February’s First Friday gallery cruise includes the following notable events and exhibits, along with the chance to see new work at other art spots in town including Swiftwater Gallery and Starving Artists Works (SAW).
Granny’s Attic
Granny’s Attic’s annual “After Dark” sale, featuring donated items with an adult-only theme, will take place from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at the thrift shop. For thrifters ages 18 and older only.
Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union
The credit union’s third annual “Heart Art Show,” featuring art by 15 of its members, continues throughout February during PSCCU’s business hours, with no First Friday reception. Artists on display include Sally Fox, Carole Meriam, Barbara Dusty Gustafson, Diane Carr, Karen Biondo, Anne Gordon, Mark Pease, Richard Rogers, Jim Burke, Jeaneen Bauer, and others.
VALISE
In February, VALISE Gallery will present “The Plastic Project, No Happy Ending,” a large-scale, walk-through art installation made entirely from post-consumer plastic bag waste.
The show is the culmination of a multi-year project in which Heather Timken and Jiji Saunders have explored conflicting aspects of single-use plastics — their beauty, toxicity, and utility.
Both volunteered as sorters with Vashon’s styrofoam and plastic recycling program launched in 2019 by Nadine Edelstein, along with Jacquie Perry, Steve Bergman, and the Zero Waste Vashon Team. After much success, the program ceased operations in 2023 and encouraged islanders to look to King County Solid Waste and Ridwell for styrofoam and plastic-film recycling.
Describing the volunteer work, Saunders said that she and Timken were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of plastic film that islanders were recycling.
“So many different materials were moving through the recycling event, and the sorting was happening incredibly fast,” she said. “Ultimately, we narrowed our search to a particular type of plastic film, which we set aside as we sorted … Ironically, we created something delicate and beautiful from all this waste. That is what drew us to the art in the first place.”
The opening celebration is from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, and the show can be previewed on Friday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. VALISE Gallery is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 1 to 6 p.m. The show runs through Saturday, Feb. 24, at 17633 Vashon Highway SW.
Vashon Center for the Arts
Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA) will open two new solo shows of works by Eliaichi Kimaro and Allison Crain Trundle, with both artists showing bodies of work that were inspired during the early months of the COVID pandemic. An opening reception will take place from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2.
During the COVID lockdown, Kimaro decided to create one small painting a day. So, she grabbed the smallest of her abandoned sketchbooks and let go of any expectations of perfection. Her only goal was to show up on the page and play with tools, materials, color, and form.
She was energized by the daily practice; it made her more clear about her likes/dislikes, better able to listen to and trust her instincts, and more efficient in her problem-solving, she said.
Now, Kimaro’s days start on the page — first writing in her journal (as she’s done for the past 40+ years), then painting in her art journal. “Making art is no longer an ‘if I have time’ matter,” she said. “It has become as integral to my well-being as my daily writing practice. It is a must.”
She will also present a free artist’s talk at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at VCA — sharing new research findings about how engaging regularly in a creative practice, regardless of skill level, transforms our brains and bodies.
Kimaro has used multiple art forms to explore her personal and family narratives, exhibiting work locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2003, she found filmmaking and went on to produce over 80 videos for nonprofits addressing social justice issues.
Her prizewinning documentary film, “A Lot Like You,” (2011) explores her family’s stories through the lens of culture, race, class, and gender; it was broadcast on PBS. As a mixed-race, first-generation American (Tanzanian father and Korean mother), Kimaro makes art to better understand her place in the flow between cultural inheritance and legacy. After years of traveling with her film, she distilled her keynotes into a 2016 TEDxSeattle talk, “Why the World Needs Your Story,” viewable here.
Crain Trundle’s show, “UnEarth,” is a series of contemporary paintings that explore the intricacies of various Pacific Northwest landscapes. With both 6-foot canvases and mid-sized works, the series portrays a tangible presence through deep lines depicting stratum, a palette filled with earthy hues, and thoughtful composition.
In a statement, Crain Trundle said her current work emerged during the initial stages of the COVID pandemic.
“When the forest near my home filled with people newly discovering the trails, my daughter and I set out to explore state parks further away,” she said. “….We traversed trails through illness, recovery, gratefulness, confusion, loss, and tenderness.”
The paintings in “UnEarth” resulted from her sketches, sometimes crafted late at night by firelight or within a soggy tent amidst a downpour.
“It embodies my daily sketch-work translated onto canvas, perpetually seeking lines, connections, congruences, spaces, and shapes folding into an edge,” she said.
Crain Trundle earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico, specializing in figurative and landscape painting. Her engagement with landscapes profoundly influenced her transition towards an abstract style.
Her work, she said, “questions how we see, our evolutionary connection to the landscape, and how truly miraculous it is to be here, now, in the natural world.”
