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Mercurial Miss

Patti Warashina

Meydenbauer Center

A goddess of commerce heralds prosperity as she welcomes convention center visitors.

Patti Warashina. Mercurial Miss, 1994. Fired glazed ceramic and carved wood. Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com

A striking ceramic figure stands with arms raised and head angled upward, toward the windows and stairs of the lobby at Meydenbauer Center, a convention center in Bellevue, WA. She is Mercurial Miss, a large-scale, site-specific work by Patti Warashina representing the female version of Mercury, Roman god of trade and commerce, and protector of merchants.

Signifying the peace and prosperity of the community, Mercurial Miss holds three symbolic items: a feather, indicating the power of flight; a caduceus, a serpent found on ancient heraldic staffs; and a credit card, a medium of exchange. She perches atop rocks meant to represent the Northwest mountains and a shadow behind her suggests the sky with its blue color and transcendence with its wing shape.
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Patti Warashina. Mercurial Miss, 1994. Fired glazed ceramic and carved wood. Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
Patti Warashina. Mercurial Miss, 1994. Fired glazed ceramic and carved wood. Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com
Patti Warashina. Mercurial Miss, 1994. Fired glazed ceramic and carved wood. Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA. King County Public Art Collection. Photo: joefreemanjunior.com