Olympic Sculpture Park

Early yesterday morning Mike and I went to the Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle. It is a 9-acre public park with bigger-than-life, permanent sculptures and it also welcomes visiting pieces. The sculptures are visible from the street and I’d always wanted to stop by and take some pictures. Plus, I knew that there was a giant Mexican sand painting on display (inside the pavilion...this is rainy Seattle after all) to celebrate el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Day). So off we went!

It started to sprinkle as we left Kenmore and before long I had the windshield wipers going. Slow speed, but windshield wipers going nonetheless.


Soon enough we were downtown and we found parking right across the street from the park. The sprinkling had subsided, but a chill was definitely in the air.


We headed straight into the pavilion to see the sand painting. There was a staff person sitting nearby, keeping her eye on it. I asked permission to take a picture and she said that would be okay, but that we should not touch the piece of art.


This picture doesn’t do it justice. But I didn’t want to step onto one of the chairs to get a better shot. The detail of the sand is amazing. And it is quite large - maybe 20'x12'.

Moments after I snapped my pictures a toddler ran over to the sand painting – luckily the staffer saw him and rushed toward him, the mama caught the little rascal just in time, and the painting was left unscathed.


We wandered outside to see the piece I’ve always wondered about. This is Typewriter Eraser, Scale X, created in 1999 by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It’s made of stainless steel and fiberglass painted with acrylic urethane. It is NINETEEN feet tall and on loan from the Paul Allen Family Collection. (Note the live human on the right to see just how big it truly is.)


This is Split, created in 2003 by Roxy Paine. It’s made of polished stainless steel and is fifty feet high. If it wasn't for the shiny, steel color, I would have thought it was a real tree - really!

And guess what? There were many, many more pieces I would have liked to photograph, but my camera battery was exhausted. ARGHHH!!!! I was so mad at myself.

But I found that there are free 1-hour public tours (Saturdays noon-1pm; Sundays noon-1pm & 1pm-2pm) of Olympic Sculpture Park so we plan to go back and take the tour sometime soon. And yes, I will make sure my camera battery is charged.