Meet the artist behind limited-edition World Cup ORCA transit card
When Alison Bremner received an invitation to design a special ORCA transit card for the World Cup earlier this year, she was ecstatic.
She immediately thought back to her childhood, when she started playing soccer for "as long as I had memories," Bremner said. Before becoming a professional artist, Bremner grew up in Juneau, Alaska, usually practicing at Tongass National Forest in the mud and pouring rain. She looked up to former athletes like Mia Hamm, who competed in several FIFA Women's World Cups.
"I think my younger self, out of everything I've ever done art-wise, this would probably be the one that she would be most excited about," said Bremner, who is now based in King County.
Released this month, the SEA26 ORCA card incorporates Bremner's passion for soccer, primarily expressed through Northwest Coast formline design, a system of two-dimensional artwork by Southeast Alaska Native tribes. The card features a vibrant blue raven, green whale-tail pattern and multicolored soccer balls - elements threaded into the formline to create a continuous sense of movement.
"I wanted to do a design where, the longer you look at it, the more you see - because I know some people will use this card, pull the card out, use it when they need it and put it right back in their wallet," said Bremner, a Tlingit multidisciplinary artist. "I imagined other people taking a second to look at it."
Ahead of the tournament, 27,000 limited-edition transit cards were produced, according to a news release. Those interested in a card can get one at the Metro pass sales office in Pioneer Square (at King Street Center at 201 S. Jackson St.) while supplies last; the first card is free, and additional cards cost $3, according to Amy Sanders, creative and marketing supervisor at King County Metro.
Metro, Sound Transit and other agencies will also distribute cards at World Cup events. And the day before each match, 1,200 cards will be loaded into three ticket vending machines around the region - each machine having 400 - with their locations announced on social media to encourage more riders on public transit, according to David Jackson, public information officer at Sound Transit.
Bremner was chosen to design the SEA26 ORCA card because her work "bridges Indigenous cultural traditions and contemporary public life while remaining rooted in place, welcoming to a broad audience of transit riders and visitors, and reflective of the Pacific Northwest," according to Jordan Freeman, senior public art project manager at King County cultural agency 4Culture, which chose the artist alongside King County Metro and Sound Transit.
Working across painting, woodcarving and digital media, Bremner is passionate about preserving Tlingit creative practices. At the 2010 iteration of Celebration, a biennial gathering of Southeast Alaska Native cultures in Juneau, Bremner saw how visual arts came to life onstage through song, dance and language.
"It was just like a lightning bolt moment of, ‘This is what I want to do,'" Bremner said. "I immediately went to the mall in Juneau, bought a canvas and some brushes, and I did my first formline painting."
Many major institutions, including the Burke Museum, Frye Art Museum and the British Museum in London, hold Bremner's work in their collections. The artist also began displaying several wallpaper collages at the Steinbrueck Native Gallery this spring.
Bremner said she wanted to capture the excitement and energy that will be coursing through the World Cup, hoping that riders engage with their SEA26 ORCA card and enjoy carrying it around.
"It is so neat that I don't quite have words for it," Bremner said of the opportunity to design the card. "It's neat to see how different experiences in your life can eventually merge and combine in ways that you could never have foreseen, so it's just a real joy."
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