PORT ANGELES — A lithe 180-pound mountain lion now lives at City Hall.
Duncan Yves McKiernan of Port Angeles, maker of the sculpture, has given it to his native city.
The artist will mark his 90th birthday this summer, and has reached the time in his life when he wants to give such works away.
Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio will formally accept McKiernan’s gift in a public tribute at the City Council Chambers, 321 E. Fifth St.
Then the council and the artist will go out for refreshments in City Hall’s atrium, where the life-size figure stands.
Titled “Peninsula Cougar,” the sculpture is placed in a setting of rocks and water, so the panther appears to lean down and sip from a stream.
Visiting the atrium last Friday, McKiernan pronounced himself “overwhelmed.”
This is all quite flattering, he said.
The bronze creature, sculpted some years ago, was inspired by the cats McKiernan remembers seeing when he was a boy growing up in the woods around Port Angeles.
His father, Ulysses W. McKiernan, once hunted cougars for bounty money.
This was during the Great Depression, and “the bounty helped put food on our table,” the younger McKiernan recalled.
When the artist began this piece, he made a special appointment for sketching at the Olympic Game Farm near Sequim.
A staff member took him to the pen where the farm’s mountain lion was napping — at first.
“All of a sudden he decided to jump up and cling to the fence,” McKiernan said.
“They are beautiful animals,” he added, “and remarkably fast.”
“Peninsula Cougar” is No. 2 of a limited edition of two, he added; No. 1 resides in Palomares Park, a sculpture garden in Fallbrook, Calif.
McKiernan’s work has long adorned his hometown.
“Cormorants,” the gleaming bronze birds on City Pier, were erected in 1980, noted Corey Delikat, Port Angeles’ Parks & Recreation Director.
The sculptor was also the first director of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, the gallery and outdoor art park at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
And just inside City Hall’s front door stands another McKiernan piece: “Faller and Bucker,” a diminutive figure of a logger.
Cruising through in his wheelchair, the artist grinned as he saw a photograph of his “Cormorants” on the wall of a city staffer’s office.
“When are you going to name this McKiernan Hall?” he quipped.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
