New Public Art Installation

Artists Jennifer Corio & Dave Frei of Cobalt Designworks have been selected to create a new public art piece for the couplet located at C & Main Streets. Their artwork The Homecoming will be installed later this year.

We are Jennifer Corio & Dave Frei of Cobalt Designworks. Dave and I have been creating metal sculptures together for fun since 2001, and as a business since 2008 out of our studio in Vancouver, WA. In our partnership I do the conceptual development and design, and Dave brings them to life in his metal shop. We love using bold colors and playful forms to brighten landscapes and lift moods. 

We are honored and excited to create The Homecoming for the C & Main Street Couplet. It is especially meaningful since Dave grew up in Moscow and graduated from Moscow High and U of I. This project is a wonderful way to pay homage to the place where Dave was born and raised.

The idea for this piece came to me one day as I was watching a flutter of bird activity in my backyard. It was an early fall day with cooler temperatures; the kind of day birds seem to love. There were about a dozen different species interacting. To a backyard birder, this is very exciting!

There were the usual suspects; the house finches, goldfinches, sparrows and juncos. These songbirds grace us with their presence every day. These are the local residents. 

There was a northern flicker eating from the suet feeder. It had been hanging out a lot the past few weeks, but sometimes I can go months without seeing it again. Kind of like college students where you see them for 9 months of the year, but then they disappear each summer only to return as school kicks off again in fall.

Particularly exciting was the fact that two fresh faces flew in, familiar but not common in our backyard. Cedar waxwing and spotted towhee.  I only see them a couple times a year in our backyard, as if they are dropping by from out of town to visit their friends and relatives.

Then there was a warbler, a non-native migratory bird, beginning its long journey heading south, passing through, stopping for a drink, a bite and a bathroom break before heading to its final destination.   

Entranced watching them all, I think to myself, “It’s like a HOMECOMING.” The light bulb went off and in an instant I had the idea for the C & Main sculpture. 

I imagined an abstract representation of the Palouse hills as the backdrop, creating the multi-colored, peaceful, undulating and richly layered familiarity of the local landscape. In the forefront I saw birds on a wire; after all, we’ve already got these utility looking poles that are a required design element for the site! 

Birds, which are very social creatures, become a metaphor for Moscow residents, visitors and passersby. The sitting birds are taking a break from the busyness, enjoying each other, people watching, feeling a sense of community, a sense of belonging.  

A flock of birds is flying in, evoking a visual sense of deceleration in order to slow down and join the others, a symbol for what’s happening at this intersection as people come off Hwy 95 and head into the heart of town.

A small farmhouse sits atop the hill as a nod to both HOME and Moscow’s farming heritage.

As motorists, cyclists and pedestrians move around the intersection, the ‘landscape’ shifts in depth and dimension, just like the Palouse hills and their changing relationship to each other. Even the backside holds the integrity of the undulating hills. Our hope is that together the elements create a scene that conjures feelings of home, familiarity, community and joy.