Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 5, May 2003

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Roosevelt art project pays homage to '60s folk icons

By MATTHEW PREUSCH

In the 1960s, construction of the Interstate-5 freeway cut a concrete gash up the belly of Seattle, consuming over 4,000 parcels of land and embedding a physical and psychological barrier between previously adjoining portions of town.

One area hit particularly hard was the Roosevelt neighborhood, which had extended west along NE 65th Street in Green Lake, well past its current terminus at the freeway underpass.

Four decades later, Roosevelt-area residents and businesses are still trying to plug the gaps in public space around the freeway's over-passes, on-ramps and stands of gray columns.

Now, they are turning to a tool both cheap and readily available: art.

In November, the Roosevelt Arts Council pledged almost $3,000 to local artist John Berry to locate a public art installation at Weedin Place, along the north side of the NE 65th Street Park-and-Ride lot. Berry's work is just a first step. Preliminary plans are underway for a broad, $200,000 installation intended to radically transform the area.

But Berry's project, completed in March, is the only public art residents are likely to see for some time in the space. The canvas which Berry worked with are seven support columns along the south side of Weedin as it runs under I-5 , as well as the pediment, or concrete beam, atop the columns. The columns were scrubbed and painted silver, and the pediment inscribed with a beguiling message. One north side reads, "The statement on the other side is true." The opposite face reads, "The statement on the other side is false."

Berry said the conundrum, an old logician's challenge, is his homage to legendary '60s folk musicians, the late Richard Farina and his wife Mimi (sister of folk singer Joan Baez). To the unsuspecting pedestrian or observant motorists, the twin declarations present some tempting food for thought. Much head-scratching is anticipated.

Berry said he wanted the art piece to be approachable, not "high falutin'" or out of touch with the character of the surrounding residential neighborhood.

"They're not going to see it right away," he said. "It's not anything that's going to hit them over the head."

The silver colored paint blends subtly with the gray concrete and is easy to miss.

Completion of the project has been hampered by rain, but a more serious circumstance also intervened last fall. In September, Berry, 52, underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery. That temporarily put him out of commission he couldn't even use his arms for two months and Berry had no idea he'd even had heart problems.

"I'd be out biking and my energy level was shutting down," Berry said. "Next thing you know, I was having surgery."

Upon regaining his health, Berry returned to work. He power-washed the seven concrete columns in a single weekend. He spoke with the Seattle Sun one recent evening underneath I-5 at Weedin, now his personal state-owned canvas. The visionary in Berry mused on the potential for art to influence public space for the better.

"There's no way you can repair when something like this happens," he said, gesturing to the tunnel-like space that divides Ravenna and Green Lake. "But you can strengthen what's left."

The Weedin art project is the result of the combined labor of a number of community groups and government agencies. The Roosevelt Arts Council is providing funding for the Weedin project to the tune of $2,800, mostly for materials. The King County Public Art Program has helped shepherd the idea through the permitting process with the state, which leases the space for the park and ride to the County.

Barbara Luecke, program director at the County's Cultural Development Authority, said Berry's work was originally intended as a temporary solution, but is likely to be around "indefinitely" as work on a plan for the entire 10-acre site is likely to be costly and contentious.

The County is "very committed to launching a large public art project at the site, but it's a matter of adequate funds," said Luecke. "It [would be] a pretty substantial outdoor piece."

Early ideas include illuminating the 200 or so columns in the area, or hosting a public market in the Park-and-Ride lot on weekends. Some have suggested overlaying NE 65th with an artistic representation of Ravenna Creek, which a century ago ran through the site. All the options promise to both inspire and enrage, and Berry, who considers himself an artistic gadfly, thinks that is just fine.

"When you have something happen in your neighborhood, you should get involved," Berry said.