Suspish, 2024
Suspish is a local legend in Eugene. While our kids were growing up, spotting Suspish's work was a running family scavenger hunt. One turned up in Portland, and Michelle even found a Suspish sticker in Eureka, California.
The work is ephemeral by nature. As uncommissioned street art, each piece was part of an ongoing back-and-forth with city officials, which was half the fun of finding them. You'd caught something that wouldn't last. We wanted to give one piece a permanent home. We bought a set of old gym lockers from BRING, a local recycling hub, with the idea of a classic Suspish fish across the front.
We tracked Suspish down through an intermediary. There was interest, but conditions: no one could be home when the work happened. Staying anonymous mattered.
Months went by before we could find a weekend with nobody on the property. No residents, no vineyard crew, nothing scheduled. When it finally lined up, I emailed the intermediary: "everyone will be gone this weekend." No reply. It occurred to me, a little late, that telling a stranger the property would sit empty wasn't the smartest move I'd made. I left the lockers on a pallet in the barn anyway.
We came home Sunday with no idea what was waiting. That evening, heading to the barn for the tractor, I saw the lockers and realized Suspish had come through after all. It felt like Christmas morning when I was a kid. The lockers displayed the signature fish on the front, plus a bonus piece on the back we hadn't asked for. We were thrilled.
The lockers are part of the permanent collection now, untouched for as long as we own the property.