Beaumont is no newcomer to public art projects, having created works for Bailey Boushay House, Harborview Medical Center, and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University, among others. But the Safeco site was daunting nevertheless.
"We took a quantum leap to work in this scale," says Beaumont. "Our site was the entire rotunda entry. Because this is the entry behind home plate, it is considered the 'sacred entry.' That's a curious challenge for a group of artists."
Beaumont and colleagues Stuart Keeler and Michael Machnic created a massive sculpture of light for the stadium's rotunda entry, attaching 1,500 baseball bats into an aluminum armature hanging from the ceiling. The bats were attached in a swirling pattern that adds excitement, animation, and drama to the space. After fabricating most of the piece at Fabrication Specialties in Seattle, the artists spent about a month on a scaffold in the stadium to install it.
"Our hope was to create a visual metaphor to the game and energy of baseball," says Beaumont. "We compare the spiraling energy of an athlete's bat hitting a ball to the wild force of a `tempest.' The sculpture is inspired by Prospero's famous words from Shakespeare's play: `Melted into air, into thin air.'"
The rotunda's floor and stairway have been stained in shades that suggest the sea and land; the stairs lead up to a compass rose inlaid in the floor above, created by the same team of artists. This is the Mariners' emblem and also alludes to the original mariners, who spent their lives at sea.
Not one to slow down, Beaumont is already on to other projects--including one for the University of Washington. She is currently creating artwork for the Washington State Convention and Trade Center and is one of the selected artists for a public art project at UW's new Bothell campus.