Murals at Cascade Middle School
Bethel School District selected artist Pattrick “Teak” Price to create site-specific murals for the new Cascade Middle School. Teak’s designs weave Native American imagery with local flora and fauna.
The mural in the school’s Commons includes a water spirit in a lake, salmon spirit in the sunset, the Three Sisters mountains, a Great Blue Heron, a dragonfly, and the school’s mascot, a cougar. The mural along the hallway of the classroom wing by the Media Center features camas flowers and echoes the landscape and salmon spirit in the other mural.
Teak is a master of formline, weaving abstract curving lines with negative space to create a representational image. He plays with our sense of perspective through vivid details that magnify each depiction. His bold, colorful murals masterfully give every element weight while balancing these elements in an interconnected whole.
On his Facebook page, Teak writes of these murals at Cascade Middle School: “It is a great honor to integrate native American culture into our school systems and to share knowledge and heritage to the students.” On Bethel School District’s Facebook page, the district expresses the importance of acknowledging that the middle school is built on land that was once home to Native Americans.
Teak is a member of the Tlingit Nation in southeast Alaska. Since moving to Eugene in 2017, he has completed many striking projects throughout town, including a banner series on the riverfront and a mural for Lane Community College. For more on the artist and to better understand his process and heritage, visit his Facebook page: Pattrick Price.