Articles

Swipes of blue paint meet the familiar brushstrokes of green grass. A rising peach-colored sun against purple reeds and maroon tree trunks coming out of the ground. Susanna Bluhm’s newest landscapes combine the visually familiar with abstracted internal experiences. How do we experience a landscape that we see or interact with every day? How does that landscape react to us or other natural forces at work? What marks do these interactions leave behind? 

Bluhm explores these questions in her newest body of work on display at J. Rinehart Gallery in Seattle. The exhibit is Bluhm’s third at the gallery, but these paintings mark a change in the artist’s work. As she states in the gallery press release, “An individual painting can become a new place in itself, with sensations of things that might happen in a place, such as weather, touch, landscape, temperature, sex, or noise. Abstract marks interact with more recognizable shapes, a kind of narrative ensues.” Bluhm outlines a distinction in this body of work from her previous paintings; they are more personal, more intimate, and inherently tied to our lived experience with the landscape that surrounds us every day.

The paintings have a twofold purpose: they are a way for the artist to examine her own experience in a landscape that seems to be constantly shifting; and they are also a method to acknowledge that the landscape has its own events which leave their own marks. Bluhm describes this method of meaning-making as a “reciprocal co-creative relationship”; the paintings illustrate the artist’s observations of the landscape through her own lens and document the reactions or evolution of the landscape through time. The result is an environment that is active not passive, with a meaning not solely defined by a human response. For example, Bluhm painted “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Greenbelt Three)” near a greenbelt by her home, and included symbols or badges throughout the picture to reference the past events that left their mark on the landscape. A wave motif appears repeatedly in these paintings, as in “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Morning Greenbelt)”with its two prominent wave images in the foreground. The painting also includes a series of icons within an oval that the artist describes as a type of key for the painting. It is important to note how the waves and other water references appear throughout this series. Water appears to symbolize transformation, upheaval, and change. It is a powerful force that changes what is in its path, as we can see when looking at landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. We may not see obvious signs of this ecological history, but Bluhm documents them regardless.

But neither humans nor the landscape operates within a vacuum. When Bluhm examined the landscape in her recently-completed MA in Comparative Religion, her studies focused on the repeated story of the ground opening its mouth in ancient Jewish texts. The title of her show, “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth,” references her research into this phenomenon, which bestows ownership and agency to the ground and landscape. In “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Afternoon Neighborhood),” Bluhm paints this activity into the landscape. Red lips and teeth open wide at the bottom of the picture, appearing to swallow up what rests above. According to Bluhm and the ancient texts, this action is a response that sounds catastrophic, but it can also occur to protect what may be in danger due to human action. Regardless of the reasons for the ground opening its mouth, the action symbolizes the understanding or fear that the ground beneath us is not steady or immobile, and it could at any moment open in reaction to our own actions. All this study is the artist’s reflection on her personal experience and narrative. Her vulnerability is on display to help the viewer understand their own connection to the landscape around them. 

Visitors to “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth” see the familiar components that unify Bluhm’s paintings. Colorful brushstrokes, natural elements, and a dynamic composition are all there in the work. However, the artist is clear that this series is personal and draws specifically from her life. She is painting familiar surroundings—the greenbelt by her home, and the University of Washington—and these works are the result of intense self-reflection. They are also a consideration of deep uncertainty about our social and environmental state, which seems to be constantly moving and shifting. In her works, the ground is literally moving.  

Chloé Dye Sherpe

Chloé Dye Sherpe is an art professional and curator based in Washington State.

“The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth,” is on view at J. Rinehart Gallery, located at 319 Third Avenue S, Seattle, Washington, from November 1 to 26. An Exhibition Preview is to be held Saturday, November 1, from 2 to 4 p.m., with the opening reception on First Thursday, November 6, from 5-8 p.m. Bluhm joins the gallery for a discussion about her work on Saturday, November 15. For more information, visit www.jrinehartgallery.com.

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.

ArtX Contemporary (formerly ArtXchange Gallery) is celebrating 30 years on the scene! I spoke with Cora Edmonds, the founding director, about her main motivation in creating the gallery. It is a cultural bridge, a community-driven space. It was founded before the internet put international connections at our fingertips, but ArtX Contemporary is still unusual in its commitment to international engagement, both through artists based in Seattle and those living in other countries.

Edmonds was born in Hong Kong and moved to Seattle when she was twelve, so she grew up bilingual. The idea of immersion in another culture has expanded into world-wide interests, but with a particular emphasis on Southeast and rurl Asia. 

She and her husband have created Namaste Children’s Fund, that provides “quality education for girls in rural and under-served regions of Nepal.” Edmonds’s famous photo of a young child offering her a “namaste” many years ago was the starting point for this endeavor. Edmonds is also an excellent photographer.

A group show opening December 4 celebrates the 30th anniversary of the gallery with almost 50 artists contributing to the show. The show offers a cross-section of the artists that the gallery has shown and worked with since its founding, reflecting its deep commitment to diversity. Many of these artists are now well-known in Seattle and beyond, such as Pakistani-born Humaira Abid who was supported for many years by ArtXchange. Edmonds also spoke about her deep and on-going engagement with the indigenous artists of Australia, and an exhibition coming up to coincide with a major show of Australian Indigenous Art at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.

The artists in the anniversary exhibition have deep connections to other cultures. For example: Fulgencio Lazo divides his time between Seattle and Oaxaca; Lauren Iida lived in Cambodia for over a decade; June Sekiguchi has created works inspired by her travel in Southeast Asia; Tatiana Garmendia was born in Cuba, Juan Alonzo makes reference to his Cuban roots, and Michelle Kumata paints images of the Japanese internment and its aftermath. 

Alan Lau, who has the current exhibition at the gallery (on view until November 15), spends several months in Kyoto, Japan each year. His show titled “Walks Along the Kamogawa: The Kyoto Series Part I” gives us moody and lyrical paintings in sumi, watercolor, and pastel on rice paper. The Kamogawa is a river that runs through Kyoto. Along its banks the paved sidewalks form the “city’s playground.” People do calisthenics, jog and walk, as well as make impromptu solo music. 

Lau’s paintings are abstract: “in the clearing” suggests loosely-spaced trees that hang in space, leaving a resonant empty space at the bottom. Many birds (“tracing migration patterns of small birds”) live along the river, including ducks, herons, coots, and gulls—even hawks swoop in.

The paintings refer to different places as well, such as “arctic ledge” with its cool grays, and “that day by the sea” which suggests the movement of water. 

Two artworks, “in the peach orchard” and “trapped within my garden of longing (in memory of peach blossom spring),” are entirely different in stroke, texture, and color, although they both reference peach blossoms. Reciting only the titles of these works, all written in lower case by the artist, suggest a poetic enchantment in themselves.

We can imagine the artist in Kyoto, in his “makeshift studio in my in-laws’ house…the only room in the house where the sun filters in…adobe walls are covered with a white wash now crumbling away in flakes and splotched with smudges of sumi ink from my painting.” (The quotes are from Lau’s own artist statement.) 

In October, Lau invited three musicians to respond to his work. Esther Sugai played a dragon flute, Geoff Harper his bass, and the sound artist Suzie Kozawa carried a bowl through the audience using a rolling ball to make a soft sound. The music gave us, almost magically, another entry into the paintings.

Alan Lau’s new book This Single Road. Postcards and Notebooks From Kyoto includes drawings, text, and handwritten letters. A book launch takes place at the Gallery on Saturday, November 1, at 2 p.m. Alan is to read selected passages from the book, accompanied by a soundscape performance by Susie Kozawa. This event is free and open to the public.

Be sure to attend the 30th anniversary celebration on December 4, from 5-8 p.m.

Susan Noyes Platt

Susan Noyes Platt writes for local, national, and international publications and her website, www.artandpoliticsnow.com.

ArtX Contemporary, located at 512 First Avenue South in Seattle, Washington, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.artx-contemporary.com

Glowing with Potential: Asia Pacific Cultural Center in Tacoma, Washington

There’s something about the Asia Pacific Cultural Center that feels like it has always been there, tucked among the trees on the southwestern fringe of Tacoma’s South Park. While the building is new, freshly opened to the public at the end of August, the APPC has in fact been breathing with life, magnetizing and energizing Tacoma’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community for 30 years.

On the bright fall afternoon when I visited, it was very much pulsing with activity: a tour convened in the lobby as staff greeted each arrival, people chatted in the parking lot while others paused on the wood slat bench outside the front door. Even though I had come unannounced, I was warmly passed from person to person in the way of a shirttail relative or new neighbor until I was welcomed into the office of Faaluaina “Lua” Pritchard, Executive Director. She’s led the organization for 15 years, a time of tremendous change and growth.

When I asked what she wanted people to know about the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Lua spoke of the 47 nations represented within the Asia Pacific region, programs that form the core of the organization and echo its vision to “transform our community to become a dynamic, inclusive hub for diverse communities, cultures, and generations.” Two popular public cultural programs include the annual Lunar New Year celebration—this year spotlighting Cambodia—coming to the Tacoma Dome on February 28, 2026, and the Taste of Asia, every first Saturday at the APCC, featuring the cuisine of a different nation each month. Other celebrations take place throughout the year, some at other locations in the South Sound, but most at the center.

But it is the less visible work that continues to keep the organization relevant and thriving. APCC offers an array of educational, environmental, social and economic programs that address people as complex wholes who are part of a generational community linked by geography. They guide at-risk students toward high school graduation and beyond, raise awareness and educate on environmental justice, lessen stigma and provide services for mental health and wellness, and strengthen businesses owned and operated by AANHPI community members.

Language instruction is also offered at APCC, through 10-week courses taught by experienced teachers in Korean, Thai, Filipino, Mandarin, Lao, Japanese, and Samoan. As the website states, “The  goal of the program is twofold. First, it provides an opportunity for students to increase their understanding of diverse cultures through learning another language. Secondly, it helps build bridges between communities and promotes cultural exchange within the region.” 

The non-profit strives to reach its constituents where they live, and where their need is greatest. Walking into the reception lobby at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, this is immediately visible. Ceiling-high, glassed in shelves form a gridded window wall display of the artisanship and tangible culture from each of the 47 nations represented there, each one distinct from one another with unique culture, economies, history, and social practices. The range was staggering, with ceramics, baskets, stone and wood carvings, and metalwork, meriting another visit in the future to gaze and wonder.

When I come back, I’ll call ahead and arrange a visit to linger in the Jade Choe Art Gallery. Exhibits feature artwork by Asia Pacific artists who represent a rich mix of media, styles, and content. The upcoming show features young Cambodian artists Nak Bou and Ye Ranue.

Nak’s work melds graphic design, illustration, drawing, and painting in bold and textured works about people, food, music, and the vibrancy of life. Ye Ranue is the youngest member of Open Studio Cambodia, an artist collective in Siem Reap, Cambodia, founded by Washington state artist and his adopted mother, Lauren Iida. Ranue’s drawings and block prints feature wildlife, nature, and his family history. Ranue is a high school student who saves all the proceeds of his art sales for his future college tuition. Their exhibit runs from November 1 to December 31, 2025.

It’s a huge lift for an organization of this scale and scope to cultivate this garden of services and programs that reach and represent such a variety of people. The APCC is powered by over 300 volunteers, a busy staff of 45, and the trust that grows up from the commitment to show up and follow words with actions. Three decades in, their process of rooting with the community is well underway. Now, in a new building situated in a verdant park within a dynamic urban setting in the midst of a world where the present invites more dedicated connection, culture, and compassion, Tacoma’s Asia Pacific Cultural Center appears to glow with potential.

Kristin L. Tollefson

Kristin L. Tollefson is an artist and educator based in Tacoma, Washington.

“Cambodia: Daily Life and Diaspora” is on view at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center’s Jade Choe Gallery, located at 4851 South Tacoma Way in Tacoma, Washington. The center hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The artist reception is on Saturday, November 22, from 3 to 6 p.m. For more information, please visit www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org.

Shadows

The edge is always there,

dangerously close to

wherever I am.

Or where anybody is.

I sleep lightly,

like a soldier before battle.

I wake quickly,

like a light being clicked on.

I lurk in the shadows

of the hot day,

waiting for night

to come to my rescue.

It’s a sudden chill,

an unexpected nuance.

It’s the universal truth

and the quintessential lie.

The perpetuation of the

Great Mystery sustains us all.

Do you know what’s

on the dark side of the moon?

Or the dark side of your closest friend?

Are the light and dark opposites?

Or two parts of the same?

Where do the shadows go

when the lights are turned off?

Is this all too thick?

When, after all, I know it isn’t

because you’ve been there too.

But it sure isn’t the letter I thought

I was going to write.

The words threw themselves

onto the paper and I got inky

when I got in the way.

And why am I so crazed?

Because you’re there

and I’m

           here…

Jeff Fraga

Jeff Fraga is a poet and playwright living on Bainbridge Island, Washington.  

Wyeth–what a famous name! Jamie Wyeth is the third generation of painters in his family. We think of them as realists, but as you look at this exhibition of Jamie Wyeth, “Unsettled,” and compare him to his father Andrew (“Christina’s World”), and to his grandfather, N.C. Wyeth (“The Passing of Robin Hood”), we see an eerie, fantastic current in all three.

This exhibition however, foregrounds the supernatural. Two apparently straightforward works like “Bean Boots” or “Cat Bates of Monhegan” become spooky. Is the title meant to distract us as we look at “Bean Boots”? We gradually begin to see the details. First the man wearing bean boots is wearing a large glove for handling falcons, and a falcon looks at him fixedly from a cage. Above his head are numerous animal skulls sporting antlers. Along the left is an oversized pair of pants that seem to resolve into the base of a tree. In the right foreground a tree has two guns hanging off of it. Then there is the lighting which slashes a dark diagonal across the painting. A very strange painting. 

“Cat Bates of Monhegan” gives us a boy standing in contrapposto like a Greek statue, naked from the waist up, next to a fiery furnace with an open door. He looks defiant, as though he actually controls the unruly fire. He is actually burning garbage, apparently, but the open flames may be out of control at any minute.

Several of the paintings have a wild, unruly ocean as in “Spindrift,” with a surging sea coming toward the Wyeth house on a point, or, in “My Mother and the Squall,” the surging waters come almost up to the house as his mother hurries inside. Sometimes enlarged animals or birds overwhelm the scenery, changing it into a bizarre and ominous scene: in “Midsummer Night’s Dusk” the cows’ white faces look like skeletons; in “Hill Girt Farm,” giant pumpkins foreground a blazing fire.

And the birds! In “Wake,” a huge gull flies above a turbulent sea, straight at us (there is another version in which the gull flies over flames). We feel we will shortly be attacked. For anyone who has been dive-bombed by a bird, this painting is very disturbing. In “Snow Owl,” the bird looks at us fixedly: the offbeat subtitle is “Fourteenth in a Suite of Untoward Occurrences on Monhegan Island.” In this painting, as in all his paintings of the sea, the artist has plunged into its turbulence with masterly strokes of paint. 

Anther work in which the artist literally plumbed the depths is “Berg.” Apparently Wyeth actually did fall into the freezing sea, so this close-up view seems to recall that primal experience. Embedded in the iceberg are the imprints of birds as though they are frozen into the ice, but it melts away from the bottom (as icebergs do).  

There are many portraits: a suite of small Kennedy family portraits—clearly the result of close friendship—and two images of Andy Warhol, and Weyth’s grandfather. 

Warhol and Wyeth painted each others portraits in 1976. The exhibition includes two Warhol portraits, one “Andy Warhol in White (Andy Warhol Study),” painted the same year as the collaboration. The carefully studied face stands out from the white loosely painted background which merges with the white of Warhol’s face. In the second, which depicts Warhol standing behind a screen door, the most detailed part of the painting is Warhol’s head. Painted in 2015 it is an homage to a departed friend.

A portrait of Wyeth’s famous grandfather is also a part of the screen door series and an homage. Titled “Apples: Fifth in the Screen Door Series” we see an intimate look at his grandfather as he gathers apples. The background is filled with not-yet gathered apples. His grandfather’s face is lovingly painted. N.C. Wyeth died in 1945 when his car was hit by a train at a railroad crossing, a year before Jamie Wyeth was born.

One of the strangest “portraits” is “Julie on a Swing,” in which a diminutive Julie swings under a huge and threatening tree. She is oblivious to the threat. The strange yellow sky and ground suggest an imminent storm.

Finally, though, the most moving portrait is the homage to his wife, Phyllis Mills, “Spring: the Hanging of The Tree Rocks” (2017). It is clear that the artist wanted to jump into those trees himself. The tree rocks refer to the way that his wife suspended rocks from ropes on branches in order to reach the fruit she was gathering. Nymphs surround her in the trees. The entire frame is filled with growing vines. It speaks to love and life.

Susan Noyes Platt

Susan Noyes Platt writes for local, national, and international publications and her website, www.artandpoliticsnow.com.

“Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled” is on view Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. through October 5 at Frye Art Museum, located at 704 Terry Avenue in Seattle, Washington. For more information, visit www.fryemuseum.org. 

The Seattle-based painter/sculptor James W. Washington, Jr. held a central place in the renowned “Northwest School,” but he remains an overlooked figure. This summer’s exhibition at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) raises Washington’s profile, and deepens our appreciation of his gifts. “James W. Washington, Jr.: Many Hats, One Spirit” runs through September 15th, and you don’t want to miss this show. 

“Many Hats” is a many-sided retrospective. BIMA’s chief curator Greg Robinson, in collaboration with the Dr. James W. Washington, Jr. & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation, has assembled a fascinating selection of the artist’s drawings, paintings, and sculptures from all phases of his career. But it’s two other dimensions of the show that make it sing.

First, the exhibit includes pieces by 25 contemporary artists who have held residencies at the Foundation. Some engage Washington’s main themes—civil rights, spirituality, the life cycle—while others provide literal or figurative portraits of the artist. This exchange between past and present is beautifully moderated, and honors Washington’s living legacy 25 years after his passing. 

Second, the artist’s personal effects appear throughout the show. Furnishings from James and Janie Washington’s Seattle home occupy BIMA’s upper atrium where the exhibit begins. The stately chairs, the grandfather clock, the hat-stand adorned with (yes) many hats all evoke the personality behind the art. The sculpting tools he designed for himself are on view, as are books from his personal library—nods to Washington’s resourceful and autodidactic nature. 

Entering the main gallery, you can turn to follow the outer walls where art from the Artists-in-Residence appear: these pieces end to be large, colorful, and assertive. Or you can go straight to the center of the floor to enjoy Washington’s work, which, in contrast, has a contemplative feel. His paintings and drawings have a cool quiet gravity overall; his sculptures are mostly unobtrusive, monochromatic, modestly-sized, gently-rounded. 

You can do some good bird-watching here, noting the many bird figures that Washington loved to depict. Most are shown in self-effacing postures, some are even wounded and gathered inward as if unwilling to emerge from the stone. 

Washington’s works are not presented in chronological order, or grouped by theme or by medium. The arrangement is more free-form than that, leaving each viewer to find their own connections. (Washington believed deeply in self-directedness and would approve.) Drawings from the 1940s hang beside granite carvings from the 1980s. African artifacts and semi-abstract sculptures share space. Paintings of busy Chicago streets and other urbanscapes hang above an artful construction of metal, wood, and leather straps—a mechanism Washington built for show-repair. This curatorial mosaic supports the show’s “One Spirit” theme: he felt that any good piece—a well-made shoe, a loose watercolor, the sandstone bust of a politicalleader—manifests a universal spiritual force.

In 1951, he traveled to Mexico City to meet artist Diego Rivera. Near the Teotihuacán  pyramids,  he found a small volcanic rock on the roadside. He was drawn to it, or it to him, and brought the rock home. It sat untouched for years, until the day he transformed the stone into “Little Boy of Athens.” This was Washington’s first stone sculpture, and with that he went all in on this new practice. He had taught himself to draw and to paint, and now he taught himself to shape stone. The disarming simplicity of “Little Boy of Athens” (1956) led eventually to the finely-wrought “Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya” (1982), and to public art commissions weighing up to 6 tons.

In the 1940s, Washington befriended Mark Tobey, and under his influence learned to fully embrace his own impulses. He sought to “reveal the spirituality of matter.” He opened his work to the esoteric imagery and symbology that seemed numinous to him (much in the same way he intuited the potential of the rock in Mexico). Icons from Christian and African sources came into play, as well as symbols from Freemasonry. Imagery from nature also came to the fore as he matured—eggs and fish and the ever-recurring birds, even monkeys and woodchucks. These figures from the animal world may be taken as Washington’s shorthand for the spiritual force that animates all of humanity, all of creation. One spirit, many forms. 

Many forms, and many artists, too! The Foundation’s residency program is one way it helps foster creative expression. A few artists in the show are familiar names, like Esther Ervin, Marita Dingus, and Joe Max Emminger; others are newer on the scene or based outside the region. Mentioned here are just two highlights from this treasure trove of contributions: Ervin’s “Bondage” is an intricate piece with beautiful symmetry and patterning; it also documents a horrific chapter of our history.  Ervin shows that one thing art can do is confront and unsettle. But art can also uplift, as with Christen Mattix’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” This wall-assemblage is like a grid-based portrait—think Chuck Close, except with hymnals forming the grid, some painted so that the grid resolves (as you step back from the wall) into a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s certain that James W. Washington, Jr. would endorse these two pieces, and a couple dozen others assembled here under his auspices.

Tom McDonald

Tom McDonald is a writer and musician living on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

“James Washington, Jr.: Many Hats, One Spirit” is on view daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m., through September 15 at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, located at 550 Winslow Way East on Bainbridge Island, Washington.“The Living Legacy of James W. Washington, Jr.” panel discussion with Q + A is on September 7, 3:30 p.m. at BIMA Auditorium.

In October 2025, Art’s Alive! in La Conner, Washington, celebrates its 40th anniversary—a significant milestone for any institution or art event, especially for one that is based in a small community. It is evident with this anniversary that Art’s Alive!, an exhibition and series of art programs, has tapped into a subject and a mission that the local community is passionate about, so much so that they continue to return year after year for four decades. The event started as a fundraiser for the Valley Museum of Art (now the Museum of Northwest Art), but it is now organized by the La Conner Art Foundation, which is also a nonprofit organization. Running from Friday, October 24 through Monday, October 27, visitors can enjoy multiple exhibitions and art demonstrations around the town of La Conner. 

In a conversation with Sheila Johnson, the president of the Board of Directors of the La Conner Art Foundation, it  became clear that the organization is dedicated to both artists and education. When an artwork sells at Art’s Alive!, artists receive a 60% commission while the remaining 40% is dedicated nearly in its entirety to scholarships for high school seniors and college students. The event this year takes place in Maple Hall, as it has been for many years, but Johnson also emphasized that there are art demonstrations taking place all over town. But this year is also a special year, and the exhibition  includes 180 artworks created by around 90 different artists. The exhibition is divided into three sections: Legends (artists who have participated in Art’s Alive! in the past), Invitational (artists new to participating), and the Open Show which features artists living in the La Conner School District. In summary, the exhibition this year is larger and more expansive than any other. 

The foundation and its selection committee watch artists year-round and then decide on artists to invite for participation in the exhibition. This year, the committee has also partnered with several art galleries to show the work of certain artists. For example, Allie High’s “Short-eared Owl” is included courtesy of Stonington Gallery. This collaboration allows Art’s Alive! to include artists with gallery representation while also supporting the mission of the event and foundation. High’s work is included in the Invitational portion of the exhibit, alongside other artists like Kathleen Faulkner, Ee Lin Lee, and Leo E. Osborne. This year there isn’t necessarily a theme for the Invitational; these are all artists who inspire the committee and have a connection to the Pacific Northwest. One aspect of this portion of the exhibition is the variety of materials and mediums represented, including paintings, pastels, weavings, ceramics, and more. One oil painting that stands out is Andy Eccleshall’s “Timeless,” which features a barn with the daylight shining through the open doors. The scene is so familiar in Skagit County that it almost mimics looking out a window to a common landscape in the valley. 

Similarly, Art’s Alive! has partnered with several local galleries to exhibit work in the “Legends” gallery, which includes artists from past Art’s Alive! exhibits in the 1980s through to 2024. It is truly a delight to see work by artists like John Simon, Paul Havas, Meg Holgate, Thomas Stream, and Georgia Gerber in a gallery together. The “Legends” portion of the show is an interesting snapshot of artistic themes and trends throughout the past decades. Adding to this point, donors receive a poster from the 1987 edition of Art’s Alive! which features a painting of a sunflower by Richard Gilkey. It is worth pointing out that this is in some ways a unique opportunity to see and acquire work by artists with connections to the “Northwest School” while also supporting living artists working nearby. 

Art’s Alive! is a longstanding art program in Skagit County with a deep history of supporting the local artistic community. The exhibition opens at 1 p.m. on Friday, October 24 at Maple Hall, with the opening event starting at 5 p.m. This is an exciting opportunity to meet the artists while enjoying food and beverages in a beautiful environment. The events continue through the weekend, and visitors are welcome to vote on their People’s Choice selection. At the time of writing this feature, the award is still to be announced. Art’s Alive! closes at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 27. October can be a delightful time to visit Skagit County since many of the pumpkin patches are open and the weather can be beautiful. 

Chloé Dye Sherpe

Chloé Dye Sherpe is an art professional and curator based in Washington State. Art’s Alive! Invitational & Open Fine Art Show is on view at Maple Hall, located at 104 Commercial Street, La Conner, Washington from Friday, October 24, 1-8 p.m.; Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, October 26, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Monday, October 27, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Visit www.ArtsAliveLaConner.com.