Tony Overman/The Olympian
Terry Rogers (left) of the city of Olympia and Bob Arnold of the Olympia Arts Commission carry a fiberglass salmon sculpture Friday afternoon as it is unloaded in Olympia. The sculpture is one of a set of 10 that were purchased for display in the city through 2004. Each fish will be decorated by selected artists.

Tony Overman/The Olympian
Lenore Jensen of Seattle brings her finished sculpture to show how the fish have been decorated in the past.

Local artists hope to land big one

MICHAEL BURNHAM THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- The salmon are here.

But you don't have to grab a seat in a local seafood place to catch a glimpse of them.

Ten giant fiberglass salmon arrived on a flatbed truck Friday at The Olympia Center.

Passers-by stopped to gawk at the drab, gray 8-by-21/2-foot salmon, which local artists will transform into colorful statements of their imagination.

Professional artists who reside, own a business or are actively engaged in Thurston County's arts community can apply by April 26 to do the honors.

The City Council will give final approval to a jury's recommendation of artists on May 21.

"We've been talking about this for a year, so now that they're here, it's great," said Olympia arts manager Linda Oestreich. "To see how 10 different people will treat these forms will be great."

The city will pay up to $500 of each artist's costs.

The completed salmon will be unveiled during the fall Arts Walk, amid downtown's most scenic spots -- from Percival Landing to Sylvester Park.

But, initially, a male salmon will be on display at The Olympia Center.

"I think artists who want to apply should probably look at what 8 feet of surface looks like first," Oestreich said.

The salmon art project is modeled after "Cows on Parade," which drew thousands of tourists onto the streets of Chicago in 1999. Zurich, Switzerland, gave birth to the cow concept in 1998.

The Windy City's life-sized bovines were painted and bespectacled with ornaments such as black ties, rhinestones, hard hats and virtual-reality goggles. The 300 cows brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for Chicago and were auctioned off.

Olympia's $37,500-project is paid for with a $7,500 grant from Miller Brewing Co. and $30,000 from Olympia's Public Art and Fourth Avenue bridge mitigation funds.

The salmon will be on display for three years in Olympia, and city officials are still considering what to do with the fish at the end of the display period.

Three of Olympia's fish will be accompanied by plaques created to educate the public about salmon's historical and environmental roles in South Sound.

One plaque adjacent to the Intercity Transit center will urge pedestrians to ride the bus downtown to check out the fish.

A second plaque at Percival Landing will describe how salmon have played a historic role in Olympia's relationship with Budd Inlet.

A third plaque at Heritage Park will describe salmon's link to American Indians.

"When you meet a salmon on the street -- a transformed artistic entity -- people get it," said Sara Mall Johani of Soul Salmon, the nonprofit group that constructed the fish.

"We should know how much we owe the salmon," added Johani, who launched into a lesson on how salmon die after spawning, feed forest creatures and keep an ecosystem churning.

"They're the keystone species."

Michael Burnham covers Olympia for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869 or mburnham@olympia.gannett.com.

For more local stories go to the South Sound section.

To learn more

For more information about the Olympia Salmon Run Project, call the city's Department of Parks, Arts & Recreation at 360-753-8380.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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