Arts & Entertainment Community Government

Arts Commission may re-issue call for Harbor Arbor Art

Gig Harbor will have to wait another year for an artist to put sculpting tool to wood in Grandview Forest as part of the Arts Commission’s Harbor Arbor Art project.

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The commission will have to delay this year’s installment of the project — and may need to issue a new call for artists altogether — after the city expressed reservations about where the commission’s chosen artist would create the sculpture.

Jeffrey Samudosky, the local woodworker behind the last few years of Harbor Arbor Art and whom the commission chose again this year, proposed creating a sculpture in his studio, rather than in the forest, as in years past. He would take it to Grandview Forest after finishing it. 

Samudosky cited, among other issues, weather concerns that would press him for time.

Challenges to off-site preparation

In the commission’s discussion of the project at its meeting on Sept. 16, City Clerk Tiffany Aliment said that the city felt that this proposal “veered too far off of what the intent and the goal of the program was.”

“And so the city is not comfortable moving forward,” she said. “We’re talking about running cranes and having to do all this.”

The commission bandied about two options Either re-issue a call for artists, with a target start date of next summer, around July or early August, so that weather would not be a concern; or see if the proposal parameters would allow them to invite Samudosky to tweak his proposal to delay work until next summer.

Art carved into snags in Grandview Forest. Photo by Tonya Strickland

The city originally called for art in April. Samudosky proposed two or three sculptures he would create from the snags — dead trees or trees who have been cut down and left to naturally decay — in Grandview Forest.

In his application, Samudosky said that he would like to create these sculptures in a manner un-rushed by either time or passersby, and proposed creating them at his shop instead of in the forest.

Owls and squirrels and eagles, oh my

While he said he would prefer artistic freedom to sculpt whatever wildlife he chose, Samudosky suggested owls, squirrels, eagles, and mushrooms as a few options for the forest sculptures, which he said he would sculpt from Western Red Cedar. The level of detail and difficulty in creating the sculptures would dictate whether he created two or three, he said. 

After sculpting, he said, he could either install the sculptures atop stumps himself, or he could direct someone else in their placement.

“This will allow the city to move them as they see fit over the years if they find an alternate stump in the future that will better suit the sculpture,” Samudosky said in his application. “This also will allow for less time, energy, and funds given to loading and unloading tools, and more energy given instead to creating beautiful sculptures.”

He also said that creating them in his shop would eliminate the need for liability insurance.