LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — The 25-foot tall sculpture at Terwilliger Boulevard and Highway 43 is hard to miss when entering Lake Oswego from Portland.
“You notice it for sure,” said Nicole Nathan, executive director of the Arts Council of Lake Oswego. “This monumental, fantastic gateway piece is really to let people know that they are entering a new place."
The artwork has been four years in the making. It was created by Portland artist Ed Carpenter, whose work is displayed all around the globe. The metal sculpture was part of the Arts Council’s 2016 public art master plan.
“I was struck by the beautiful flowers which are everywhere in Lake Oswego,” said Carpenter. “It's meant to suggest botany and suggest growth and healthy, green, verdant stuff."
A lane of traffic was closed Tuesday so a crane could hoist the piece onto a concrete base. On Wednesday, Carpenter put on the finishing touches.
“It was fun to get it basically put in place yesterday by the crane,” he said Wednesday. “But of course it had a haircut at that point. So today we've styled it. That finishes it off.”
“It really works well with its environment and its surroundings, to not stand out too much and not blend in too much,” said Nathan
Made of stainless steel with wing-like laminated glass perched on top, using sunlight to filter multiple colors depending on the angle, Carpenter said the piece was designed with longevity in mind.
“I'm gratified that the sculpture does in fact, look the way I had hoped against these beautiful native trees, and of course the site is everything," he said. "And the way the sculpture composes itself in the scale of the sculpture within the site is very important."
“This is really a great accomplishment for everybody to have a piece like this that we can point to that really, you know, enlightens people, lifts everyone’s spirits and is really something beautiful," added Nathan.
Landscaping will be added to the site and it will be dedicated in the spring of 2022.