Public Art

Sculptures

A Day at the Fair 
By Cheri O’Brien 
179th Ave. SE at the Evergreen State Fair Park, Monroe

As visitors enter the Evergreen State Fair Park, fairgoers are welcomed with bright, cheerful colors, and playful images meant to embrace everything the fair has to offer. 

Guardian of the Mountain Pass 
By Milo White and Jay Bowen 
SE corner of Main and Lewis Streets, Monroe, WA

Artists White and Bowen were compelled by Monroe’s position as the gateway to the Cascade Mountains, along with the City’s idyllic rural landscape, powerful rivers, and lush green forests. The piece is filled at the base with authentic river rock topped with blue glass accents, to represent the Skykomish and Snohomish rivers. At night, the sculpture is illuminated from within, adding a gorgeous glow to the stunning piece. 

Storm Patterns 
By Gloria Bornstein 
Lake Tye Park, Monroe WA 

Poised on the eastern shores of Monroe’s Lake Tye, Storm Patterns perfectly demonstrates the poignant reality that exceptional beauty can come from the unlikeliest of sources. The roughly 4-foot by 4-foot by 5-foot tall stainless-steel sculpture is the result of the state of Washington’s 1 Percent for Art program, which sets aside 1 percent of capital improvement project (CIP) funds for the installation of public art. Storm Patterns came to life through the construction of the Intensive Management Unit (IMU) at the Monroe Correctional Complex, a maximum custody unit that opened in 2007.

As artist Gloria Bornstein developed her concept, she was drawn to Lake Tye for its beauty, its popularity, and the versatility of its landscape, which welcomes a variety of uses. The sculpture includes profiles of iconic Monroe women and a cumulonimbus cloud formed from converging cumulus clouds. 

Tile Project 
207 East Main Street, Monroe, WA 

Aimed at beautifying Monroe’s downtown business district in a unique way, the Tile Project used original art created by 5th grade students from the Monroe School District, and was funded with sponsorships and donations from local families and businesses. The effort was spearheaded by Sky Valley Artists Guild member Bob Fairfax, who tasked the students with creating art that captured the elements of the area’s rural landscape. 

Students handmade the clay tiles during the 1993 – 1994 school year, and Fairfax personally fired them in a kiln over the summer months. Then, Fairfax and other members of the Sky Valley Artists Guild, an art advocacy nonprofit that operated in Monroe at the time, used buckets of grout and affixed nearly 400 6-inch by 6-inch clay tiles to the lower wall of the museum, which also happens to be the original Monroe City Hall. The project was completed in time for the Monroe Fair Days Parade on August 27, 1994. 

Wagner Swifts By Kevin Edwin Pettelle 
NW corner of Main and Lewis Streets, Monroe WA

Located on the northwest corner of Main and Lewis streets in downtown Monroe, Wagner Swifts is a one-of-a-kind community emblem. The sculpture, which extends 12-feet tall and rests on a six-foot base, celebrates the gentle and sweet-natured Vaux’s swifts that make Monroe’s Wagner chimney their home during their twice-yearly migrations. The swifts are well known for their dramatic showmanship, swirling above the 31-foot brick chimney at dusk, one by one answering the silent call that compels them to gracefully tuck themselves in for the night. 

The Vaux’s swifts are Monroe’s official city bird and are typically celebrated during a community event held every year in September called “Swift Night Out.” The elegant sculpture features around 100 of the tiny birds, true to size, each cut from 1/4-inch stainless steel and welded carefully together to recreate the whirling spiral of birds that instantly enamors all who witness the unique spectacle.