We’ve been watching the Bay and Holly Street construction from the Mindfly studio for the past few months. We’ve altered our walking route to The Black Drop; we’ve tried to drown out the sound of jackhammers with our earbuds. But we’ve definitely seen progress and are looking forward to seeing the end result. Yesterday we watched and speculated about the latest feature of the project as a 20-foot pillar took its place in front of Bayou on Bay.
Mindflyer Josh Eberline and I decided to check things out. While Josh snapped photos, I spoke with Seattle artist, T. Ellen Sollod, about the piece. Ellen has been working on the Master Plan for the Bellingham Arts District for several years. She was asked to create a landmark piece that would serve as an identifier to people that they are entering the Arts District, a section north of downtown’s commercial center that is known for its museums, theatres, and cafés.
Ellen drew her inspiration for the sculpture, The Sentinel, from the atmosphere of this part of downtown that she describes as “urban funk.” There’s an industrial quality to the metallic structure, but with a bit of sophistication to reflect the artistic flavor of the area. “It walks that fine line between funky and chic,” Ellen said.
The sculpture, which inclines at a slight angle, incorporates dichroic glass in the design, which both mirrors and reflects the buildings and lights around it. A diffuser panel and ground lights will also keep The Sentinel illuminated at night.
The installation will include three more Archimedean solids (highly symmetric, semi-regular convex polyhedrons composed of two or more types of regular polygons meeting in identical vertices) to provide seating for pedestrians and shoppers in the new public plaza. The same vocabulary of elegant cut-out designs in the primary sculpture’s polyhedron will also be featured in these sculptures.
The ground lights and the other sculptures will be added in the coming weeks, and Ellen anticipates that the “Gateway to the Arts District” construction project will hopefully finish up by the end of the year, which will give all the members of this studio office something to be thankful for during the holiday season.
