An Artist With A View Lavigne Given Fortress Of Solitude At Courthouse Tower
Some might say James LaVigne is the Quasimodo of the courthouse.
The Spokane artist, known for his detailed sketches of local landmarks, plans to move an easel, loveseat and candelabra into the tower of the Spokane County courthouse.
From that perch, 164 feet over Broadway Avenue, LaVigne will spend the next two years creating sketches and oil paintings of the building where justice is served, marriages dissolved and the county’s business conducted.
County commissioners have named him “volunteer artist in residence” and given him a key to the place.
In exchange, LaVigne promises to donate a 7-foot by 7-foot painting for the foyer of the 101-year-old building, along with other art work.
County Commissioner Steve Hasson hopes the art will make the bland courthouse halls as inviting as its castle-like shell.
“Everything about the outside of this building says ‘come in,”’ Hasson said. “What the courthouse stands for inside is a lot of pain and dissolution and anger. We need a poultice.”
LaVigne could use a poultice himself. On June 19, his downtown studio filled with smoke from a neighboring fire, destroying 65 original works of art and hundreds of prints.
The studio on West Riverside is being restored, and LaVigne hopes to move back in soon. Then he’ll have just three months to complete a giant painting of the Monroe Street Bridge.
The partially completed painting, which Spokane Transit Authority commissioned for its downtown bus station, was destroyed by the smoke. LaVigne saved the full-sized drawing that served as his pattern, so he won’t have to start over completely.
LaVigne said the courthouse tower will be his escape and place of solitude. He worked there during the summer of 1982, so he’s familiar with its fly-specked windows and 108 narrow steps.
Passers-by may see lights in the tower or hear dreamy music drifting from its windows.
“It could be two in the morning, it could be six in the morning, it could be noon,” said LaVigne. “I’ll come and go in moments of inspiration.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo