This weekend will be a big one on Vashon for those who love visual art. It begins with the monthly gallery cruise Friday evening, then continues Saturday and Sunday with Vashon’s Art Studio Tour. Listed below are Friday’s gallery highlights, scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m.
Blue Heron Art Center
Almost 100 pieces of art created by dozens of Vashon High School students will be shown. Art teacher Amy Dubin has co-curated this biennial exhibit with Blue Heron gallery curator Janice Mallman since 2001. Music will be provided by Island Fusion.
Café Luna
Paula Allegrini will exhibit acoustic percussion instruments and natural wood mirrors. Allegrini was trained in woodworking while making hand-carved signs for the National Forest Service in the 1970s. Later, she founded a business, Moondance, which created percussion instruments, and then branched out into furniture making.
Frame of Mind
The shop will feature work by Zavida Gemstones, an Island company that sells handcrafted jewelry created by 33 artists from 15 countries and donates 25 percent of its profits to benefit the communities where the gemstones are mined or where the jewelry artisans live and work.
The Hardware Store Restaurant
Pam Ingalls’ annual portrait show, “A Slice of the Big Apple, Facing NYC,” depicts subjects who reside in one apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The exhibit is part of the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour. Guitarist Daryl Redeker will play at the opening reception.
Quartermaster Press
The printmaking collaborative will host the grand opening of its new studio, located in the Beall Greenhouses complex. In the new space, members of the group hope to offer more classes, be accessible to artists at all hours and add new members.
VALISE Gallery
The gallery’s non-juried, all-Island show, “The Elephant in the Room, the Snake in the Suitcase, or What is Censorship, Anyway?” will open. Related events will take place throughout the month. VALISE will have extended hours in May — 5 to 7 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Vashon Intuitive Arts
Tlingit artist Odin Lonning will show supernatural-themed pieces. Odin also has a show opening in Seattle on Thursday, May 5, at Chief Seattle Club’s Ron Hilbert Gallery. Visit www.chiefseattleclub.org and www.odinlonning.com to learn more.
Wings Birdseed Company
The store will show jewelry and ensembles created with precious stones and metals by Island artist Linda Yurisich. Yurisich’s work will be on display in the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour.
The store will also display an array of hand-painted Northwest birds, created by students in Jan Smith’s fourth-grade class at Chautauqua Elementary School who learned about the birds thanks to Vashon Audobon Society’s birding curriculum and an Vashon Artists in the Schools residency by artist Rose Belknap. Greeting cards of the drawings will be sold, with proceeds going to benefit the birding curriculum. Owls created by other Chautauqua students, who participated in a residency by potter Liz Lewis, will also be shown.
Blooms & Things will host a show by Mary Hodgins, a landscape artist.
Books by the Way will exhibit wire sculptures by students at McMurray Middle School.
At Duet, Lenard Yen will show a dozen new self-portraits.
Giuseppe’s will exhibit works on paper by Alisara Martin.
Heron’s Nest will show Chuck Gardner’s wood works, and clay owls and gourd masks made by students in Vashon Artists in the Schools projects led by Liz Lewis and Charlotte Masi.
Pugent Sound Cooperative Credit Union will showcase work by John Woodard.
Raven’s Nest Native Art Studio and Showroom will display a large cedar bentwood box by Tlingit master carver Israel Shotridge, jewelry by Sue Shotridge and Aleut artist La Rita Lakontonen and metal sculptures by Gunter Reimneitz.
Silverwood Gallery will show work by copper repousse artist Ivonne Escobar de Kommer.
Two Wall Gallery will exhibit all the entries from its recent Vashon flag competition, announce the contest’s winners and dole out ribbons.
Urban Cottage will exhibit CM Day’s hand-carved totem pole, “‘The Spawn is On,” depicting two cutthroat trout in full spawn colors. The work will also be on display during the art studio tour.
At Vashon Bookshop, the Island band The Diggers will perform at 7 p.m.
Vashon Senior Center on Bank Road will display water colors by the students of Geri Peterson.
