QuickTake:

Jud Turner’s sculpture of the P’squosa tribal Chief John Harmelt riding his horse will be on display in Eugene next Saturday before it’s permanently installed in Wenatchee, Washington.

When Jud Turner got the call that the city of Wenatchee, Washington, wanted to commission him for a sculpture of a P’Squosa tribal chief, he had an important follow-up question: “You know I’m a white guy, right?”

City officials did, and assured the Eugene sculptor that the project was in collaboration with the P’squosa Tribal Council, which would oversee and give specific input throughout the process.

Now, that process is finished, resulting in Turner’s finished “P’Squosa Monument to Chief John Harmelt atop Quilmiakin.” It will be installed later this month. Harmelt, also called Crow Song, was the last chief of the P’Squosa people, commonly referred to as the Wenatchi tribe. Harmelt died in a house fire in 1937.

Turner has worked on other meaningful projects, such as “Viribus,” his statue of a phoenix made from metal salvaged from properties damaged in the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire. He said this is his most ambitious commission yet because of the subject matter, symbolizing a group’s cultural history.

“The other public art commissions that I’ve done are often simply a heron or, I did a triceratops for the brewery Ninkasi. Big chrome dinosaur, cool, looks fun. But it’s a beer dinosaur,” he said. “It doesn’t have the layers of meaning.”

Putting together Crow Song and Quilmiakin

Turner, who works with found objects, wanted the work to represent Wenatchee, so he issued a public call for citizens to donate old farm equipment. But he had no way of knowing his call would surface a piece of history: what were believed to be the real horseshoes of Harmelt’s horse, Quilmiakin.

The Wenatchee resident who donated them lived on the same land Harmelt had, and said he didn’t know of a horse other than Quilmiakin who stayed on that land. On the finished sculpture, those horseshoes frame Quilmiakin’s eyes.

The eyes on the statue of P’Squosa chief John Harmelt’s horse, Quilmiakin, are outlined by horseshoes that are thought to have been from the real Quilmiakin. They were found on the land where Harmelt used to live and were donated to Turner for the sculpture. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

The P’Squosa Tribal Council also gave Turner specific instructions on what animals it wanted depicted from folklore: a coyote, a bear, a sparrowhawk, an owl and a salmon. Turner made the coyote from pistol hammers and adding-machine parts, a nod to the colonizing technologies of guns and money.

Few reference pictures remain of Harmelt, so Turner took care with the references he had. He used a hand torch to melt wire rods to make the shape of the face, before using an angle grinder to smooth it out into the final portrait. It was a much slower process, but Turner said it allowed more precision and a more human look than found objects allow.

A reference photo of P’Squosa chief John Harmelt that artist Jud Turner used to build his sculpture. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

Another personal detail came late in the process. Turner learned only a few weeks ago that Harmelt also went by the name Crow Song, and he added a detail on the sculpture’s back of a singing crow.

One detail isn’t visible to the audience at all. Turner’s wife, fellow metal artist Renee Mahni, said that the sculpture needed a heart. She fabricated one with the name Ellen on it, for Harmelt’s wife, and placed it inside.

The commission was impactful for Turner himself, who hit a meaningful milestone the day the city of Wenatchee first called two years ago with the assignment. 

“This call came on my 1,000th day of sobriety,” he said. “They said, ‘This is a $100,000 contract.’ Those two things happening on the same day — I was like, ‘I am on the right path.’”

How to see the sculpture during the new Warehouse District Art Hop 

Turner’s sculpture will be on display this Saturday starting at noon at The Oblivion Gallery, Turner and Mahni’s gallery at 3923 Cross St., off Roosevelt Boulevard in west Eugene. 

Jud Turner’s sculpture of P’Squosa chief John Harmelt (Crow Song) on his horse, Quilmiakin, sits outside Turner’s studio in Eugene, Aug. 29, 2025. Credit: Isaac Wasserman / Lookout Eugene-Springfield / Catchlight / RFA

The work will be on display during the Warehouse District Art Hop, a free tour of creative businesses located on Eugene’s west side that launched in August. Instead of an “art walk,” it’s a “bike crawl” to various studios, galleries, workshops and businesses in the neighborhood. 

The second-ever Art Hop is this Saturday, Sept. 6, starting at noon. Follow the Warehouse District Art Hop’s Instagram page for more details.

Annie Aguiar is the Arts and Culture Correspondent. She has reported arts news and features for national and local newsrooms, including at the Seattle Times, the Washington Post and most recently as a reporting fellow for the New York Times’ Culture desk covering arts and entertainment.