Shooting Star, 2009
Jean Whitesavage and Nick Lyle
Jean Whitesavage (American (born 1960)) - Nick Lyle (American (born 1958))
Location: City of Connell, Connell
About the Artwork
Artist team Jean Whitesavage and Nick Lyle created Shooting Star as part of six large-scale, forged-steel sculptures. They placed the sculptures on a walking path in Connell, Central Washington. Each sculpture represents a different native prairie flower or local crop. They celebrate Connell's heritage of farming and close relationship to the land. Impressed by the expansive landscape, the artists noted, "it's big sculpture for big country."
The Shooting Star plant is found on both sides of the Cascade Mountains crest in Washington, in streambanks and other wet places. It grows 6 to 16 inches tall and produces 2 to 12 flowers from May to July.
Check out the grades K-2 lesson plan for this artwork, linked as a PDF under "Lesson Plans and Documents".
This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with City of Connell.
About the Artist
Jean Whitesavage and Nick Lyle are an artist team who create hand-forged metal sculptures and installations for public and private spaces.
Whitesavage earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia, and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
Lyle earned a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, Massachusetts, and studied glassblowing and metalwork at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.