Big Rock Garden Park boasts a collection of 39 permanent sculpture pieces by distinguished international and local artists.
The permanent collection has been acquired through purchase, donation, award and memorial. The most recent addition to the permanent collection, Swell by Aaron Loveitt, is featured to the left.
Swell was donated to the City in memory of George Miller, who moved to Bellingham in 1999, from Glenview, IL, and like most of us, fell in love with the beauty of our surroundings. One of his wishes upon his passing was for his family to have a sculpture placed in Big Rock Garden Park.
After being selected through an RFQ and jury process to create the sculpture, artist Aaron Loveitt listened closely to the desires of the donor to create this piece. “This sculpture is a culmination of several ideas. In particular, I wanted to design a work that was specific to its site; a form that would respond to the space, like that of a wave passing through the trees. I hoped it would capture the changing qualities of light throughout the day and seasons, and shift form in interesting ways when viewed from different vantage points. My intent was to address the theme of the donors as well as engage visitors with a work that distinctly interacts with the gardenscape.”
