When you’re nervously headed for the doctor’s office, isn’t it nice to feel as calm and mellow and maybe even as playful as some warm, undulating undersea creature?
That’s the idea behind the big fused-glass mural that’s headed for the new home of the Children’s Center, a mental health clinic for underinsured and uninsured young people and their families.
Seventeen feet long and five-plus feet tall when it’s finished and fused together out of 40 individual tiles, the sweeping scenic mural will feature a typically Pacific Northwest panorama that everyone can appreciate: up above, a sunny sky peeking through a mountainous landscape; down below, a busy undersea world of swimming creatures and swishy vegetation.
All of which will be totally touchably textured for children as they walk down the central corridor of the Children’s Center. They’ll be able to trail their hands all along that undersea world, exploring the friendly mysteries as they go. The artists, Jane Cote and Erin Dengerink, planned exactly how that would work as they thought big-picture about their big picture: The top, sunshiny level is best for standing back and admiring, but as you descend to the actual height of little kids, you’re below the surface of the water. Everything is more whimsical and playful down there, Cote says in a video you can view about the creation of the work, which is posted on the Children’s Center Facebook page.
Plus, there will be a little hidden extra texture in the form of the names of a few dozen donors who contributed a few more dollars to the ongoing Children’s Center capital campaign, which has raised nearly the whole sum it needs to build its estimated $6.3 million building.
The 15,525-square-foot, single story building will be located on 1.85 acres at 13500 S.E. Seventh St. Construction broke ground in July and is expected to finish in May.
You won’t have to visit the building to see the mural, though. Artists Cote and Dengerink will show off the gigantic work at a free public reception that’s set for 4:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday in the Multimedia Classroom Building at Washington State University Vancouver, 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave. in Vancouver.
Dergerink said knowing that the final product will cheer and comfort children is a “fantastic feeling. I’ve done public art before but this is a very special audience.”
Why fused glass? Because it’s beautiful and shiny. Because you can do all sorts of artistic things with it. And because, when it comes to raising funds and thanking donors, Children’s Center spokesman Matthew Butte said, embossed brick in walkways and walls of honor and the like are so last millennium: “Everybody does brick these days. We wanted to do something permanent but we knew we didn’t want to do brick.”
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