Art is a portal for expressing thoughts, sensations, impressions and absolute truths in one’s own private world through the inner experience of the strange and brilliant imagination. It’s an immeasurable language of emotions and dimension.

In public places, like schools, art exhales energy from the person who created it and then begins a life of its own by the eyes that take it in.

A new artwork encompassing 360 square feet on a wall at Kingston High School is beginning what will hopefully be a long life, its striking colors and images sinking into those who walk before and under it.

Frank Samuelson’s new art piece at Kingston High School, “Three Story Building,” is made up of nine 32-inch by 49-inch individual paintings, each a window looking out to another place. It’s installed on a wall above the entryway doors in the building housing the gymnasium and is the culmination of a year-long process to select an artist to create a piece of public art for the new school through the Washington State Arts Commission ½ of 1% Art Program, which funds art in public places.

When crossing the bridge leading from the parking lot to the building, Samuelson’s artwork becomes part of the architecture while at the same time reaching through the panes of glass, welcoming a second glance, a double take, a place to rest the eyes and jog the mind.

“The way I imagined it and the way it is … to see the effect is just pretty neat,” Samuelson said.

“The nine separate paintings are windows, but through closure, your mind kind of puts them together as the same space and closes down the space between them,” observed KHS art teacher James Andrews.

“You used to walk over the bridge, absent minded about the wall – now there’s something hanging there,” said KHS senior Anika Kramberger, who served on the selection committee. “Even on the bridge you can get a glimpse of it. Whether you just glance at it or it catches your eye – as long as it catches your eye and makes you wonder then I think art is important.

“Art brings a little bit more of a homey feeling to (the building) and it’s doing a lot for students, whether they know it or not, with their moods.”

Art in public places

KHS Principal Christy Cole said the process to select an artist and get the artwork installed took about a year. The site was chosen, in part, because it serves as the public entrance to the school for community members and visiting sports teams.

“It’s a beautiful piece,” she said, and also commented on how it looks through the windows when crossing the bridge. “It will take some more time for the students to see it.”

Cole, along with North Kitsap School District Capital Projects Manager Robin Shoemaker, teachers, students, parents and community members, overseen by Andrews, formed a selection committee. The state arts commission’s Art in Public Places Program project manager Mike Sweney helped the committee through the selection process and in working with the artist.

Kramberger said she enjoyed all of it. “I value art. I’m always looking for some way to bring it into the community. It’s all relative to how you perceive art to be a part of life.”

Marilyn Liden Bode, a member of the Kingston Art Gallery, was asked to serve on the selection committee as a community representative. She said to begin with, the committee looked at hundreds of slides of artwork created by about 70 regional artists from throughout the Pacific Northwest on the ½ of 1% Art Program roster.

“It was like going through a museum and seeing a thousand pictures in two hours,” Bode said.

Ultimately, and after another meeting or two and further winnowing, Samuelson was selected unanimously, all agreeing that the style of his art, the color and texture, was what they wanted in a piece for KHS.

She said there was some discussion on the committee about engaging a local artist or seeking out a Native American artist, but according to guidelines set by the ½ of 1% Program, the artist had to be chosen off the roster provided. Initially, a sculpture to put outside was also talked about but would have been too expensive, she said.

Even though artists get some input from the schools or other organizations they’re creating the work for and may tailor the style to fit users of the building, “your artistic voice is still going to be what’s there,” Andrews explained. Incorporating school mascots and other symbols linked to the buildings are prohibited.

“The art committee really pushes you to do your own art,” Samuelson said.

After Samuelson was selected, he met with the committee and brought more slides of his work and talked about some of his likes and dislikes in public art, did some sketches, toured the school, looked at available wall space and met with students.

“He’s an incredibly personable guy … and it was great to see the wheels in his brain working.”

Samuelson went back to the drawing board – literally – and created some sketches for each of three different locations that were under consideration. Once the entryway wall was chosen, he got a final idea in mind and more input from students and the committee. Students filled out surveys about basic ideas and the kinds of objects they’d like to see represented and gave a couple dozen responses to Samuelson. Then he went to work painting.

The artwork was installed while the students had the day off on Oct. 20 during a learning improvement day.

The cost of the painting, including installation and future maintenance, was about $30,000, all paid for by the ½ of 1% for Art Program, established by the state legislature in 1974 and funded from ½ of 1 percent of the state’s capital construction budgets for state-owned buildings.

“It’s a wonderful that the school district was able to do this,” Bode said, “and for the kids to know there’s an investment in them and art. It’s an opportunity that is just amazing. It never would have happened if the school district had to pay for it. They just don’t have that kind of money for this kind of work.”

Articulating art

Samuelson, who lives in Port Townsend, has a master of fine arts from Washington State University and master of arts and bachelor of arts degrees from Central Washington State University. His work at KHS is the latest of 16 public art projects he’s completed all over the state including pieces at other high schools in Kirkland, Redmond and Bainbridge Island as well as the Kitsap County Administration Building in Port Orchard. His work has been featured extensively in solo shows at galleries and group exhibitions throughout the state.

“The idea to have nine individual pieces was completely original as a new direction for him as an artist,” Andrews said of Samuelson’s design. The committee all agreed that it really fits with the space.

“I think the kids will dig it and that’s the main thing. They’ll see it and say ‘that’s cool’ instead of looking at it and saying ‘what the heck is that?’ Good art does leave you with some questions sometimes,” he noted.

Samuelson has created a number of large artworks for public places. “I really love working on this big stuff,” he said. “When you’re creating an artwork that’s 18 feet, you have to have a fairly abstract understanding of what goes on, but close up is a sophisticated view.”

“I’m kind of known for my clutter,” Samuelson said of his style. “But here I decided to let the elements speak for themselves. I eliminated some things I was going to put in it. It would have ruined the spatial relationship on the wall.

“I didn’t need to resort to my toolbox of flotsam and jetsam … I didn’t have to get fussy with it.”

Through the nine windows are different views, looking out and around a dark pyramid, and on each window ledge objects are perched – from a pencil, emerald, pitcher and the letter ‘S’ to a steam ship, eyeglasses, baseballs and the number ‘5.’ Each object has a meaning, moral or pun of its own that Samuelson can explain. A close look at the changing sky in the windows shows the passage of one whole day moving through, from a rosy sunrise to a celestial and Vincent van Gogh-esque starry night.

“There are no covert or subliminal messages written into the thing – it’s pretty straightforward. But the objects in each of the windows are not random at all. I’m not whimsical,” Samuelson said. “I’m probably more serious than the guys who are serious.

As part of the requirements of the public art project, a plaque will be installed nearby, where Samuelson will explain aspects of the artwork.

“Lots of students don’t know what it means yet,” said Kramberger, and she thinks putting a plaque up will help interpret the art.

“Some people view art and they need to know what it means, but even if they just walk by and look at it without knowing that, it feels better,” she said. “For those who need the plaque, it’ll be there, and for those who don’t they can just take it all in.”

To Samuelson, “the point that became really important was what the artwork did for the school and architecture, not just the people. It worked. On one hand the kids are smarter, but what they see, they can’t articulate.”

Samuelson will return to KHS for a more formal dedication and unveiling ceremony, and drop into some of Andrews’ art classes to talk with students. Andrews said some of the students in the video production class might make a documentary about the project.

To see more art by Frank Samuelson, go to franksamuelson.com.