TULALIP — In a Tulalip Indian Reservation woodshop smelling of cedar sawdust, apprentice carver Ty Juvenil shows off the carved cedar outlines of orca fins.
Each fin will be customized with Salish-style artistic elements — organic shapes like crescents and wedges — before rubber will be poured over it to make a mold for a series of eight-foot high concrete panels.
A total of nine fins will be made, three by Juvenil and three each by master carvers James Madison and Joe Gobin.
The ultimate destination for the concrete fins are a sound wall along I-5 that will protect nearby residents from the noise of the traffic: four 48-foot long panels depicting a scene of orcas in Tulalip Bay with Whidbey Island and the Olympic Mountains in the distance.
The panels are part of the Tulalip Tribes’ mammoth project to build a new freeway overpass at 116th Street NE, a $70 million project that will improve an interchange that 25,000 vehicles use each day.
The artists are also designing smaller tiles with salmon for the abutment walls beneath the overpass where they will be visible to cars on I-5. The trusses above the overpass on 116th Street NE will have a stylistic representation of salmon roe in the Coast Salish style.
At a meeting with local political leaders Friday, Juvenil showed the various designs, prompting murmurs of approval, and little bit of amazement when it was revealed that the 48-foot-long panels would weigh about 1,000 pounds each and have to be trucked from the plant in Denver where the concrete would be poured.
But more than that, the artwork will clearly indicate a gateway into Indian Country.
“I’m really happy to see some Coastal Salish art put into it,” said state Sen. John McCoy, who represents Tulalip and the 38th District.
“People also refer to us as the salmon people,” Juvenil told the group. “And that’s what these are.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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