About the artwork
Lillian Pitt and Ken MacKintosh
Salmon Cycle Marker, 2005
Dimensions(h x w x d): 50' x 12'
Found cedar log, cast bronze, stainless steel
Located outside Native American Student and Community Center
The Native American Student & Community Center is a gathering space to celebrate and support inter-generational and inter-tribal connection for Native American, Alaskan Native and Pacific Islander students and allies through tradition, ceremony, and storytelling. During the conception of the NASCC, students expressed desire to integrate an art program into the architecture of the building—including a sculptural object on the west end of the site marking their place in the university and community, that would be symbolic of cultural traditions while also pointing the way toward the future. Salmon Cycle Marker depicts the life cycle of salmon in the Columbia River Gorge, and their journey from birth to spawning. The sculpture also includes a likeness of She Who Watches, AKA Tsagaglalal, a mythical figure who appears in a petroglyph in the Columbia Gorge.
About Lillian Pitt
Lillian Pitt is a Native American artist from the Big River (Columbia River) region of the Pacific Northwest. Born on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, she is a descendent of the Wasco, Yakama, and Warm Springs people. Pitt is one of the most highly regarded Native artists in the Pacific Northwest. Her works have been exhibited and reviewed regionally, nationally and internationally, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions.
See more of Lillian Pitt's work, and learn more about Native artistic and cultural traditions of the Pacific Northwest, on her website.
This work was acquired through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission, with additional funding provided by Penelope Knight in loving memory of Matthew Knight, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
Banner image: Photo by Brian Cox.