Bus shelters are usually seen as functional things to shield people from the elements during the colder months. But Alex Eyre, chairmen of the Ellensburg Arts Commission, wants them to be something more.

He wants them to be art.

As a result, Central Transit bus shelters will soon include decorative glass panels designed by artists from all over the world.

Eyre said the idea came about at the beginning of 2015, when the arts commission heard that the city was planning to install several new bus shelters.

“We have historically not had the budget to do anything of this or any larger scale,” Eyre said. “When we learned of the plans for the bus shelters, we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to invite artists to submit proposals for art.”

The arts commission distributed an online bulletin asking artists to submit their designs. After reviewing the entries, the commission chose four artists to design the back panels of the bus shelters.

One of those artists is Susan Hass, 46, who lives in Sammamish. She said she saw the announcement and sent out a couple pictures of a design she made.

“It’s like a rubber stamp and I thought ‘that would be neat as a bus shelter,’” Hass said. “It’s been really fun, it’s had a lot of constraints. The shape, the dimensions, picture and the color and how to make it nice for the bus shelter.”

Hass said the inspiration from her design came from seeing two great blue herons living on a lake near her residence.

“I went to the library, and I looked at what the birds look like,” Hass said. “The trees and the ducks and the movement of the birds, the inspiration was really wanting to get to know what the birds are like, what it might feel like to be a great blue heron.”

Hass said she used linoleum block printing to create the stamp-like art that is her design.

Another artist, Scott Mayberry, was chosen by the arts commission for his design of a sunflower blowing its seeds into the wind.

“I created this design to represent Ellensburg landscape,” Mayberry said. “The seeds are little houses, which depicts the organic growth of the city. I wanted to do this because I am excited to contribute a long-standing piece of artwork to the city.”

Mayberry, 46, who lives in Ellensburg and is a graduate of Central, said he’s been an artist his entire life. He found out about the competition from Monica Miller, executive director at Gallery One Visual Arts Center in Ellensburg.

He said his design started as a line drawing but when he found out the glass panels would be printed rather than etched he changed it to a painting.

“I am primarily a painter, so I was glad for the chance to add color to my design,” Mayberry said.

Italian artist, Iole Alessandrini, who has lived in Seattle since 1994, said she heard about the shelter art project from Miller as well.

Alessandrini, 52, described her colorful geometric design as having “no reason but simple contemplation.”

“I have a repertoire of tessellation geometry that I have been wishing to submit for artistic purposes,” she said. “When I learned about the bus shelter competition I thought it was the right space for an original application.”

Alessandri said, “I thought of people standing, looking through the patterns, and the voids, the sunlight and the shadows.”

The bus shelters are scheduled to be installed sometime in the spring, according to Eyre, who said there will also be a formal unveiling ceremony.

The arts commission also selected a panel design submitted by Gregg Schlanger, 56, who is also a professor at Central Washington University.