Members of Linda Racicot’s Langley Middle School art class would say the sculpture of several seagoing pigs they created last year found itself a “swine” home recently when it was auctioned off to a man who owns a place on South Whidbey.
The sculpture, titled “Porca Sighting,” sold for $7,000 at a Seattle charity auction on Oct. 13 as part of the Pigs on Parade campaign. The LMS piece was one of more than 170 created by area artists from fiberglass castings of two Georgia Gerber bronze pigs.
To customize their pig, the LMS students sawed the casting in half, placed the halves in a sculpted concrete base, then painted the halves to look like diving and breaching orcas. They further personalized the sculpture by painting a silhouette of South Whidbey on the belly of one of the halves.
Racicot and two students attended the auction and watched with satisfaction as the sculpture fetched one of the better prices on the night. When Seattle-area residents Michael and Mary Kay Hallman called out the winning bid for the LMS pig, Racicot and her students felt even better about where their project would spend the rest of its days. The Hallmans plan to install the piece at a Bush Point home they own.
LMS seventh grader and auction attendee Noah Jolley said the evening was perfect, although he would have liked the bidding on the school’s pig to take longer.
“It was really fun to listen to people going back and forth,” he said.
Kaitlin Phillps as well wanted to see “Porca Sighting” go for a pretty penny. Also a seventh grader, she was perhaps the most involved student in the project. Her grandfather, Ward Phillips, sponsored the project by purchasing the fiberglass pig last February for the middle school. Kaitlin held up her end of the deal by sanding and painting the pig at every work session she and her classmates held.
“I was hoping it was going to sell for a lot because it took a lot of effort,” Phillips said.
In addition to selling for a good price, “Porca Sighting” was also one of the top 12 “people’s choice” vote getters during the two months the pigs were on display in downtown Seattle.
Though the price for his pig was steep, Michael Hallman said the 700-pound sculpture will be the perfect addition to his Bush Point garden.
“It was a way to support a great cause and to bring home to Whidbey something from Whidbey,” he said.
Most of the pig sculptures sold for $5,000 dollars or less, although a pig covered with pennies went for an auction record of $21,000.
Proceeds from the auction and an eBay sale of some of the other pig sculptures will benefit Seattle’s Downtown Food Bank, the Pike Market Medical Clinic, the Pike Market Senior Center, the Pike Market Child Care and Preschool, and the Market Heritage Center.
