Artwork copyright Richard C. Elliott. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Richard C. Elliott. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Crossroads, 2007

Richard C. Elliott
American (born 1945, died 2008)

Location: Jefferson Elementary School, Tacoma

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Dick Elliott used industrial highway reflectors to make 'Crossroads.' The three panels create a kinetic light landscape in the main entryway of the school which is a center of student traffic. Day or night, viewers will experience the ever-changing nature of light. Elliott notes: "The similarities of patterns across cultures has led me to believe that geometric patterns are an intuitive universal language."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with .

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Artist Richard C. "Dick" Elliott (1945-2008) is known for his large installations created with industrial highway reflectors. His art uses light, color, and radiant geometric patterns to explore the variations of light and interactions between colors. He called it "painting with light" and described how "I was driving the county highways and noticing that these little specks of light would come up out of nowhere, they would get really intense, and then disappear... And I discovered that they were reflectors!" Most of Elliott's work and life was based in Ellensburg, Central Washington, and he was an important contributor to its visual arts community. Born in Portland, Oregon, Dick Elliott earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Central Washington University in Ellensburg in 1971. He joined the AmeriCorps VISTA program and served in an Alaska Native community (1966-67), and with the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay, Washington (1968-69) -- these years were very important to him. In the 1980s, he began to explore primary colors and light-active materials. By 1987, he decided to focus on the reflector as his medium of choice. During the 1990s and 2000s, Elliott received over twenty public art commissions, including at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, and in Times Square, New York City. During the last year of his life while he was physically limited by pancreatic cancer, he created computer-generated prints using thousands of colors and geometric designs. In 2007, Elliott was honored with a Washington State Governor's Arts and Heritage Award and the national "Recognition for Innovation in Public Art" award from Americans for the Arts.