Liz Ewings

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15 Minutes for Plankton

I am really excited to post my first foray into the realm of public art! It’s plankton, of course. 

 

This temporary art installation using my watercolor painting was coordinated by the Downtown Seattle Association to debut on a basketball hoop backboard at Occidental Park, Seattle during NCAA’s March Madness.

 

I collected plankton samples at Port Susan in Puget Sound while volunteering with the Ocean Inquiry Project and photographed them under a microscope at the UW School of Oceanography. I have been experimenting with plankton abstractions, and playing with the idea of painting diatoms like stained glass, leaving the paper showing through in a pattern of white outlines. The Occidental Park installation is part of this series. 

 

Now plankton are getting their fifteen minutes in the sun! Actually, considering the weather this month, it’s more like fifteen minutes in the rain, but they probably like that.