STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

When Kay Kirkpatrick was invited to create art for the new Big Wood Bridge south of Ketchum, she was immediately transported to a lawn in Zinc Spur.

She remembered how a friend of hers had laid her toddler on the lawn for his naps so he could look up and see the sparkle of the cottonwood leaves—nature’s mobile—fluttering above.

Kirkpatrick designed a 10-foot tall work of aspen leaves constructed in weathering steel by Seattle welders. And she named it “Glimmer,” hoping it would evoke thoughts of lying backwards on a sunny summer morning, dreaming as the leaves flutter above.

Kirkpatrick had to hold her emotion in check as “Glimmer” and five other pieces of art adorning the 300-foot four-span bridge were dedicated Wednesday afternoon by local government representatives, Idaho Transportation employees and the arts community.

“Thank you for the conversation this will create when we turn the benches (on the bike path) around so people can really sit and contemplate it,” said Ketchum Mayor Nina Jonas. “I like to think of it as a kind of traffic control, as well, because you have to slow down to really see it.”

The art was selected by the Wood River Bridge Citizens committee after the Blaine County Regional Transportation Committee asked the Idaho Transportation Department about making the bridge aesthetically pleasing as well as functional. The committee met for a year and a half before awarding Kirkpatrick the commission from a field of 22 entries.

Kirkpatrick was familiar with Sun Valley, having begun visiting it as a youngster with her grandparents who farmed in Twin Falls. She lived here for a year during the 1980s while studying ceramics at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. And she and her family have vacationed here every couple years since she moved to Seattle to pursue her art career.

She designed the bridge art to represent the Sun Valley area’s natural environment and its mining, rail, ranching and skiing history. And she called it “River Tangents.”

• “Bank,” the piece opposite “Glimmer” on the north side of the bridge, features standing rows of trees like sentinels along the river banks, feet seeking the water.
• “Drift,” the piece in the middle on the west side of the bridge, represents a snow fence designed to hold back the snow or mark a course.
• “Fall,” opposite it, is made up of skis commemorating Sun Valley’s legacy as America’s first destination ski resort. It also tries to capture the flying motion or feeling of a skier traversing through the air.
• “Bar,” on the west side of the bridge at its southernmost end, features rounded outlines representing the ever-moving bars of river rocks.
• “Meander,” opposite it, represents the river and the ever-changing course it cuts through the valley.

The upright structural components are angled to emulate the beam on the nearby Pegram Bridge, which serves as part of the bike path. The bridge this one replaced also was an old truss bridge.

Kirkpatrick said she had to consider the impact that snowplows hurling snow and sand will have on the pieces.

“It will be interesting to see how the pieces themselves change with weather and snow,” said Kirkpatrick, who has done public installations at several universities, including Boise State University.

Kirkpatrick said she offered multiple points for drivers to look at as they drive over the bridge every day.

“The way they’re building bridges today without the big buttresses, you don’t always realize you’re crossing a bridge. I wanted to remind drivers on this elegantly engineered multimillion dollar highway that they are crossing a river and arriving at a very special place,” she said. “I wanted to remind them they might want to look around.”

The project was funded by Idaho Transportation Department—the first such project in the state, said project manager Steve Hunter, who waxed poetically about the state agency taking such a risk.

Blaine County Commissioner Angenie McCleary said that she was pleased that every day she would get to drive by, take the bus by or even bike by it from her home in Ketchum to Hailey.

“It’s even more impressive from the bike path. You can really see it, understand it, take time to think about it from this side,” she added.

McCleary noted two 35-foot wide wildlife passageways sit underneath the bridge to allow deer and elk a way across the river without coming up on the road.

“They’ll be enjoying these and, hopefully, the art,” she added.

Missing from the ceremony was bridge engineer Ken Claussen, who died of a heart aneurysm while driving home to Boise from an art selection committee meeting.

“Ken wasn’t just your typical engineer. He believed bridges were historical and should feature art work in one way or another,” said bridge designer Cameron Sobotka.

“I hope we can continue on the road he started to make bridges look pleasing to the eyes of the public,” added bridge designer Tony Azari.

Even the MSE, or mechanical stabilizer earth wall, facing the bike path is a thing of beauty.

“For a bunch of engineers, I think we did okay,” said ITD District Engineer Devin Rigby.

THE WOOD RIVER BRIDGE CITIZENS COMMITTEE was comprised of:

Blaine County Commissioner Angenie McCleary; Claudia McCain, former chair of the Ketchum Arts Commission; Abbey Riven, of the City of Sun Valley; Robyn Mattison, of the Ketchum Arts Commission; Erin Bliss, of the City of Hailey; Jim Keating of the Hailey Arts and Historic Preservation Commission and the Blaine County Recreation District; Courtney Gilbert, representing the local citizenry; Public Arts Consultant Jack Mackie and Idaho Transportation Department representative Steve Hunter and Ken Claussen.