Artwork copyright Joanne Hammer. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Garden House, 1999

Joanne Hammer
American (born 1947)

Location: Soap Lake Elementary, Soap Lake

About the Artwork

Garden House is a painted copper sculpture created by artist Joanne Hammer. It is part of a group of artworks she calls “tapestries” that are made by stitching together painted copper shapes using copper wire. Describing her inspiration, she notes, “Increasingly I have concentrated on the small and ordinary things of daily life. I live in a very beautiful place on Vashon Island with a pond and a view of the Olympic Mountains. There are fields which surround me so daily I see migratory birds, deer, and the more domestic farm animal of my neighbors. In my work I give all of this my absolute attention to celebrate its existence, to see it more deeply and to hold it in my heart.”

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

About the Artist

Born in Seattle, Hammer studied as an undergraduate at the University of Washington and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in textile design from the University of Hawaii in 1977. She returned to the Pacific Northwest, settling on Vashon Island in South Puget Sound, Western Washington, where she lives and works.