Art installations are largely complete as the Sacramento International Airport’s new Terminal B readies to open Oct. 6, and they include a range of pieces from technologically advanced works to traditional painting and mosaic pieces.

While not the first thing arriving passengers will see, a giant red rabbit seemingly jumping from outside the building into a waiting suitcase opening up like a vortex on the floor is one of the most-talked-about of the 12 currently installed works.

More than 1,600 aluminum triangles make up the rabbit’s exposed surface. The work, entitled “Leap,” is by Denver-based artist Lawrence Argent and is suspended above the ticket hall in the “land side” portion of the terminal.

The land side is the portion housing the ticket halls and is nearest the parking lot. The air side portion contains the gates and Jetways, and the two are connected by two trains.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

Argent’s “Leap” is one of the more literal interpretations in the theme of “bringing the outside in,” said Shelly Willis, director of the Art in Public Places Program of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission.

SMAC helped select artists and works, and $8 million was set aside for the arts, with $6 million already spent and the rest put into an endowment for future preservation and maintenance of the works, Willis said.

While public projects like the airport usually have about 2 percent of their budgets spent on art, a little more than three quarters of a percent of the $1.03 billion project’s budget was spent on the arts, a number approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.

Artists and their works were selected by about 50 panelists from various organizations including SMAC, the airport and arts professionals, Willis added.

Opposite two of the second-level ticket counters are wood works by Los Angeles-based artist Christian Moeller titled, “The Baggage Handlers.”

The 8,000 pieces of wood that make up the two wall panels are unique, and computers were used to ensure the art flowed well and had no seam lines where the wood comes together, Willis said.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

Six faces – five men and one woman – make up the artwork, and they are the faces of airport baggage handlers, who were photographed about a year ago.

Sacramento International Airport spokeswoman Karen Doron said the airlines refer to the baggage handlers as people who work “under the wing.” Bringing them into the visible area of the airport is a way to pay homage to them, she said.

Sacramento artist Gregory Kondos has an oil-on-canvas painting in the air side section of the terminal entitled “Sutter’s Gold.”

In the painting, a nod to the 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, the Yuba river is prominent. Placed in the international arrivals section, it is one of the first works visitors will see and is meant to give them insight into the region’s history.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

One of the other initial pieces of artwork to be seen in the air side portion of the terminal – connected to the land side by a pair of elevated trains – is a propeller-shaped tree with Swarovski crystals hanging from it.

Titled “Acorn Steam,” San Diego-based artist Donald Lipski’s mixed-media piece portrays three Valley Oak trunks coming together and branching out at their ends, with the hand-cut Austrian crystals giving it the feel of a chandelier.

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Willis said the arbor motif is especially applicable to Sacramento as the “City of Trees” and is a good representation of the region.

Local artist Suzanne Adan created one of the mosaics on the floors, a 12-foot-by-18-foot work called “Flying Colors.”

A circular design with numerous birds and cattails is reminiscent of the wetlands areas throughout the region.

Image by: Brandon Darnell Another of the air side portion of the terminal’s artworks is just in front of where the security checkpoint will be.

Willis said the house serves as a reminder of being home, the ultimate destination for all travelers.

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The glass sculpture with metal framework is called “The House Will not Pass for any Color but its Own” and was done by San Francisco native Mildred Howard. At 17 feet tall, travelers are free to walk inside it and explore the way light plays off the glass surfaces.

Possibly the most interactive piece of art in the area, “Your Words are Music to My Ears,” by artists Po Shu Wang and Louise Bertelsen, allows travelers to compose email messages to loved ones and send them. Those messages are then, through a computer code, translated into musical notes and played from the gleaming French horn-shaped artwork on the air side of the terminal.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

Installed as part of the ceiling in the international arrivals area is Marcia Stuermer’s “Migration,” which is a piece made with 32 acrylic panels depicting cranes migrating through a backdrop that changes colors as lights behind the piece come on and off.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

Another interactive piece is in the land side portion of the terminal, installed as multiple flat screens on the side of one of the glass elevator shafts.

“Active Ecosystem,” by Camille Utterback and Michelle Higa, will feature animations of seeds, leaves, birds and other natural elements. Computers will control the movements and speeds to keep the work constantly changing and unique.

A 12-foot-by-18-foot mosaic in the floor by Joan Moment is called “A Fragment of the Universe” and shows a world of water and air in thousands of hand-cut pieces.

“You can really see the artist’s hand in the work,” Willis said, adding that the work contrasts with some of the very technologically advanced pieces in using a technique that goes back to ancient times, yet still provides a relevant experience today.

Image by: Brandon Darnell

Near the mosaic is a Terrazzo-and-steel work with suspended resin pieces by California artist Lynn Criswell, called “As the Crow Flies.” Numerous birds, including a steel magpie taken from a painting in 1650 by Johann Walther, decorate the floor, and 21 emerald-green birdcages will be suspended overhead.

Image by: Brandon Darnell Artist Ned Kahn’s steel wind vanes are placed along the elevated train tracks connecting the two portions of the terminal and move with the movements of the trains or wind.

“It’s really exciting that there’s such a range of work that is represented in this collection from this monumental (rabbit) sculpture to the mosaic floors,” Willis said. “You have work that’s much more subtle, you have work that’s interactive. It’s really exciting.”

Check back tomorrow for more information on Sacramento International Airport’s Terminal B.

To see shots of the construction from one year ago, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.