Rooted Together • McKinley Hill Overlook | Tacoma Public Artist

Rooted Together, a permanent public art installation, is in her new home atop McKinley Hill’s overlook! This piece has come together over the past two years and is somewhat of a sister piece to my Welcome to McKinley Hill sculpture which currently resides at the intersection right next to Dusty’s Hideaway on McKinley Ave.

This installation began as a prompt to the residents of McKinley Hill— “What makes Tacoma beautiful to you?” I left this prompt up at the overlook for local residents and visitors to the overlook to answer, as they looked out over the city, went on a walk in their neighborhood, or strolled by on the way to the bus stop.

After a few weeks of people sharing what makes Tacoma beautiful to them, I took the temporary install down and read through all the additions to the piece. The plan was to draw inspiration from the community’s contributions to this prompt and use them as a jumping off point for the poem I would create for the piece. I chose some recurring words and concepts that stood out and those became the backbone for the poem.

Rooted Together

A village gathered 
at waters edge
where the scent of brine 
and rainsoaked grit 
intermingle.

We rise up like 
Təqʷuʔmaʔ, 
head in the clouds
a sentinel spirit
since time immemorial. 

Our voices
woven with pride
Cedar and salmon
Asphalt and steel

Each of us a tree
in this forest,
our roots connected,

Together we are
home. 

I wanted this piece to feel engaging while also not distracting from or blocking the overlook’s view. The squiggle motif is the same as the one on the Welcome to McKinley Hill sculpture, and I like how these two pieces have a similar visual language now in the same neighborhood.

I created these with Richlite, which is a sustainable material made right here in Tacoma (you can probably actually see their facility from the overlook now that I think of it). It’s sturdy and lightweight, which was perfect for installing on the existing chainlink fence. The lovely folks at Edensaw Woods cut the shapes with CNC, and then I painted and finished them, and installed them with my partner Dan.

Huge thanks to City of Tacoma and the Tacoma Arts Commission Municipal Art Program for allowing me to create this piece for McKinley Hill. This artwork was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and produced in partnership with the City’s Neighborhood Planning Program.