by Kirby Lindsay, posted 25 September 2013
On October 5th, at 3p, at History House of Greater Seattle, Fremocentrist.com will present another installment in its Fremont Fireside Chat series. This time, attendees will get a one-hour overview of the ever-expanding Public Art collection in Fremont.
The collection has expanded in part thanks to Brian Regan, a local property developer and landlord. He’s provided patronage for art installations here, but this year he’s also joined the ranks of Fremont artists.
‘Fremont Court’ & The ‘Equinox’
Regan’s work as a Fremont landlord began with his purchase of the five buildings called ‘Fremont Court’ (where Yak’s and Homegrown are located.) He then developed the adjoining Equinox building (location of Oohla’s In Fremont and Lola Pop.)
With ‘Fremont Court,’ Regan inherited two iconic Fremont art works. According to him, caretaking the ‘Still Life In Fremont’ mural on North 35th Street has been easy. The artist used an easy-to-clean, shiny paint that has deflected some graffiti efforts, and Regan reported that little else needs to be done. “We’ve maintained the florescent bulbs that illuminate it,” he said.
Unfortunately, he’s had less success maintaining the Fremont mural on the alley. “We’ve tried to remove the graffiti that gets on it,” Regan explained for his maintenance crew, “but they’re not artists, and they just cover it up.”Coincidentally, the artists remain unidentified on both works – and therefore, they remain unavailable for consultation on clean-up.
Since his purchase, only one bit of art has been added. The underground parking garage entrances have gates that run on steel tracks, with steel protectors to keep passing cars from crumpling the runners. “I told the boys to paint some teeth on there,” Regan recalled of his orders to his crew. They took the initiative, and painted gaping mouths with rows of vicious teeth on all four protectors. Regan deemed it art. “Oh, sure,” he said, “anytime you can do something that is not purely functional…”
As for the rest of the property, “I would like to do something with that huge concrete wall,” Regan said of the Equinox building. The wall faces land now owned by the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation, but still under discussion as to its future use.
The SPACE Project
Regan’s next development in Fremont was the SPACE building, at N 36th & Evanston Ave N. He takes little credit for the ambitious art installation that surrounds the building. “The Fremont Arts Council designed it and built it,” he recalled, “I financed it.” When he submitted his plans to develop the building, the City demanded a significant curb bulb be installed – and Jessica Randall stepped forward, with the Arts Council behind her.
“They did the concrete installation by themselves,” Regan recalled. They installed benches, lights, the SPACE bulbs, and concrete painting, and they engineered and got permits on their own. “I approved it,” Regan said, but he doesn’t take credit. “Jessica was the main spearhead,” he agreed, “a real great force. I had very little to do with it. I was just looking at it today, and it looks really good.”
The Story of Saturn
Last year, Regan completed construction of his third Fremont development – the Saturn Building. While under-construction, Regan spent the two years also getting permits – including a special ordinance from the Mayor – to install art on the structure. As the piece tilts slightly over a public sidewalk, Regan will also pay an annual fee – starting at $744 – to maintain his art. As he joked, “everybody would have a Saturn, if it were easy.”
The planet Saturn, large and orange, is perched five-stories up – created by Regan, although when asked about his identity as the artist, he said, “God designed it, I just copied it.” Fabricators from B & B Aircraft did put the piece together, following designs Regan provided on the structure, colors, placement and lighting. He also designed solar panels on the rings which feed power into the building’s electrical grid. The panels create 2,800 – 3,000 watts, and could power the lights on one floor of the building.
“It’s intended to be highly visible,” Regan said of the piece. He wanted the piece to establish the presence of the building, yet, “I didn’t anticipate this angle,” he observed, “some on Queen Anne have a great view of Saturn, glowing in the night.”
He also acknowledged this piece could influence the art themes in Fremont. Previously, our Korean War-era Rocket and nearby statue of Vladimir Lenin gave visitors a cold war theme. With the SPACE Project and Saturn now surrounding the Rocket, Regan has created, “a weird space theme there,” he observed. “It’s not so depressing,” he said. He hopes the addition of Saturn lends visitors, “a sign of hope. There is a future, a hopeful future.”
During the day, “it does sneak up on you,” he acknowledged, “All the sudden, look up and see something that is incongruous.” Regan likes the idea this plants in the children who look up and see Saturn (or most Fremont’s art works,) and can wonder, “that adults would do something wacky like that…”
Other ‘Saturn’ Art
On the Saturn Building, Regan installed art by others as well – including the very deliberate art lighting of the outside of the structure. A lighting design company called Candella created an other-worldly effect using star patterns to create a starry night, and illuminating the eves of the roof. “As bright as it is,” Regan observed, “it’s minimalistic.”
Regan also installed, in the building lobby, a reproduction of a favorite piece from Regan’s misspent youth (some of it misspent in Fremont.) The 1800s painting, ‘Urbi et Orbi’, emulates medieval art, and the desire for space. “I used to see it all the time as a hippie,” Regan, “in people’s living rooms as a poster.”
Finally, on the N 35th side of the Saturn Building, between The Barrel Thief and The Sixgill, a nook contains a mosaic of six panels created by Jo Braun and Kate Jessup. The piece, called ‘Invasion of the Found Facians’, came out of a relationship Regan formed with Braun when they tried, unsuccessfully, to bring the controversial ‘Surfing Madonna’ to Fremont (it went to San Diego instead.) Afterwards, Braun approached Regan with this work, and he readily agreed.
“It took quite a bit of work,” Regan said of the installation. The construction crew created the six panels, and brackets to hang them, for the building, then sent the panels to Braun who created the mural in her studio. The ‘Facians’ are found pieces of metal that resemble faces attacking a landscape, along with a space ship. Regan brags about Braun, and the art. “She’s an actual artist,” he said, “internationally recognized.”
Regan can shrug off his own contribution to the art world, but he can’t deny his contributions to the art of Fremont. Fremont has art, and Regan has substantially added to it – and encouraged others, hopefully, for the future!
To see other images of Regan’s contributions, and many, many others, attend the Fremont Fireside Chat on October 5th at History House at 3p (sponsored by HomeStreet Bank.)
Better still, stop by Saturn to see the hovering planet – by day and by night – glowing over the Center of the Universe.
Related Articles
- Fremont Public Art Inventory: Evanston, Part III of an On-Going Series
- by Kirby Lindsay, January 21, 2011
- Bringing SPACE To Fremont
- by Kirby Lindsay, August 24, 2006 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
- More Fremonsters In The Future
- by Kirby Lindsay, October 30, 2008 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
- All This, And Sputnik Too?
- by Kirby Lindsay, November 23, 2009
©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.