How does one afford all the materials and space for this kind of work before becoming an artist that sells their work??

@maevealleine: Most likely this and other art at the airport is done via an open call to artists, that is responded to be proposals to a committee from the Port of Seattle in this case. The port may convene a jury of people including artists not in the competition, to respond to the proposals and select winners. The winners are paid and in this case, I imagine they awarded funds to pay for materials and overhead. In many cases the fabrication costs of public art are significant and the actual artist doing the proposal receives a relatively small portion of the award as their own fee. I would have liked to see the article cover some of this process including the amount of the award.