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I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals

Cappy Thompson

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

A dream unfolds across painted glass windows.

Cappy Thompson. I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals (detail), 2003. Vitreous enamel on glass. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, SeaTac, WA. Photo: Spike Mafford

An array of luminous symbols in saturated colors tell a fantastical story on windows at the end of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s Concourse A. In I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals, Cappy Thompson blends modern, traditional, and astronomical allegories—all drawn from a series of dreams she once had.

Created with vitreous enamels at Derix Glasstudios in Germany, the artwork was made using a technique called grisaille or gray-tonal painting, which medieval European artisans developed while making stained-glass panels for cathedrals. It depicts a couple asleep on the top floor of a tower, surrounded by raptors, evergreens, and celestial animals. Owls and a thunderbird perch in the treetops like sentries. Fifteen constellations fill the night sky of the northern hemisphere, including Cetus the whale, Aries the ram, Draco the dragon, Cygnus the swan, and Monoceros the unicorn. Two winged horses, Pegasus and Equileus, draw a chariot carrying the sun and the moon, as they sprinkle stars into the room of the dreamers.
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Cappy Thompson. I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals, 2003. Vitreous enamel on glass. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, SeaTac, WA. Photo: Russell Johnson
Cappy Thompson. I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals (detail), 2003. Vitreous enamel on glass. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, SeaTac, WA. Photo: Spike Mafford
 

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Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

As a primary portal to the region, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport gives many visitors their first impressions of the Pacific Northwest and its culture. Sea-Tac began commissioning public artwork in 1968 and today the collection features integrated artworks, signature pieces by internationally and regionally known artists, and a temporary exhibition program. Its commissioned artworks and…

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