Blue Heron Gallery’s show will combine ceramic pieces by Spokane artist Mardis Nenno and two bodies of work by Shorline-based tile artist and painter Paul Lewing. Nenno creates utilitarian, architectural forms that exemplify movement and human transportation. Lewing’s works — mostly landscapes — are smaller scale tile pieces and acrylic on canvas and board.
Café Luna will exhibit photographs by Steven Moore, who uses contemporary methods to achieve the look of argyrotype — a silver printing process that results in brown images on plain paper. This show will include four years-worth of images that he describes as having “a haunting sensuality and tension within the intimate.”
Common Thread, a fiber arts collective, will feature the exquisitely needle-felted animals of Monica Gripman. The theme of the show is pirate cats, rats and mice.
Duet will show work by mosaic artist Lisa Betz. Always on the search for vintage china and found objects, Betz also adds her own ceramic pieces to her creations. Her line of mixed-media jewelry including pendants made with silver-plated spoons and knives, vintage adornments and some of her own handmade ceramic beads.
The Hardware Store Restaurant will exhibit Brian Fisher’s prints and paintings — layered and colorful compositions of shape and line that juxtapose form and abstraction.
Heron’s Nest will show abstract collages by Joan Wortis and oil paintings by Donald Cole.
Paintings by Abbey Prevot, who has practiced art in Portland and Eastern Oregon, will be featured at Ignition Studios. She has been painting regularly for the past 12 years, usually inspired by her environmental surroundings and travels. A fan of small towns, Prevot appreciates the quaint avenues and streets found in familiar places and uses many of these scenes as inspirations for her paintings.
Island Quilter will exhibit work by members of the Portland and Vancouver Modern Quilt Guilds.
The Little House will feature raku pottery by Christine Beck — works from a process she calls “fast, dramatic, hot, smoky and very fun.” Beck, a member of Waterworks Studio, is an accomplished photographer and potter. For the past 17 years, she’s worked as a private investigator, but she now spends at least half of every year focused on ceramics and creation of new designs.
“Remembering India,” by Kathleen Kinney will adorn the walls at Nirvana. The paintings were all inspired by a trip Kinney took to India in 2007.
“These paintings offer a personal impression of India seen through the lens of an artist who values color, shape, decoration, the sublime in nature and the joy and beauty of (India’s) people, its arts and culture,” said Kinney, a creativity coach who plans to donate 40 percent of her sales to Vashon Allied Arts’ proposed arts center.
Open Space for Arts & Community will offer the final showings of “It’s Not Conspiracy, It’s Reality,” a site-specific kinetic sculpture by Jon Carlson and Dave Olson. The large-scale piece, inspired by Rube Goldberg, was commissioned by Open Space co-founder Janet McAlpin, and funded with a grant from 4Culture’s Site Specific Arts program.
McAlpin, Carlson and Olsen will give a talk prior to demonstrations of the sculpture at 5:45, 6:30, 7:45 and 8 p.m.
Raven’s Nest will display wearable art — clothes, accessories and jewelry — by Northwest Coast Native artists.
Works by Corrine Hunt, co-designer of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic medals, will be featured. For more than 22 years, Hunt has been creating contemporary art that reflects the traditions of her Kwakiutl and Tlingit heritage. The shop will also showcase a collection of T-shirts, hoodies, scarves, jewelry and flip-flops. A special private collection of traditional wearable art belonging to Sue and Israel Shotridge will also be on display.
Snapdragon will exhibit photos, drawings and journal entries based on a two-week trip the café’s owners — Adam Cone and Megan Hastings — took to Bulgaria this spring.
Called “Under a Bulgarian Moon,” the exhibit depicts the beauty the couple discovered while exploring the pastoral lands of northeastern Bulgaria, where they recently purchased a stone cottage. The couple hopes to fix up the cottage and ultimately establish some sort of exchange, so that other Islanders can also experience the beauty and culinary delights of rural Bulgaria.
The First Friday event will include light, Bulgarian-inspired food as well as Bulgarian-themed music by The Diggers.
An exhibition of paintings by Vashon artists Carol Schwennesen and Jiji Saunders will be held at VALISE. The two women will show nearly 100 paintings ranging in size and spanning several decades. While the abstract paintings of Schwennessen and Saunders can appear to be landscapes, seascapes or skyscapes, the works just as easily read as images of the universe, they said.
Vashon Community Care will be the site of a show by Geri Peterson, a local watercolor artist who will discount the prices on her works by 70 percent.
“There is a thing, as an artist, where you paint for the love of painting. Not to sell, just to do. To me each painting is a little piece of me and I want them to make people happy. … My prices for this show will be only to recover part of that cost. In other words, the painting is free, as my gift.”
Peterson will also make a donation to Vashon Com-munity Care for each piece sold. The reception for the show is from 7 to 9 p.m.
Vashon Senior Center will also display watercolor still life paintings by Geri Peterson, whose “Fearless” painting classes start Aug. 2 at the center.
Wings Birdseed will show a unique embroidery tableau by Bea Johnson, and items from an upcoming fiber arts trunk sale, to be held Aug. 11 at the Land Trust Building. The sale will benefit Vashon Community Care.
