For an artist or a lover of art, the Cedar River and its immediate environs seem like a perfect canvas.

That was the case back in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Renton Municipal Arts Commission was instrumental in making some of the initial selections of art funded by a new program to pay for public art.

“The river just seemed like a natural,” said Ron Ringwood, sitting not far from the river and one of its most visible sculptures, a stylized boat by artist Harold Balazs.

It’s called “We’re all in this boat together,” near the Renton Senior Center. Thousands walk or bike by this whimsical sculpture every year that when erected baffled more than a few people.

Ringwood during those years was a member or leader of the Renton Arts Commission. For decades, he and his wife Susan lived in Renton, both active in making sure the arts flourish in this blue-collar town.

The Ringwoods now live in Olympia, but they remain intimately involved in Renton’s arts scene, including the Renton Annual Art Show.

Now, on a quiet sunny day, Ron Ringwood, reflects back on the decisions leading up to picking that boat sculpture and some of the other iconic pieces of public art in Renton.

Renton’s Park Department “dissuaded” Ringwood from using those concrete walls along the river for artwork, he said. But on either side of the Cedar were those two abutments or concrete piers that at one time supported a railroad trestle.

The Balazs sculpture became a reality with funding from the City of Renton’s 1 percent for the arts program, approved 34 years ago next month by the City Council. Under the program, the city sets aside 1 percent of a capital project cost for public art.

That bulkhead sat empty 20 years ago this November when Ringwood posed next to it for a Valley Daily News photographer. About 18 months later, the sculpture was in place.

It raised some eyebrows.

“I don’t know what it’s supposed to be, and I can’t tell which is the front or the back end. But I like it,” said Warren Flechtner of Renton in an interview with the Valley Daily News in May 1991.

Ringwood, in the same article, said the stainless-steel sculpture’s title would bring some clarity: “We’re all in this boat together.”

He said once onlookers think “boat,” they can make out its keel.

The banks of the Cedar are home to other public artwork.

Just out of view from where he’s sitting is what Ringwood calls a “real grabber.”

It’s the “Wolves at Indian Baskets” by artist Richard Beyer, who also sculpted the cast aluminum donkey at Tonkin Park. This 1980 project was funded by Renton Rotary and Allied Arts.

That donkey at Tonkin has stood grazing in the same position for almost 30 years. It got off to a rough start. Thugs rammed the 600-pound sculpture with a small truck, snapping it off. Beyer stepped in and made repairs.

“He looks pretty handsome,” Ringwood said of the donkey in an interview at the time.

The sculpture’s title is “Donkey Runaway from the Mines,” to honor Renton’s history as a coal-mining town.

Ringwood said he “always appreciated that this blue-collar town” was one of the first suburban cities to dedicate money to public art through 1 percent for the arts.

“I have always been sold on public art and support of public art,” said Ringwood, 80, who worked for United Airlines for 35 years in many capacities.

Susan Ringwood, who served for two terms on the Renton School Board in the 1970s, said public art has a “civilizing effect on all of us.”

Today, some public art, especially from a “retail purveyor of art pieces,” feels repetitious, she said. She much prefers the early art pieces in Renton that were commissioned directly with an artist.

Susan Ringwood won’t say which art pieces she doesn’t like. One of her favorites is the bronze silicon sculpture “Stiltwalker” by Ray Jensen at Liberty Park. It was installed in 1984.

Today, Susan Ringwood, 74, is continuing to work for the Washington State Legislature. She works in the legislative information center, overseeing the legislative hotline.

Ron Ringwood looks back on his days helping to select public art for Renton as a “wonderful experience.”

He particularly recalls the selection process by the arts commission for the artwork for Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park.

“I had a grin on my face the whole time,” he said.

Park-goers could have had four donkeys standing in Lake Washington or a well that reverberated with sound.

Placing the donkeys in the lake shot down that idea, he said. The harmonic well was enthralling, he said, but at the time “it was too much of a reach.”

Instead, the park has one of Renton’s most iconic art pieces, “Interface,” featuring three bronze figures on a stroll at the park by Phillip Levine.