For the Reporter

City of Auburn and the Auburn Downtown Association present the newest Streetscape at One East Main Street, featuring the artwork of Fran Holt through December.

“The Secret Lives of Carousel Horses” is a series of large scale (84-by-48-inch) painted panels arranged to create a joyous, carnival-like atmosphere. They depict the fantasy lives of carousel horses in a world of their own. Fifteen free-standing panels are arranged in an overlapping fashion, making some of the horses visible and some slightly obscured. The carousel horses are freed of their poles, imagining themselves in wondrous adventures such as swimming with hippocampi or growing wings and flying through clouds.

If viewed after dark, the room again is enlivened with gold panels shimmering in the spotlight.

Holt earned her bachelor of fine arts, summa cum laude, in painting from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Md., in 1986; and her master of fine arts in painting from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. She is the recipient of several awards, including Allied Arts Foundation and two Individual Artist Projects grants from 4Culture. Her work is in the collection of the City of Seattle, City of Kent, Snohomish County public art collection, as well as numerous private collections.

Streetscapes Auburn is a City program in collaboration with the ADA. It is a program that seeks to enliven and activate otherwise empty storefront windows in Auburn’s Historic Downtown by providing temporary space to artists, creative businesses, organizations and community groups.

Additional information about the artist can be found at www.auburnwa.gov/streetscapes.