Rainbow Ridge at SAM

Rainbow Ridge

Commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) for a temporary public art installation

Location: Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA

Date & Duration: June 17 – Labor Day, 2026

Materials: Custom MDO platforms, marine-grade carpet, hand-painted dimensional MDO elements, and neon plexiglass

Project Description

In 2026, I was commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum to design a site-specific, interactive public artwork for the Olympic Sculpture Park’s summer installation. Tasked with transforming a functional mini-golf hole into a sculptural experience, the project scales up my studio practice into a durable, highly trafficked public space while maintaining a strong connection to my core themes of landscape, elevation, and weather.

Concept & Hand-Painted Execution

Rainbow Ridge brings elements of environmental observation and atmospheric data into a physical, playful landscape. The entire installation acts as a dimensional, custom-shaped painting that visitors physically move through.

A central focus of the project is its meticulous hand-painted and sculptural execution. The piece features tiered, multi-level platforms wrapped in a rich palette of blues, which serve as the foundation for custom MDO-cut elements. I individually painted and assembled each of these dimensional pieces—including the directional arrows, the sequence of spanning rainbow arches, and the wind bursts. Players navigate the ball along shifting elevations and underneath these physical arches. Rising along the ridge, layered, custom-cut neon plexiglass elements catch and filter the shifting natural light of the outdoor park, casting colorful glows across the green.

Impact & Scale

As a temporary public art commission, the installation successfully balanced the structural durability required for heavy public interaction with an open-ended, sensory experience for thousands of park visitors. It stood alongside a roster of exceptional regional artists brought together to activate the park pavilion grounds for the summer season.