Love & Loss

Date2005-2006

Maker Roy McMakin American, born 1956

An artist, furniture maker and architect, Roy McMakin's work blurs the boundaries between these disciplines, and amplifies tensions between form, function, and meaning. Full of visual and verbal puns, Love & Loss, commissioned specifically for the Olympic Sculpture Park, includes benches that are functional and meaningful. Seating composed of words, the benches speak their own language. A tree forms the "V" of love, which will blossom seasonally, losing its leaves—a reminder of nature's cycling that mirrors human experience.

Object number2007.2

ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist by the Seattle Art Museum (purchase funds and donated funds), 2005-2006

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

We live in a world of words and objects. How they become special and take on meaning is fascinating to me.

Roy McMakin

Published ReferencesCorrin, Lisa Graziose et al. "Olympic Sculpture Park." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, illus. p. 40 (rendering) Ishikawa, Chiyo, ed. "A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum." Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, illus. p. 113. Kangas, Matthew, "Sculpture", October 2007, Vol 26, No. 8 Borrello, Brian. Arts Master Plan: King County Regional Trails System. 4Culture, 2014; p. 68, reproduced.

Credit LineOlympic Sculpture Park Art Acquisition Fund and gift of Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

DimensionsOverall: 288 x 480 in. (731.5 x 1219.2 cm)

MediumMixed media installation with benches, tables, live tree, pathways, and illuminated rotating element