Art + Murals + Comics + Prints + Ironwork + ...

Public Sculpture | Mallory Battista

Public Sculpture

Sun Shine Through, mosaic sculpture neighborhood gateway

Collaboration with Lisa Soranaka, 2023
Battista_Mallory_SunShineThrough2023_1

Battista_Mallory_SunShineThrough2023_2
Photos by Megan Kennedy.

Collaboration Award
“Sun Shine Through” is a colorful mosaic sculpture marking the gateway between the Emerson-Garfield and North Hill neighborhoods on North Monroe Street in north Spokane, WA. It was a collaboration with artist Lisa Soranaka (lisasoranaka.com) that we began planning in the fall of 2021 and was installed in August 2023. We were awarded a studio residency at The Hive® to build it and host free workshops for the public to make tiles that we incorporated into the mosaic. We were also awarded a SAGA grant in August 2022 to cover the cost of our materials. We gained the support of the Spokane Arts Commission and the neighborhoods and business districts that border the installation site on North Monroe, and later received additional funding from the City of Spokane, Water Wise Spokane, The Avista Foundation, Rotary Club 21, Rogue Heart Media, and private donors through crowd funding. Lisa and I were recognized with a Spokane Arts Award for Collaboration in 2023 for this project. The sculpture represents light and color, community and diversity, and the beauty in shining through dark times together.
Initial concept sketches.
Sun Shine Through sketch

Tile making workshops at The Hive®. We included hundreds of tiles made by the public.

20221022_110914
20230109_121030

Local Fruit, sculptural steel bike rack

Forged with Columbia Fire & Iron blacksmithing club, 2019
Battista_LocalFruitBikeRack

The concept for this bike rack design in rooted in community. In 2019, I facilitated a weekly blacksmithing demonstration at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers Market with the Columbia Fire & Iron blacksmiths (CFI), as part of our recent SAGA grant award. We wanted to forge a large project over the coarse of the market season and then donate it to the community, and there was need on the premises for a bike rack. I wanted to incorporate the apple tree branch to honor the farmers market and also because of the apple’s association with education, and the bike rack would be installed in front of the SCC Adult Education Center on North Monroe, their parking lot being the site of the EG Farmers Market during the summer. The leaves were forged on-site during the markets, and we later forged and fabricated the bike rack at Morgan-Jade Ironworks with the expert leadership of CFI founding member and professional blacksmith David Kailey. This sculptural bike rack was a wonderful experience of community support and group effort.
MONROE-BikeRack2019-20

Welcome To Your Infinite Potential, design proposal

Finalist, Shadle Library outdoor public art sketch, 2020
Welcome To Your Infinite Potential, copyright Mallory Battista

I was thrilled to be a finalist for the Shadle Library outdoor art call during COVID, and though my design was ultimately not selected it was an invaluable experience planning and presenting it. I absolutely love our libraries and Shadle is my neighborhood branch, so I really poured my heart into this, and I drew upon my love of steel, glass, and stone to design a whimsical archway for the lead up to the building entrance. I still imagine how magical it would feel to walk through this arch, with the words “welcome to your infinite potential” inlayed underfoot, on your way to our city’s treasure room of free resources and inspirations. I had enlisted my friend and professional blacksmith David Kailey and local fused glass artist Coleen Lake to be on my team for this project.
Arch Exterior View Close
Original rendering by Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning, Inc., which I Photoshopped my design sketch into.

Back to Top