The Kiss

Michael Sweeney

Ronald Bog Park

A sculpture’s simple geometry holds a universe of meaning.

For sculptor Michael Sweeny, geometry was sacred. “St. Anthony’s Cross (also the pyramid cross) is the symbol of the upper and lower worlds in dynamic equilibrium,” he wrote in his artist statement for The Kiss, noting that the teachings of Euclid, Ptolemy, the Freemasons, the Kabalah and others all presuppose that “geometry came first, that it was the first structure and that numbers and alphabets developed from it.”

The Kiss reflects Sweeney’s persistent fascination with geomancy and symbolic geometry—as well as with scale and proportion, shadows and spatial illusions, and purity of form. “Sweeney says the concept of the cross is central to his work because both mathematically and esoterically, it is a tool of definition,” art critic Deloris Tarzan wrote in The Seattle Times in 1978.

The Kiss was installed at Ronald Bog Park in Shoreline upon its completion, but 40 years later light rail expansion in the area prompted it to move. In 2019, Sound Transit was doing wetland mitigation in the artwork’s original location, so the sculpture was re-sited within the park.

During his career, Sweeney (1940–2009) created and installed a number of permanent sculptures in Washington, Michigan, and New York, in addition to showing his studio work in gallery exhibitions, primarily in New York City and Seattle. He was also a master craftsman who designed and fabricated Tibetan prayer wheels, sundials, water fountains, custom furniture, and architectural accessories for homes and businesses.