Bruce Johnson’s sculpture on display at Windsor roundabout

Windsor's first public art installation, local artist Bruce Johnson's copper and redwood sculpture called “The Offering,” was assembled Jan. 27 in the roundabout at Old Redwood Highway and Market Street.

It took 10 people less than four hours to install the giant copper boulder on a 14-by-14-foot redwood base, Parks and Recreation Department management analyst Olivia Lemen said.

“The Offering” was delivered on a flatbed truck, and it took four forklifts, some with a 55-foot reach, to move the 6,000-pound, four-piece sculpture to the roundabout where it will be on display through June 2017, Lemen said.

A second sculpture, Canadian artist Claude Boullevraye De Passille's multi-level “Hyper-Conical Pic-Nic Pyramid,” will be installed in the spring after road improvements at the roundabout at Old Redwood Highway and Windsor Road are complete.

A ceremony to celebrate both sculptures is planned for April 17 during Windsor's Earth Day and Wellness festival on the Town Green, Lemen said.

Johnson said he has been working with salvaged old-growth redwood for 50 years. In 1964, when the Eel River experienced a 100-year flood, mountains of redwood stumps, roots and burls were washed out to sea and landed on North Coast beaches, Johnson said.

“I found my way to the south jetty of Humboldt Bay and loaded my parents' Buick until the tailpipe was dragging, and I have been working with salvaged redwood on and off since,” Johnson said in a news release.

Johnson's newest exhibit, “Root 101,” is currently at the sculpture walk at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.

Windsor Mayor Mark Millan said Johnson's “The Offering” brings the roundabout to life.

The installation of “The Offering” was sponsored with in-kind services and donations from Frank Ruggirello Construction Inc., AAction Rents, SBI Landscape Supplies and W-Trans Traffic Engineering Consultants, Lemen said.

The 1-year-old Windsor Public Art Advisory Committee asked for public art entries that expressed the theme “Art is Energizing the Community.” It received 152 entries that were winnowed to 14 finalists. The Town Council approved the Committee's two selections for the roundabouts on Nov. 18.