Redmond dedicates students’ roundabout art

“When we first started, we had our doubts about how it was going to turn out and how it was going to look,” said Redmond High School sophomore Tacoma Clowers. “Now that it’s all up, it’s like, ‘Wow, it turned out really really cool.”

Monday marked an official welcome to Redmond’s newest roundabout art, at the intersection of 27th Street and Yew Avenue, the result of a two-year designand construction project featuring all three Redmond high schools.

“We got into small groups and got our own designs together, and we voted on whose design we liked the most and picked that one,” explained Bethany Easterbrooks, a student at Redmond Proficiency Academy.

From designers to welders and buffers, “The Constant Face of Temporary Existence” depicts the Cascade Mountain Range a viewed from Redmond, focusing on how the mountains are a constant landscape through which humans, animals and other living things have a temporary existence.

“We were in charge of tacking all these sculptures on and then welding all these seams together for everything,” Clowers said.

The handiwork of students, led by professionals.

“The city hired me to walk the students through actually creating a piece of public art,” said Ryan Beard, the artist-in-residence.

Part of that process included the students presenting their proposals to the city council for consideration and approval.

“They did an amazing job,” Beard said. “They were talking about the math they used to come up with the curve and the natural imagery that they were putting on there, and it was totally amazing.”

Forget about high school rivalry. This project was all about coming together as one.

“There were some jokes in the beginning about whether we should put a panther here and a raven there,” Beard said, referring to the Redmond and Ridgeview mascots. “But in the end, no one wanted to do that. They wanted something that would belong to the community.”

And indeed, today’s high school students are leaving a permanent mark on the community for years to come.

“I’m proud of the work we did. We’re going to have our name in this town for a long time,” said Redmond High student Josh Fleshman.

Other students agree.

“Seeing it here, with all these people looking at it, it’s amazing.” Easterbrooks said. “I get to come back here after college and drive around and say, ‘Hey, I worked on that, this is partly me!’ It’s really cool.”

This is the fifth project to be created by students and installed in Redmond’s public art collection around the city. It cost roughly $30,000 to complete.