The evening of Sept. 2 won’t be any old First Friday on Vashon.
It’s the first Friday of September, which means Vashon’s gallery cruise will be even more lively than usual, as the fall season on Vashon launches. Here’s what’s on tap.
Stupid Bike Night
Rumor has it that tradition will hold this first Friday of September, with streets in town filling around dusk with a locally-famous annual event called Stupid Bike Night.
Last year’s edition of Stupid Bike Night didn’t disappoint, featuring almost 40 riders tooling through town, just after twilight, on outlandish forms of tricked-out, lit-up, pedal-powered means of transportation — including a flame-throwing bicycle equipped with a working bar and grill. Many riders wore wild, colorful costumes, including Elvis suits, neon wigs, glow lights and glitter.
The event is organized annually by the creators of the bikes— a club that includes some of Vashon’s most clever contraption-makers. Bring your cameras, and send your best photos to The Beachcomber.
Gather Vashon
It’s time to bid an emotional goodbye to Gather Vashon, a shop in the center of town that has long championed the work of local artists.
Gather’s owners, Kathy Raines and Whitney Rose, are closing the shop on Sept. 4.
Prior to founding Gather Vashon, the owners managed The Heron’s Nest, the volunteer-run art outlet of Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA), that long occupied retail space in town — most recently in the same location as Gather Vashon. When VCA closed the outlet, in 2018, Raines and Rose made the business their own.
Vashon visual art stalwarts who showed their work at both Heron’s Nest, for decades, and then at Gather Vashon, include Eric and Margaret Heffelfinger, Chris and Darsie Beck, Elaine Summers, Terry Donnelly, Mary Liz Austin, Lynanne Raven, Irene Otis, Zuz Korbelarova, and Rose Belknap.
Stop by Gather, during the First Friday gallery cruise on Sept. 2, to listen to local music, chat with friends, and look at beautiful work on the walls of Gather one last time.
Outstanding in its Field
“Of a Feather,” an exhibit benefiting the Vashon Audubon Society that will feature art depicting the beauty and mystery of winged creatures, will have its opening reception on First Friday at Outstanding in its Field gallery.
The new gallery, located at 10524 SW 188th St., is aptly named — it is indeed out in a field, and housed in a remodeled shipping container that the Vashon Forest Stewards once used for their wood kiln.
The owners, Lindsay Hart and Jeff White, are longtime islanders. They said that going forward, each show at the gallery will benefit a different island organization, with a portion of the proceeds from sold art donated by the gallery and the artists.
“Of a Feather” artists includeDonna Caulton, Donna Romero, Angela Lewis, Lynn McClain, Sue Hardy, William Cleaver, Jeff Twersky, Sy Novak, Laura Clampitt, and owners Hart and White.
“The show is as varied as of the winged denizens of the sky,” said Hart.
The First Friday celebration, from 5 pm to 8 p.m., will include the chance to meet the artists and a performance by local singer Camille Reeves.
VALISE Gallery
On First Friday, VALISE will open a two-person show by local artists Gregory Burnham and Bill Jarcho, “What the Hell’s Going on Here?!”
The exhibit, billed as a collection of “abstractions, oddball whimsy, fallen arches, escape velocity and colorful children’s book art” has been in the making for more than a year.
“I’m quite proud of what I’ve done and of course, want to show it off,” said Jarcho. “I also love Greg’s work and think we are the perfect pair of weirdos to have a show together.”
Jarcho’s art will include 14 illustrations and poems from “Maximilian Upside-Down and Other Poems That Bound Around,” a children’s book that he has been working on for a year. Jarcho describes his other work in the show as “off-the-wall sculptures and patented psychedelic 3D boxes.”
Burnham’s work stretches from two-inch paintings to 20-foot-tall bamboo sculptures.
Of the show, Burnham said, “Oil, acrylic, photographs, and mixed media collage are the vehicle, and you are the passenger.”
Vashon Center for the Arts
It’s art auction time again at Vashon Center for the Arts — launching on First Friday with a month-long silent auction of art that culminates in a gala live auction and dinner on Saturday, Sept. 24.
More than 100 local artists have contributed pieces to the auction, and other islanders have donated experiences that are also up for bid.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the gala auction — the biggest fundraising benefit for the arts on Vashon, where islanders are asked to support the venerable arts center and raise their paddles in support of VCA’s Blue Heron Education Center and Scholarship Fund.
Following the First Friday event, silent auction items will be on view in the VCA Gallery during public hours, noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, or online at vcamaxgiving.bid, where guests can register and bid. All bidding will be online, through this site.
The gala on Saturday, Sept. 24 — a masquerade ball, with live performances, libations, and dinner — will be hosted by Martha Enson and Kevin Joyce, of EnJoy Productions.
Voice of Vashon
Islanders can now look inside the storefront windows of Voice of Vashon’s Jean Bosch Studio to admire a major origami artwork by Alice Larson, “Forest of Lost Souls,” which includes a hanging origami crane for each person who has died of COVID-19 in King County.
In June of 2021, when the artwork debuted at Larson’s gallery, Island Paper Chase, this number totaled 1,550. It has nearly doubled in a year’s time to more than 3,000 today. Gold cranes on the artwork represent the lives lost on Vashon.
In early August, Larson was told by her landlord, McConnell Real Estate LLC, that Island Paper Chase had one month to vacate its premises, next door to VALISE Gallery. The landlord had “decided to accept a long-term offer that includes purchasing the building in the future,” Larson was informed.
Larson, who did not have a lease, was forced to scramble to pack up all her delicate origami artwork, but most of all, she worried for the fate of “Forest of Lost Souls.”
Larson said she was thrilled by Voice of Vashon’s offer to house the artwork in its highly visible storefront. Visitors have told her the work is both beautiful and sad, she said — a reminder of COVID’s lasting impacts in our lives.
