SEATTLE – Port Townsend’s Sophie the Merpig was the center of attention, but was outshone by her litter mate, Piglit.
Last Friday, 100 Pigs on Parade – fiberglass pigs transformed by artists as a fundraiser for the Pike Place Market Foundation – were officially unveiled at a reception in Seattle.
Among them were two porcine creations by Port Townsend sculptor Thaddeus Jurczynski.
“Sophie was elevated on a table, with other pigs radiating out from her,” Jurczynski said.
Jurczynski transformed the two pigs from fiberglass blanks modeled after Rachel, the Seattle Pike Place Market piggy bank.
Jurczynski took the sitting version and turned it into a merpig, complete with tail and flowing blond locks.
For Piglit, he drilled outlines of sea creatures.
With the help of the Port Townsend High School shop class, he cut an “udder hatch” and installed a light inside.
The result was a tin-lantern effect, he said.
“I hadn’t seen her lit up indoors,” Jurczynski said.
“The colors looked great.”
Jurczynski delivered his pigs to Seattle last week, he said, borrowing a truck from a friend.
As they rode in the back of the truck, Sophie and Piglit received a lot of attention in the ferry line and on the ferry, the artist said.
At Friday’s reception at the Western Bridge Gallery, Jurczynski met a representative of Sophie’s sponsor, the Holland-America cruise ship line.
“She came up to me and said ‘We love the pig,'” Jurczynski said.
“That made me feel great.”
Sophie and Piglit’s next public appearance will be June 2, when they will be paraded with the other 98 sculptures through Pike Place Market as part of the market’s street festival.
After being displayed in locations throughout downtown Seattle this summer, they will be auctioned off to raise money for the Pike Place Market Foundation.
The foundation runs a clinic, food bank, preschool, senior center and other social services for area residents.
The previous Pigs on Parade auction in 2001 brought in almost half a million dollars, according to the Web site, www.pigsonparade.org.
