Into the Calm 2020

Dimensions: 25’ x 70’ x 1’

Medium: Kiln-formed glass

Client: Funded by Multnomah County Percent for Art; managed by the Regional Arts & Culture Council

Budget: $850,000

Fabricator: Bullseye Glass

The American justice system is ultimately based on hope.  Hope that if you do something wrong and get caught, that you’ll get a fair trial; hope that if you go to trial you won’t get convicted; hope that if you get convicted, you’ll get a light sentence.  Judges hope that they will be fair and impartial.  Underpinning all of this is the hope for rehabilitation, to re-enter society, to lead a productive life.

Every crime has a ripple effect on society.  People who have been incarcerated  say that it took them a long time, and sometimes several stints in prison, to realize the effect their behavior had on the people who cared about them and for them to care about something beyond themselves.

The composition reads from left to right.  It starts out hot and in turmoil then becomes cooler and calmer.   The crime and the criminal run hot.  The job of the justice system is to treat that heat with cool rationality, to calm the waters.

On another level, the artwork is a landscape.  Living in the Pacific Northwest means living with the constant awareness that you’re on top of a volcanic chain, contrasted by being surrounded by water.  The Wilmette River runs next to the courthouse and, of course, Portland’s famously rainy climate.

Bullseye Glass in Portland fabricated the mural from a painting by the artist.  It consists of 120 kiln-formed glass panels and took more than 200 firings over three years.   Steve Simpson AIA of SRG Partnership was the lead architect.   Artech did the installation.