By Adam McKinney As autumn rolls along in Washington, the days getting shorter, the air taking on that familiar bite, more folks will be choosing to stay indoors and curl up with a good book. While readers can surely find many good selections on The New York Times Best Seller List, the question bares: why …
By Alec Clayton The fifth annual Olympia Zine Fest comes to town this month. The three-day event celebrating DYI publishing takes place in multiple venues in downtown Olympia. This year’s festival brings to town special guests Hope Amico and Artnoose. Both zinemakers have long histories of incorporating the art of letterpress into their zines. They …
THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The Women by Clare Boothe Luce, now playing at Harlequin Productions, is a beautifully staged, lavish comedy or errors satirizing 1930s upper crust Manhattan socialites. The piece opened on Broadway in 1936 and is best known for the 1939 film starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind …
By Molly Gilmore This season, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts has the blues — and the world music, and the dance, and the touring musicals, and the comedy, and so on. “We’re continuing to provide something for everyone,” said Jill Barnes, the center’s executive director. “I say that every year, and I feel …
By Melinda Minton Lakewood Playhouse celebrates its 81st anniversary season with five shows. “All of next season’s shows,” says artistic director John Munn, “embrace some of our established past productions as we evolve into a playhouse that produces modern works fresh off of Broadway and off Broadway. We are very excited about this year’s lineup …
By ALEC CLAYTON It is a rare artist who gets invited to mount a one-person show at Childhood’s End Gallery. According to owner Richenda Richardson, there have only been 20 solo exhibits out of approximately 400 in its 43 years. Three have been by Marilyn Frasca. Frasca’s show for Arts Walk will have about 50 …
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL Starting in January of 1942, Wonder Woman took to the skies in her Invisible Plane. Nine months later, nonfictional superheroines took flight. Sadly, it was their story rather than their aircraft which soon became invisible. On September 10, 1942, Nancy Harkness Love recruited over two dozen female pilots to form the Women’s …
By ALEC CLAYTON Rubbings as an art form are in Devon Damonte’s blood. He says he’s “deep into the rubbings world.” His father did brass rubbings back in the 1970s, and Damonte says he “spent hours with his dad rubbing gravestones.” He says printmaking, however, was his first love as an adult artist. For Arts …
By ALEC CLAYTON The cover art for this year’s Olympia Arts Walk map is fabric art by Faith Hagenhofer. The piece is called “Held Dear” and features a baby’s onesie, perhaps the most evocative of all memorabilia, surrounded by squares with a ruffled edge and topped by a fan. The onesie is a deep purple …
By Alec Clayton Nathan Robles and Nancy Thorne Chambers were honored this year for their sculptures in Olympia’s Percival Plinth Project at the landing. For each of the past nine years, local artists have exhibited sculptures along the boardwalk from Fourth Avenue at Water Street to the plaza. Citizens are invited to vote on their …