Artwork copyright Lanny Bergner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Artwork copyright Lanny Bergner. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Blue Hydroid, 2000

Lanny Bergner
(American, born 1952)

Location: Office of the Washington State Auditor, Olympia

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Blue Hydroid is part of artist Lanny Bergner’s series of mixed media sculptures created using gourds the artist grew at home. He harvests, cures, and cleans the hollow gourds before reconstructing them into fantastical sculptures. He created the textural surface of this piece using crushed glass and by applying silicone glue into a meticulous pattern. Inspired by botanical and aquatic forms, he notes, “The sculptures mainly come to life by creative evolution, whereas one form will initiate the thought for the next form.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Edmonds School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Anacortes-based artist Lanny Bergner creates mixed-media sculptures and site-specific installations for public spaces. He has been creating hand-worked organic and geometric artworks out of industrial metal mesh since 1983. The otherworldly quality of Bergner’s artworks often contrasts to the everyday materials he uses to construct them.

Born in Anacortes, Bergner was an apprentice to Skagit County-based sculptor Philip McCracken in 1976. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a Master in Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia.