October brings another First Friday gallery cruise — a time to stroll down the street, greeting friends and neighbors and partaking of a Vashon visual feast. Dive into the fun at the following art spots and galleries.
The Hardware Store Restaurant
A new, permanent installation of colorful tile tools created by Island tile artist Clare Dohna graces the Bank Road ramp wall outside the Hardware Store Restaurant.
The installation, dedicated to longtime Islanders Mary Jo and Chuck Barrentine, was purchased by the restaurant’s owner, Melinda Sontgerath, after she saw the work displayed in a Vashon Tile Guild show at the Blue Heron last May. The show re-imagined Vashon as a tile mecca.
A formal dedication of Dohna’s piece will take place at 6:30 p.m.
Inside the Hardware Store Restaurant gallery, an exhibition called “The Critter Corral” will be on display. The exhibit, coordinated by Island mosaic artist Elaine Summers, will showcase work that will be offered at Vashon Island Pet Protector’s gala auction on Sunday, Oct. 23.
Blue Heron
Pascale Judet, who works with acrylics, and Joanne Hammer, who paints with oils, will launch their first public collaboration.
Their opening reception will feature jazz music by Richard Person and Jim Hobson.
Hammer’s work (half drawing and half painting) is naïve and colorful, emoting themes of mortality and memory. She said she is inspired by the likes of Matisse, Gauguin and Italian painter Mimmo Paladino. She recently won a national competition to work with world-famous mosaic fabrication craftsman Stephen Miotto to create a prestigious public art project at the Sea-Tac Airport.
Judet, who is known for her hand-painted clocks with miniature figures that have been shown and sold all over the country, first showed her paintings at the Blue Heron Gallery in the early 1990s.
Judet’s artistic practice is linked to her daily practice of keeping a visual journal. Over the years, the journal has grown to a four-foot stack of creative personal history on acid-free large format paper, including ink drawings of boats, towers, trees, ladders and other repeating motifs, such as trees, birds, fish and snakes. Words and phrases, snippets of thought, philosophy and poetry also hint at inspirations for Judet’s paintings.
Blooms & Things
Blooms & Things will feature the work of Sheila Park, who will display new, autumn-themed assemblages, made with found and fine-art objects. All of the proceeds from Park’s work will be donated to AHOPE for Children, an organization that supports HIV-positive orphans.
The shop will also showcase furniture by Bill (Popi) Champion, an Island artist who crafts one-of-a-kind painted furniture pieces at this workshop on Westside Highway.
Champion, a former running back for the San Diego Chargers, earned an MFA degree from the University of Southern California. To view his work, visit www.nwislandrustics.com.
There will also be chocolate fudge tasting with chef Steve Amos, a chocolatier who owns Papillon Confections.
Books by the Way
Beckett Reid, a talented 9-year-old artist who studies with Janice Campbell, will have his first-ever solo art show. Reid is also an avid birder and tends his own flock of chickens and ducks on his family’s five-acre farm.
Café Luna
Artist and photographer Andrew Plotsky will exhibit “Asymmetrical Wallpaper Patterns.” Plotsky is the principal of Farmrun, an agricultural multimedia production studio based on Vashon. Check out his art and adventures at www.farmrun.com.
Vashon Intuitive Arts
The center will feature artist Michael Brinker, who has shown in New York City, Los Angeles and the Northwest.
Recently schooled in France and Italy, Brinker has worked with a jungle arts collective and Quinault native artists. He will be joined by Dorian Dyer, a visionary artist, poet and healer. The reception will feature special food and music to accompany the show.
Island Variety
International performing artist and Vashon resident Mik Kuhlman will climb into the history of the 1950s civil rights movement in “Shadows,” a live art installation performed at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, in the windows of the vacant Island Variety Store (next to Vashon Auto Parts).
Kuhlman’s performance, part of the region-wide Arts Crush Festival, blends historic photographs and live performance.
Also featured will be a photo exhibit by Jeff Dunnicliff of Kuhlman’s residency with Vashon High School students, exploring iconic imagery of the civil rights era. There will also be a reception at 9:30 p.m.
For more information, visit www.artscrush.org.
Also on the Gallery Cruise
Michael Spakowsky, well-known local artist and musician, will show new watercolor paintings at Duet, exclusive Island retailer of his beautiful, collectible works.
A Native culture and art book exhibit at the Raven’s Nest will include new children’s books.
“Iridescent Inspiration,” a show of work by Tim Carney, will open at Sunshine and Ideas. Carney works with natural materials, including wood and rock, which are gilded and etched with iridescent, laser-etched foils to produce colors that appear to twinkle like starlight.
At VALISE Gallery, two artists will exhibit their work — Gay Schy, a member of VALISE, and Lynn Mauser-Bane, a California artist, will show encaustic paintings as well as a joint installation of encaustic monotype scrolls.
Geri Peterson’s watercolors will adorn the walls of the Vashon Senior Center on Bank Road, and there will also be free tables where crafters can set up to sell their artwork. To get involved, call Willow Eaton at 463-5173.
At the Heron’s Nest, Odin Lonning will present “Sweetgrass Trail: An Emerging Artist’s Journey” and Mary Hosick, a ceramic and fiber artist will show her work.
Chuck Roehm and Friends will play cosmic folk music at Vashon Bookshop.
