Outdoor Gallery

Dan Klennert

Made of Recycled Metal

Dan Klennert says, “I got started in this career when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was living in Seattle, and I’d take my red wagon and search through neighborhood junk piles. I found great stuff that way and fell in love with ‘scrounging’, or as we now know it, recycling. “In school, I went to class mostly for art on Friday. I just loved it.” As an adult, he has used his mechanical and welding skills to take what society once used and then discarded as junk, and instilled it with dignity and new meaning.

Regarding his artistic vision, he says: “My love is preserving older pieces of metal that contain some history and were made by the hands of man. There is nothing like the natural high you get creating something out of your imagination using discarded items.”

About “Giving Thanks to the Spirit of Recycling” Mr. Klennert says: I spent some time in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I tap into the native spiritual energy that lives there. I do not do drugs, but I have channeled native spirits in my life, and that is what gave me the inspiration for the “Spirit of Recycling”. 

Artist Website

Sabah Al-Dhaher

Made of Cast Bronze

A native of Iraq, Mr Al-Dhaher studied classical art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Basra. He fled Iraq in 1991, spent 2 ½ years in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, arrived in the US as a political refugee, and settled in Seattle. His work consists of stone sculptures, paintings, and drawings, and may be found in both public and private collections throughout the Northwest. He teaches at the Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle.

Possibly as a response to his turbulent younger days, Mr. Al-Dhaher says: “Art is a thread that has sustained my spirit from childhood and through my intense struggle to survive during my life in Iraq.  Art is a place of expression and meditation.”

“Beginning” was originally carved in marble and later cast in bronze. It was inspired by Mr. Al-Dhaher’s son, who was born about 3 ½ months premature.

Artist Website

Chuck Fitzgerald

As I am nearing my sixth decade, I am at the height of my creative powers. The language of modernism is embedded in my work like a code.

Gretchen Daiber

My work reflects the landscape and environment which I love, the mountains where I live, the many years that I spent at sea with my husband as a commercial fisherman, and the places I work and travel. Trained as a printmaker and graphic designer then later as a sculptor, my passion is to record and interpret my surroundings with sculpture, pastels, original prints, journal sketches, and watercolors.

Artist Website

Richard Beyer

Made of Cast Aluminum

The late Richard S. Beyer was a fascinating individual, born in Washington DC, but eventually finding his way to the “other” Washington, settling in Seattle. He held degrees in Social Science, Education and Finance, but after working for many employers in various fields, found his true calling as an artist.

Between 1968 and 2006, Mr. Beyer produced over 90 large sculptures for public spaces in cities Throughout the Pacific Northwest, but also in Georgia, California, Virginia, Minnesota, Arkansas, Iowa and the City of Tashkent in Uzbekistan (a Seattle “Sister City”).

Mr. Beyer was a philosopher as well as artist, stating that “Art is seeing common things transformed by love, and the best public art belongs to the story of a community.” He celebrated the Common Man in his figurative sculptures that reflected on the human condition with gentle humor. “Waiting for the Interurban” in Seattle is the first and probably most well-known of his large public sculptures, and a fine example of his approach.

“Old Man Catching Birds in His Beard” was purchased for Puyallup’s permanent gallery after being named People’s Choice” in 1999. 

Artist Website

Kevin Pettelle

Made of Cast Bronze on stainless steel with steel base

Kevin Pettelle was raised in an artistic household with both his father and older sister being artists. He began sculpting the figure and working in bronze in 1980 with no formal training. His work has been exhibited throughout the US, and appears in private collections internationally. Over the years, three of his works have received Arts Downtown’s People’s Choice award.

About his work, Mr. Pettelle says: “Working with many mediums keeps the creative spark going. I find that working on several projects at once allows me to give each piece a resting period, so I can study and contemplate progress. Most of my works are representational, whether portraying a landscape, animal, or plant. I try to create movement, a flow in design, or an emotion.”

“Salutation” explores the expanding being, freedom, and the celebration of life. She received the Arts Downtown People’s Choice Award in 2006.” 

Artist Website

Larry Perkins

Made of Cast Bronze

The choice of name for this work will probably seem mysterious to anyone who is not a long-time fan of Grand Prix motor racing. This sculpture is actually a portrait of Phil Hill, the first American ever to win the Grand Prix, in 1961. Artist Larry Perkins explains: “Phil was a motor racing contemporary, competitor and acquaintance of mine, and much admired for his skills and demeanor. This piece attempts to portray the intensity and focus of a race driver “at work”, while offering a virtual suggestion of his car. Its namesake is the left-hand curve on the Monaco race track beside the famous Monte Carlo Casino.”

Mr. Perkins, who has been an active professional sculptor and teacher for 20 years, specializes in figurative bronze works, focusing on people, wildlife, and automobiles, but has recently begun creating non-objective works as well. His intent is to intellectually stimulate viewers without indulging in ethical or social controversy. 

Jim Mattern

Made of Stainless steel

We begin our tour with an exotic landscape by metal sculptor Jim Mattern  A series of flat planes creates a great deal of apparent depth in a sculpture that provides a vision of the wide Serengeti plains in Kenya and Tanzania, one of the most important ecosystems for birds and wildlife in the world. The foreground focal point is an image of the iconic Acacia tree, symbol of the African savanna.

Alisa Looney

Made of Powder Coated Steel

Alisa Looney is a sculptor, enamelist, dancer and designer who grew up along the banks of the Spokane River in northern Idaho. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boise State University in 1983, but has been a professional designer and fine artist since 1981. She fell in love with metal arts as a silversmith in her early years, and began welding in 1998. Her public sculptures have won People’s Choice Purchase Awards in Oregon and Washington, and the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, WA selected one of her works as the feature sculpture on the plaza of their Stevenson wing in 2012. She is a member of several professional artist organizations, and is the owner of Vision Design in Portland, Oregon.

About her art, Ms. Looney says: “It is my highest goal to create sculpture that brings empowerment, joy and connection to people who experience it. I shape and fabricate metal into open, energetic human form, representing movement and the expression of life. I draw from years of experimental dance and movement, the place where I find my greatest moments of free expression. I capture this movement in gesture drawings and paintings, then design and fabricate these forms in metal, finishing with bright colors to add a sense of aliveness. I enjoy working with the pliability and strength of metal, cutting and shaping it into permanent forms that will last through time.”

‘Heart Connection’ portrays the energy between two people, deeply connecting with each other. The spiraling shapes come together to form the shape of a heart, indicating two spirits dancing, merging, yet each person remains separate as an individual. Crimson red denotes the deepest love.    

Artist Website

Jennifer Corio & David Frei

Made of Stainless Steel with powder coat

Jennifer Corio and David Frei are a married couple who together they create a dynamic balance of art, design, and workmanship.

Jennifer Corio took the artistic path only after years of working in engineering and business. Feeling a pent-up creative urge, she left corporate life in 2001 to enable her lifelong fascination with art and beauty, and express her need to create. After taking several welded sculpture classes, she was hooked, and has been creating personal and public works of art ever since.

David Frei has always been a craftsman, honing his metal fabrication skills at a young age by tooling on cars — customizing old ones, building dragsters for his racing habit, and trailers to haul them on. Even after landing a corporate job as a mechanical engineer, he continued to be the go-to-guy amongst his circle of friends for anything metal.

About “Rise” Ms. Corio says: “This winged woman with her angelic presence is floating upwards, rising to meet the potential that lies within. While her open heart exposes her vulnerability and the chink on her lower body hints at imperfection, these marks of humanness provide a roadmap to a life of complete fulfillment. The color red signifies passion and flow of blood, for while she is angelic in presence, she is very human in nature.”

Artist Website