Memory Lake

Building 5 is now in an industrial area, but it was once Guild's Lake — a 250-acre riparian marsh fed by seasonal rainwater and the Willamette River. The lake had a pulse, growing larger in winter rains, smaller in summer's heat. During dry spells it was marshy, offering critical habitat for birds and other wildlife. During winter, it dilated to a deeper lake.

In 1905, to prepare for the Lewis and Clark Exposition, the lake was dammed and excavated so it would look less marshy, more like a "proper" lake. After the Exposition ended, the lake returned to its original marshy state and fell out of favor with those in power. Later that year, Guild's Lake was acquired by a developer and filled in for industrial use, using giant mining hoses to sluice dirt from nearby hillsides. By 1913, a fifty-acre industrial center existed where the lake had been. The first factory built in what is now Building 5 was a tin can factory.

In Memory Lake, pigments and waters foraged from the former lake's watershed drip from above like rain, making their way drop by drop through a series of glass forms that resemble cells, clouds, or constellations. The glass forms are modeled after lace that my grandmothers and her sisters made by hand — lace made around the same time the lake was disappearing. The pigment and water drip through these layers of memory and land on a map of the former lake, refilling it drop by drop.

The tin can from which the water drips is a gesture towards closing the circle — that which removed the lake now helps it return.

In addition to the sculpture and the painting, the installation included a spectrum of glass vials. Each vial contains a pigment made from a plant or animal that would have grown or wandered along the banks of the lake that once lived here.

While working on this piece, I dreamt often and vividly of daylighting the creek that fed Guild's Lake, Balch Creek. I saw the creek touched by sunlight and rain, galloping through fern-lined banks to reach the floodplain. I saw the lake pulse like a slow heart. Each time I dreamt this dream, I felt an asphalt-heavy weight lifted from my chest. Relief. I tried to create that feeling here.