Artist Journal
Endless Celebration: Gesso Cocteau's 51-Foot Bronze in Bellevue
If you've walked past the corner of Northeast Eighth Street and Bellevue Way in Bellevue, Washington, you've likely stopped in your tracks. Endless Celebration, a soaring 51-foot cast bronze sculpture weighing nearly three tons, commands the plaza in front of Bellevue Place with a quiet, breathtaking audacity. A Commission Born from Community When Kemper Freeman Jr. commissioned California-based sculptor Gesso Cocteau to create a landmark work for Bellevue Place, the brief was as open as the sky the sculpture reaches toward. Cocteau's response was characteristically bold: two dancers, one figure lifting the other skyward, defying gravity with trust and joy. "I wanted to create a subject of dialogue dedicated to bringing the community into the art," Cocteau explained in a 2005 interview. "Without human interaction, sculpture would be void, it would be empty of emotion." Playing with Balance and Gravity Balance is a recurring obsession in Cocteau's practice, not just physical balance, but the emotional equilibrium between hard work and a good life. Endless Celebration embodies this philosophy literally: one figure dares to hold the other aloft, declaring its space in the sky with trust. The name itself draws from poetry. It evokes celebration, romanticism, and joy, the spirit of a community where people can work hard and enjoy the good life. The Challenge of Scale Creating a 51-foot public sculpture presents unique engineering and artistic challenges. Without the ability to stand the piece upright during fabrication, Cocteau had to envision the final work entirely in her mind, and ensure the large-scale execution remained faithful to the approved maquette. The sculpture had to read beautifully from many angles and distances, from a passing car to a pedestrian standing at its base. Monumental Sculpture as Private Conversation For Cocteau, public sculpture is never purely public. "Monumental sculpture should represent emotions beyond words," she says. "It should engage the viewer in a private conversation, each individual finding their own interpretation." Endless Celebration has done exactly that for Bellevue since its installation. It is a landmark, yes, but more than that, it is an invitation. Article from The Bellevue Reporter "Endless Celebration, a 51-foot cast bronze sculpture by Gesso Cocteau, photographed at dusk at Bellevue Place, Washington" Explore the sculpture in tabletop and midsize bronze editions at gessococteau.com #gessococteaubronze #gessococteausculpture
Da Brava Madre
Da Brava Madre (The Good Mother) There are sculptures that describe the body, and there are those that attempt something far more elusive to give form to a force we recognize instantly yet cannot fully name. Da Brava Madre (The Good Mother) belongs to the latter. Mother is not simply a role. It is an origin story written into the body before language, before memory. It is the first architecture we inhabit the pulse that surrounds us, the quiet intelligence that knows when to hold and when to release. Long before we understand love, we are carried by it. In Da Brava Madre, the figures do not rest they move. They reach, extend, balance in a moment that feels both precarious and perfectly resolved. This is intentional. Motherhood is never static. It is a continual act of adjustment, of instinct meeting circumstance, of strength disguised as grace. The elongated limbs stretch outward like branches in wind, echoing the way a mother becomes more than herself. She multiplies not physically, but energetically becoming protector, teacher, shelter, and horizon. The smaller forms are not separate; they orbit, lean, and rise through her, suggesting that a child is never outside the field of a mother’s presence, even when they begin to stand on their own. There is play here. You can feel it in the lift of a limb, the suggestion of motion that borders on dance. Mothers do not only guard they delight. They mirror laughter, invent games, soften the world so a child can enter it without fear. The sculpture holds that fleeting, sacred lightness the moment when protection becomes joy. And yet, beneath the movement, there is an undeniable core of strength. The single point of contact with the earth the grounded leg anchors everything. This is the quiet truth of motherhood while everything else reaches, expands, and risks, there is always one part that remains rooted. Steady. Unyielding. A foundation that does not announce itself, but without which nothing could stand. To protect is not only to shield from harm. It is to prepare. To guide. To allow small falls so that greater strength may grow. In this sense, the sculpture becomes a study in balance not just physical, but emotional. How much to hold, how much to let go. How to remain a center while encouraging departure. The surface of the bronze carries its own memory fire, transformation, time. It mirrors the journey of motherhood itself an alchemy of intensity and patience, where something raw is shaped into something enduring. Every contour suggests both vulnerability and resilience, as though the figures have been forged not just in metal, but in experience. This is why Da Brava Madre was created. Not to depict a literal mother and child, but to embody the essence of motherhood the invisible thread that binds, lifts, protects, and ultimately releases. It is a love that does not diminish when stretched; it expands. It is fierce without hardness, tender without fragility. It is, in its truest form, an act of becoming. And perhaps that is what we recognize when we stand before it not just the mother, but the memory of having been held, taught, and set free. Have a Beautiful Day, Gesso Cocteau (From my journal notes on creating 'Da Brava Madre'.) Da Brava Madre (The Good Mother) Limited Edition of 25
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Need Info? Call 760 702-5049
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Join us on all the Social Media Channels
EMAIL US
Email us at gessococteau@gmail.com
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Our systems are updated with current technologies