Location: V.A. Medical Center Station
Title: Landscape of Memories
Artist: Janet Lofquist
Material: Port Orford Cedar wood laminate, dolomitic limestone, bronze
Arched wooden bench with bronze letters on the seating surface near limestone steps with words engraved on the steps. There are three bronze arcs in the turf.
In this gathering space near to VA Medical Center Station, the artist uses locally quarried dolomitic limestone in a layered fashion to represent the cascading water of Minnehaha Falls and nearby Coldwater Spring. The text on the stone refers to the passing of time and healing: physically, spiritually and emotionally. The arcs of bronze in the turf and the arcing bench continue the representation of water as it falls from the stone and through the space. The bench is made of Port Orford Cedar, which grows in a narrow zone along the southern Oregon and northern California coast.
Port Orford Cedar
Limestone quarry
Janet Lofquist is a regional and national public artist from Minneapolis. For more than 25 years, she has created artwork for college campuses, libraries, parks and transit and streetscape projects.
Lofquist works in a variety of materials, from metals, to stone to wood and even landscaping. Completed works have ranged in scope from architecturally integrated treatments, sculptural environments, gathering spaces and free standing sculptures. In her work, Lofquist explores the relationship of site and context, art and architecture/landscape, and artist and community. Her process starts with a community conversation as she researches and explores the sites’ historical, cultural and environmental phenomena in order to create a unique sense of place.
She has won numerous grants and awards from Minnesota State Arts Board, Forecast Public Art, the Jerome Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Engage, Goodwin Technical School, New Britain, Connecticut 2013