Library Art – Tualatin Library

Tualatin Public Library houses a collection of art by Pacific Northwest artists.

In addition, selected pieces from the Student Visual Chronicle are featured in the Teen Room, and the Library hosts a rotating display of regional artwork through the Living Room Gallery art program.

Storyteller

By Linda Prokop
Bronze statue

The sculpture features a life-size seated woman, in the midst of telling a story, with four children gathered at her feet. The sculptural style is gestural and immediate, with postures emphasizing the figures’ interaction.

Dynamic Continuum

By Lynn Adamo
Bas-relief mixed media

Commissioned to celebrate Tualatin’s centennial, the sculpture depicts the evolution of Tualatin as a community in its first 100 years. The central element depicts the Tualatin River, connecting the land, native peoples, flora, fauna, and pioneer settlers down to today’s modern society. The piece incorporates historical objects including a fragment of bone from the Tualatin mastodon, a cedar shingle from the Heritage Center, square nails from the Hedges House, arrowheads from the native Atfalati people, and a vintage seed plate, as well as wires, silicon wafers, and transistors from modern industry.

Ampullacaeruleus Floris (Bluebottle Blossom Tree)

By Jo Braun
Glass mosaic

Composed of 100% post-consumer bottle glass, the composition depicts a single tree. The trunk and branches are composed of brown glass, with leaves of bright green and blossoms in shades of blue. The artwork invokes the tradition of botanical illustration, in which a single plant, representative of its species, is shown against a plain background. Giving the “tree” a Latin binomial nomenclature name playfully calls our attention to the creativity that’s inherent in science as well as art, ultimately celebrating the broad intellectual spectrum the library offers.

Wapato Wakes Up

By Tony Johnson & Adam McIsaac
Cedar wood carving

The design of this piece is based on the traditional bunk rails (for sleeping platforms) that were typical in the cedar longhouses of the area. The faces represent different personalities of Wapato throughout the year.

Turning the Page

By Addie Boswell
Mural made of magazine collage

Children are stretched out reading, and a dynamic future explodes from their open books. The imagery includes multi-ethnic children working and traveling and blends reality and fantasy. This illustrates the library’s major themes of delight and discovery and portrays the exciting, expanding world found in books. Made with assistance from the children of Bridgeport Elementary.

Through the Eyes of Children

By Janet Chadwick Matthews
Mixed media

Created from drawings done by third grade students at Durham Elementary, the piece features panels with children’s faces and animals.

Spirit of Ibach

By Jeannine Miller
Watercolor painting

A selection from the City’s Visual Chronicle, this painting features young children playing under Ibach Park playground’s iconic mastodon ribcage.

Diving into a Book

By Mark Brody
Glass mosaic

This mosaic offers a shimmering depiction of a figure literally diving into a book, as a cliff-diver jumps from a rock. The piece includes 3-dimensional aspects, including a small stack of books in the upper corner and the large open book the jumper aims for at the bottom. Surrounding the diving subject is a circular design of a starry night. The piece illustrates the powerful feeling of being enveloped by a book.

Mysteries Among the Stacks

By Cathy Fields
Acrylic painting

Category topics – including nature and animals, history, and science and technology — come alive from the pages of shelved books. This painting addresses the theme of the library as a doorway to the world.

Sabertooth Salmon (Oncorhunchus rastrosus)

By Joanie Livermore
Ink drawing

This sketch was created as the basis for an interpretive feature of the adjacent Tualatin River Greenway Trail.

Music

By George Johanson
Acrylic painting

The painting suggests different musical cultures. The composition speaks of the flow of music in its theme and variation, repetition, and tempo.

Fire to Ice

By Stev Ominski
Reproduction

This piece depicts the Willamette Meteorite crashing to Earth sometime during the last Ice Age. On loan from the Tualatin Historical Society.

Rafted

By Stev Ominski
Reproduction

This piece depicts the Willamette Meteorite atop a raft of glacial ice. The meteorite is believed to have been carried by the Missoula floodwaters from western Montana to the Willamette Valley. On loan from the Tualatin Historical Society.