Artwork copyright Richard C. Elliott. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Spiral, 1989

Richard C. Elliott
(American, born 1945, died 2008)

Location: Maple Grove School, Battle Ground

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Late artist Richard "Dick" C. Elliott created Spiral by combining industrial highway reflectors into an expressive geometric motif that dynamically changes with differing light. Of his work, Elliott notes "The more that I have explored geometric patterning, the more I have become convinced that there is a universal visual language that transcends both time and place."

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

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist Richard C. "Dick" Elliott (1945-2008) is known for his large installations created with industrial highway reflectors. His art uses light, color, and radiant geometric patterns to explore the variations of light and interactions between colors. He called it "painting with light" and described how "I was driving the county highways and noticing that these little specks of light would come up out of nowhere, they would get really intense, and then disappear... And I discovered that they were reflectors!" Most of Elliott's work and life was based in Ellensburg, Central Washington, and he was an important contributor to its visual arts community.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Dick Elliott earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Central Washington University in Ellensburg in 1971. He joined the AmeriCorps VISTA program and served in an Alaska Native community (1966-67), and with the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay, Washington (1968-69) -- these years were very important to him. In the 1980s, he began to explore primary colors and light-active materials. By 1987, he decided to focus on the reflector as his medium of choice. During the 1990s and 2000s, Elliott received over twenty public art commissions, including at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, and in Times Square, New York City. During the last year of his life while he was physically limited by pancreatic cancer, he created computer-generated prints using thousands of colors and geometric designs. In 2007, Elliott was honored with a Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Award and the national "Recognition for Innovation in Public Art" award from Americans for the Arts.