while also increasing the public’s appreciation and understanding of water management and improved water quality. Our involvement started with the construction of our District office building. One of our objectives was to include landscaping features that made water management visible to our visitors, Board and staff. We accomplished this through rain gardens, and roof drainage that made water drainage obvious and visible. Our site shows how much water drains from our roof and the street. We also measure this runoff so we can provide factual information about the runoff and how we manage it.

Ripples near a rain trench on the sidewalk at Maplewood 

Mall

We also incorporated visual art into our building design. These features include the ripple design in our entry stained concrete floor, a large mural on the receptionist counter that illustrates a natural wetland scene [photo above]. We also commissioned several art pieces including a tapestry, water color quilt and a cattail sculpture. The latter two pieces also function to reduce echo in the Board room.

The District largest venture into public art is at the Maplewood Mall, where we have developed a fantastic collaboration with Simon Properties to incorporate public art into our water management interpretive elements at the Malls main entrance. The main entrance includes a huge tile mosaic mural depicting a wetland, city scape, and wildlife. The mural is part of the main entrance interpretive features to convey to the visitors the importance and challenge of water and pollution management in the urban environment. Another public art piece will be added to the northwest entrance this summer as part of collaborative project with the artist, Forecast Public Art, the District and Simon Properties.

A cistern at Maplewood Mall collects rain water from the large roof.  A tile mosaic (unfinished in the image above) as well as benches, a manual water pump on the cistern, and wheels that turn when water flows are all ways to draw the eye of the public to teach them what we are doing there and why. 
What else is in the mural behind the cistern?  Visit Maplewood Mall to find out!

We also incorporated the rain drop ripples into the Maplewood Living Streets sidewalks to illustrate rainwater management at each of the 32 rain gardens. 

Rain drop ripples highlight the new rain gardens in Maplewood's Living Streets project.

The District will be completing the Public Art Plan this summer. We hope to develop a funding approach that will allow us to accumulate a modest budget for future appropriate projects.  

Art that Moves: Tree of Life Interactive Sculpture Takes Shape at Maplewood Mall

by Sage Passi

Cecilia working on her automata "Birdhouse."
Photo courtesy of TPT' sM N Original series: mnoriginal @tpt.org.

I met Cecilia Schiller, a wood sculptor, at a garden party in the fall of 2011. We were both there to celebrate a water-friendly landscaping project that we were involved with at Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis. Her “warm” and inviting wood carved sign that borders the entryway at one of three rain gardens had recently been installed at the center. Seeing her work sparked a vibrant conversation about her growing interest in public art which led us to further discussions. Within several months Cecilia applied for and was awarded a $2000 Jerome Foundation planning grant to collaborate with the Watershed District to research and develop a design for an art project to enhance and raise public awareness about watershed stewardship.

Cecilia's sculpture, "Birdhouse," on exhibit at the
Landmark Center last year.

Cecilia has a fascination with “automata” - interactive mechanical sculptures. Her detailed whimsical pieces have wooden gears and hand carved figures brought to life by the turn of a crank. Her art work has evolved from many years of working behind the scenes in theater to create puppets, masks, costumes and props.

“My automata are small theatrical events without actors,” says Cecilia. “An audience of one is all that’s necessary. I’ve seen how these pieces have an uncanny ability to draw people in and inspire strangers to share in the experience. This led me to search for ways to make them more accessible to everyday people and to look for more public venues.” Cecilia was featured this winter on TPT's program MN Original, a show that showcases Minnesota artists and their work. Link here to the segment.


Throughout 2012 Cecilia interviewed Watershed staff and brainstormed with them about themes and messages to incorporate in her installation. She visited potential locations for her project and participated in a variety of events and meetings to familiarize herself with the Watershed community’s activities and missions. Her research and creative process led her to develop a design for a sculpture to be placed at the canopy drain spout at the northwest entrance at Maplewood Mall. The District was looking for a better conveyance system to transport water safely to the ground and wanted a design that would add visual excitement to the entrance and promote water stewardship in a fun and engaging, interactive way.

 

Carved wooden gears make Cecilia's sculptures move.
Photo courtesy of TPT' s MN Original series: mnoriginal @tpt.org.

“I think there is a synchronicity in our partnership,” comments Cecilia. “The Watershed District is looking for ways to inspire people and challenge them to think about the ways they interact with land and water and consider how their actions impact the environment. My art is symbolic and is reminiscent of what happens in real life. The simple action of turning a crank brings about unforeseen events.”

Scanning the broad range of projects she has worked on, it’s clear that Schiller has a deep commitment to art as an interactive experience. Her many collaborations include projects with the Guthrie, the Children’s Theater, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Dance Theater and Children’s Abbot Northwestern Hospital to list a few.

She will be partnering with Willis Bowman, an artist and mechanical engineer whose recent projects include outdoor public art installations at the Minnesota Arboretum and the Bakken Museum. The two make a dynamic duo whose art promises to intrigue and stimulate audiences who encounter their interactive sculptural art installation at the Mall.

 

Cecilia in her studio.
Photo courtesy of TPT' s MN Original series: mnoriginal @tpt.org.

In the late fall of 2012 Cecilia applied for a $7000 grant from Forecast Public Art/Jerome Foundation for emerging artists to complete her project and secured the promise of a $7500 match from the Watershed District for her sculptural installation. In late March she was awarded the grant. Since then she has been involved in finalizing details for the design and securing the final approval from the Maplewood Mall’s management.

Cecilia's preliminary prototype design at Maplewood Mall
North East entrance downspout location.

Cecilia’s design at Maplewood Mall incorporates a water-driven kinetic sculpture with interactive features. The sculpture will be powered by water from the roof that comes through the downspout into a turbine and moves the upper branches of a wooden “tree” in a circular motion. Sculpted Douglas fir wood slats provide the appearance of a tree trunk and will be cut in a wave pattern to represent water. Wind will also push the branches into a gentle motion or viewers can power the sculpture with a crank from the sidewalk when there is no rain. Levers that are triggered by the passing branches will ring bells as the sculpture turns in a composed rhythm that is reminiscent of water sounds. This rhythm will have the potential to be changed as desired.

Final design prototype of Tree of Life interactive sculpture to be installed at
Maplewood Mall North East entrance.

Cecilia characterized her design by saying, “The Tree of Life used in my design is an image that appears in many cultures around the world and is a symbol of our connectedness to each other and the planet. The Water Tree of Life reminds us of our fundamental dependence on water for survival and the well-being of our environment. By using the Tree of Life symbolism we want to draw awareness to the circular nature of responsible water stewardship.”

Installation will begin this summer and should be completed by late summer/early fall. Watch for announcements for a fall celebration marking the completion of this project.

Congratulations, Cecilia!!! We look forward to seeing your art emerge and sharing it with the public.

Photo courtesy of TPT' s MN Original series: mnoriginal @tpt.org.