Behold the Rainbringer and its power

Originally published Saturday, December 11, 1999

By AMY E. NEVALA
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Near Bainbridge Public Library and Bainbridge High School towers a bird that shoots lightning from its eyes and claps thunder with each wing beat. The Rainbringer is a 15-foot carved story pole. It depicts the thunderbird, a powerful, mythical bird in Northwest coast American Indian cultures.

After winning the contract to complete the piece in 1990, artist Craig Jacobrown of Indianola chose to create the thunderbird to honor his Native American teacher and Kwakiutl elder, Henry Seaweed.

The thunderbird is a sacred animal in Seaweed's family crest, so Jacobrown asked permission of Seaweed to carve it.

To reflect the importance of water and its natural cycle to Bainbridge Island residents, Jacobrown also included rain, groundwater and sea water imagery in the cedar carving.

"The whales represent salt water, the salmon represent fresh water and the thunderbird represents rain water," said Jacobrown, 38.

Local Native American stories say that the thunderbird creates thunder when flapping its wings and produces lightning when blinking its eyes, leaving rain in its wake.

The traditional-style black design painted and carved in relief on the tail and wings depicts killer whales, often associated with the thunderbird. The whales also represent the depths of the sea and human emotion.

The secondary red designs symbolize salmon. The thunderbird also holds a salmon in its talons, ``bringing the spirit world to the world of humans,'' Jacobrown said.

Jacobrown carved the Rainbringer from a second-growth cedar tree cut from a Port Gamble forest. The Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council funded the project from 1 percent of city capital projects for public art.

The Rainbringer stands at the intersection of Madison Avenue North and High School Road on Bainbridge Island.

Water is the theme again in a new Bainbridge Island art piece, Beach Glass Quilt.

Artists Diane Bonciolini and Gregg Mesmer of Mesolini Glass Studio and other contributors created the 10 feet-by-10 feet concrete mosaic from 3,000 pieces of publicly donated beach glass, plucked from beaches worldwide after rolling smooth and clear onto the sand.

The artists used 150 pounds of lavender, cobalt blue and green glass to create the sidewalk art. The glass came from 21 Bainbridge Island beaches as well as the shores of the Great Lakes states, Florida, Hawaii, Hong Kong and Puerto Rico.

The inlaid, wavy design resembles a large square quilt floating on water. Stroll over the glass quilt on the southeast corner of Winslow Way and Madison Avenue on Bainbridge Island.