Portland, OR – Artist Lynn Basa has been selected by Portland, Oregon’s Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) to create an artwork of significant scale for the lobby of the new 17-story Multnomah County Central Courthouse. Basa chose to create the work in glass and has asked Bullseye Studio to be the fabricator. Kiln-glass has a durability that is well-suited to meet the requirements and expectations of a civic building.
Designed by SRG Partnership / CGL Ricci Greene, the new courthouse is located at Southwest First Avenue and Madison Street. The 25′ x 75′ artwork, which will be placed in the building’s main lobby, is being made possible by the courthouse project’s Percent for Art funding. Bullseye Studio is working closely with SRG, RACC, Multnomah County, Hoffman Construction, and the engineering firm KPFF. Installation is slated for early 2020.
Lynn Basa’s design for the three-story lobby wall was inspired by conversations with the project’s Artist Selection Panel, the courthouse judges and employees, as well as formerly incarcerated community members. The focus of the artwork is a landscape that reflects the ripple effect of behavior and the passage to redemption and rehabilitation in the community justice process. The 1,875-square-foot artwork will be made up of a series of 5′ x 3′ panels composed entirely of kilnformed glass.
Basa chose glass because of the way it flows, creating effects similar to those of encaustic painting, a material she uses regularly. She worked previously with Bullseye Studio on a public transportation project for Portland, Oregon’s TriMet Orange Line train stations. The project consisted of 118 glass mosaic columns. Bullseye Studio translated Basa’s encaustic paintings into glass mosaics for the columns with consultation assistance from Mosaika.
“I know that Bullseye Studio is up for whatever job I bring to them and that they’ll get it done spectacularly. They remove all of the production obstacles while retaining a faithful translation of the artwork. It’s more than technical problem solving, it’s a translation of the essence of the artwork.” – Lynn Basa