A Decade of Rediscovery: Cascadia Art Museum’s Tenth Anniversary  exhibit — up through November 23 — honors the heart of this institution whose aim has been to rediscover forgotten Pacific Northwest artists. In the current exhibit, Blanche Morgan Losey’s “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire,” is conceptual as heck. Aurthur Runquist’s  “Listening to Radio Moscow,”  from 1938, brings up a troika full of questions. And Julius “Land Elk” Twohy’s studies for his “The flight of the Thunderbird,” a 72-foot-wide mural in Tacoma that was — ironically—razed to make way for the Emerald Queen Casino parking lot, are magisterial.

Cascadia’s curator David Martin — also a published author and lecturer — has been a champion of such artists fordecades. He andhis partner ownedMartin-Zambito Fine Art and showed these artists’ works in their space onCapitol Hill’s East Pike Street in 1989. Backwhen I had an art studio on 13th & Pike, I would regularly stop and look at paintings in their windows. These landscapes and figure paintings in gilt frames, without my knowing their context, often appeared as works by people trying on the painting style of European artists.

This is why I love Cascadia Art Museum. It has created a place for context. Having visited this museum many times, I have acquired a taste for these forgotten artists who I now realize are my artistic predecessors. As curator Martin has said of them, “We want to tell their stories, which are often as compelling as their art.” 

Graphite Arts Center, another Edmonds gem, closes out the year with a solo retrospective of artworks by Edmonds artist d’Elaine Johnson. “d’Elaine Johnson:  Goddesses,” features 15 of her large-scale works of female figures, imagery inspired by her experiences as one of the world’s first female scuba divers. This artist, with nearly 2,000 paintings to her name, annotates all her works with a quote from a reference book. 

The text for her “Curative Powers” painting reads: “Triplism was expressed in the Celtic religion and iconography. This was expressed in three mother goddesses, who together form a unity representing strength, power, and fertility. They presided over springs, lakes, bogs, and watery places that had curative powers.” 

The opening reception for this exhibit is Saturday, December 6, 7-8:30 p.m. The reception is open to the public, and d’Elaine Johnson is to be in attendance.

For more information on these exhibits, visit www.cascadiaartmuseum.org and/or www.graphiteartscenter.org.