A new exhibition explores ‘the art of being present’

Island artist Steffon Moody will open an art exhibition at Vashon Center for the Arts on Friday evening, filled with the fruit of his labor of love over this past summer — creating 34 plein-air paintings of some of Vashon’s most treasured spots.

The term “en plein-air” refers to paintings done outdoors, in the open air — an art form that is centuries old but truly took off in the age of French Impressionism. In recent years, it’s become Moody’s most favored practice as an artist, allowing him to create vibrant portraits of street life and landscapes in far-flung places including Mexico, South America and throughout Europe.

But his new show of 34 oil paintings will celebrate tableaux nearer and dearer to the artist — scenes from his own hometown. The exhibition will also feature a large mural on canvas — filling one entire gallery wall — that recreates a well-remembered, pop-up mural of crows he painted on the side of the McFeeds building at Center. The building was later demolished to make room for the construction of Vashon Center for the Arts’ new campus, which opened in 2016.

Dubbed “Iconic Vashon,” the exhibition includes Moody’s renditions of Tramp Harbor, Raab’s Lagoon, Crow Beach, and the Tahlequah Ferry Dock — places of almost mythical beauty where Moody stood before his easel to paint the pictures in ever-changing light.

But his passion for painting Vashon-Maury Island in the open air also took him to local street corners where, under blue summer skies, he lovingly depicted such iconic island businesses as the Vashon Theatre, Engels Repair and Towing, Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie, the Harbor Mercantile store and the former Masonic Temple now housing Spiceberry Home gift shop.

Other well-trafficked and beloved establishments, including Sporty’s and Island Queen, also got the Moody touch.

The act of creating each of the paintings, he said, brought home to him the joy of the “art of being present” and led to many encounters with bystanders who shared their stories about the subjects of his paintings — infusing the paintings with both Moody’s and other islanders’ memories.

Moody, who has lived on Vashon for 36 years, said that over the decades, he has come to appreciate Vashon’s architecture in a way he hadn’t anticipated when he first moved here.

“I remember coming and being underwhelmed by [the town],” he said. “I loved the trees and Puget Sound — the Northwest nature has always struck me as incredible.”

But now, he said, the buildings on the island have grown on him.

“Vashon has recycled buildings over and over again, and they have retained their sense of historical identity,” he said. “Because we’re an island, we haven’t bulldozed our past as rapidly, and I think we’ve grown into appreciating it.”

Moody has long extolled the meditative benefits of painting outdoors.

“You’re devotionally looking at something with intention, and there is a buildup that occurs,” he said, in an interview in 2018. “Instead of being bored with what you’re looking at, the opposite occurs, and it becomes more and more amazing.”

Moody’s passion for plein-air painting in recent years is one of the latest twists in a life filled with artmaking in many different genres. He has long taught drawing and design at DigiPen Institute of Technology, a gaming and animation college in Redmond, Washington, and currently shows his paintings year-round at The Lodge at St. Edward, in Kenmore, Washington.

But since moving to Vashon in 1988, he has also cut a wide and colorful swath through the community’s cultural scene.

He co-founded UMO Ensemble, directed the Islewilde Festival, participated in the island’s pottery tour, and performed with giant puppets with the Vashon-based Zambini Brothers.

He’s emceed galas, worked as an auctioneer, hosted and performed in comedy shows, directed a play for Drama Dock, and twice produced a memorable festival-like event called Swampbottom Jamboree, held on the expansive property where he rents his home.

But in increasingly laying those pursuits aside, Moody is now circling back to his beginnings as a visual artist, at the age of 16, working as a theatrical set painter at the Muny Opera in St. Louis.

He’ll discuss his memories of that time, and how his earliest mentors at the Muny Opera imparted a lifetime’s worth of lessons to him, during a free artist’s talk at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at VCA.

Moody’s exhibition — his first solo show at VCA — will have an opening reception from 5-8 Friday, Oct. 4, at VCA.

The show runs through October, with regular gallery hours from 12-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, visit gallery.vashoncenterforthearts.org.