Cycles: A Public Art Commission
A public art commission for the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with Ellensburg School District.
Ida Nason Aronica Elementary School in Ellensburg, WA | Stained glass, glass beads, glass gems | 28’ x 4’
About Cycles: A Public Art Commission
Cycles is a 20-panel glass mosaic installed in 2025 at Ida Nason Aronica Elementary School in Ellensburg, Washington, commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with the Ellensburg School District. It is my first public art commission and the most complex and personally meaningful project of my career. Local community members selected this artwork through a process managed by ArtsWA and the Ellensburg School District.
The changing of the seasons and the beauty of nature affect and inspire us all. This artwork honors Yakama Nation artist and elder Ida Nason Aronica (K'tɨ́taas Band), a prolific bead artist who was also frequently gifted traditional beaded works by others. Her extraordinary beadwork is woven throughout the design as mosaic interpretations, connecting the school's deep relationship with nature and the local landscape to the visual language of Aronica's craft.
Designing Cycles: Public Art Mosaic
As a site-specific artwork, Cycles was created with careful attention to the school’s vision and to its namesake, Ida Nason Aronica. The school maintains a strong connection to nature through its educational approach and even through its architecture. The building is arranged in a square around an open courtyard where students grow vegetables. Each of the four hallways surrounding the courtyard represents a season with its own color.
I incorporated these seasonal colors into the structure of the mosaics: green for spring, yellow for summer, orange for fall, and blue for winter. There are five panels for each season. The first and last panels are radial mosaic designs that feature the season’s primary color, with the next season’s color subtly entering the center and the previous season’s color flowing outward on the edges. The second panel is a mosaic interpretation of one of Ida Nason Aronica’s beadwork pieces, for which she was well known. The third panel features a symbol of the season created with intricate beadwork. The fourth panel depicts a floral representation of a seasonal food source that holds significance for local tribes in the Ellensburg area.
Seasons
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Creating Cycles: A Public Art Commission
Cycles presented unique technical challenges compared to my architectural commissions. Because ArtsWA requires public art in schools to be relocatable and designed for a lifespan of at least 30 years, I couldn't use my usual approach of applying mosaic directly to the building. Instead each panel is a self-contained work on a substrate that can be mounted and, if needed, moved. With 20 panels spanning 28 feet, maintaining visual consistency across the full installation while also making each panel feel complete on its own required careful planning throughout the process.
The use of glass beads presented particular technical considerations. Beads are significantly smaller than typical mosaic tesserae, which meant working at a much finer scale for the beadwork sections while maintaining the same precision I bring to all my work. The combination of stained glass, glass beads, and glass gems across all 20 panels also required careful attention to how the different materials interact with light, since the installation needed to read beautifully under the varied lighting conditions of a school hallway.
Read the full behind-the-scenes story of creating Cycles on my blog.
Individual Mosaic Panels
Spring I: A mosaic with radial symmetry emphasizing spring green with summer yellow entering at the center and winter blue fading at the edges.
Spring II: One of Ida’s beadworks interpreted in mosaic. Beads are used throughout as a thread of continuity honoring Ida Nason Aronica's craft.
Spring III: A detailed beaded raindrop to celebrate spring.
Spring IV: The beautiful flower of the bitter root, an important food source also valued for its medicinal properties.
Spring V: The final spring mosaic is created mostly with beads. The summer starburst is larger than the first panel as the season comes closer.
Summer I: This radially symmetric mosaic shows the summer yellow with the fall orange entering at the center as the spring green fades out the edges.
Summer II: This is a mosaic version of another one of Ida’s gorgeous beadworks, using stained glass and beads.
Summer III: A vibrant beaded sun mosaic with tiny circles to represent summer.
Summer IV: Huckleberry, gathered in summer and valued for both its flavor and medicinal properties, makes for a rich and vibrant panel.
Summer V: This final panel ends the summer with a larger fall starburst coming in the center while the spring is fading away.
Fall I: This mosaic focuses on the orange fall while the winter pokes into the center and the summer falls off the edges.
Fall II: A mosaic interpretation of Ida Nason Aronica's bird beadwork.
Fall III: This fall leaf mosaic captures the warmth and texture of fall through intricate layering of bugle and seed beads.
Fall IV: This is a mosaic with beads of the nootka rose bush, whose edible hips provided a sustained source of vitamin C through the winter months.
Fall V: A radial mosaic symbolizing the end of fall with a larger blue winter starburst and summer yellow exiting on the edge.
Winter I: The first mosaic panel of winter blue shows the spring green beginning to come in the center and the fall orange leaving.
Winter II: This beautiful deer is one of Ida’s amazing beaded works. It was interpreted in mosaic using stained glass and beads.
Winter III: A shimmery silver beaded snowflake mosaic to represent winter.
Winter IV: This is a mosaic of the camas flower. The bulbs were an important food source, eaten whole or ground into a nutritious flour to sustain communities through winter.
Winter V: The final winter mosaic is created mostly with beads. The spring starburst is larger than the first panel as the season comes closer.