Carousel Cosmos was a temporary public art installation commissioned by TEMPOart, on Portland’s Western Promenade from June of 2023 to November of 2024. The sign in the center of the carousel read:

This carousel is inspired by kindness, adventure, outer space, bed-time stories, dinosaurs and ice cream. It’s inspired by the Western Promenade’s endless views, spectacular sunsets and contemplative atmosphere. It spins the way that the earth spins when the sun sets, in a place where trolleys used to stop, in a small picturesque city with a school community that speaks more than sixty different languages. It will travel once or twice around the sun without leaving the ground, then vanish.(1)  In the meanwhile, it is a place for conversation, contemplation, imagination and snacks,(2) with animals that once roamed here as your guides. They’re not mythological, just misunderstood, and they invite you on a journey to greater understanding.(3)

1. This is a year-long temporary art installation supported by TEMPOart.

2. Please don’t feed the animals, they have very special diets.

3. Look for clues in the star-flowers!

This carousel spins the way that the earth spins when the sun sets. Come out and watch the clouds go by. Share a sunset with some animals that once roamed here.

Me and Bob on the Western Promenade, June 2023. Bob is a Protocetid, an ancestor of modern whales that lived 60 million years ago.

Thank you to everyone who made Carousel Cosmos possible, including TEMPOart, the City of Portland’s Public Art Committee, Parks & Recreations Department and their peerless horticulture team. Thanks To Dave Mahany for so much help building and carving the animals. Thanks to my advisory committee / painting crew, Emeric and Olivier Miller.

Thank you to the animals’ sponsors: Drummond Woodsum (Whale); Gregg Lipton & Sara Crisp (Polar Bear); Maine Medical Center (Walrus); The Chappell Family Foundation (Smilodon); The David Nichols Charitable Trust (Rhyncosaur); The Horizon Foundation (Dragon); Cyrus Hagge and Jessica Tomlinson (Bob, the Protocetid).

This is another way that the carousel spins, if you run around it in a circle real fast!

Here are some more close-ups of the animals: