Oly Arts Summer 2025 Print Edition
The Summer print edition of OLY ARTS N0. 33 is published! Here is a list of where in the Olympia area you can pick up your FREE copy, and a link to the PDF file so you can read it online. Enjoy!
Lynette Charters Serembe
tomakesenseofitall: Aisha Harrison and Paige Pettibon at Tacoma Art Museum
The art of Aisha Harrison and Paige Pettibon in their show, “tomakesenseofitall” at Tacoma Art Museum works to deliver orchestrated messages, respecting and supporting each other’s voice, singing a similar song which gives you many things to think about. Harrison and Pettibon have much in common, they both practice their disciplines with similar concerns in mind, they both utilize a rich, visually allegorical narrative, incorporating surrealism as a means of communication to express the niche space they occupy in the world.
Heart of the Deernicorn and Studio Golden in Downtown Olympia
Mo Golden and Ross Cowman are the owners of Heart of the Deernicorn Inc. Cowman has been casually designing tabletop games since he was a kid. Cowman and Golden made a game together called Night Forest. Golden studied fine art with Marilyn Frasca, also movement with Rob Esposito at Evergreen. Cowman says the prompts in the game give an opportunity to share in a poetic way, poetry being a love of Cowman’s which he studied as a student at Evergreen.
Labyrinths at Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts
Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts supports experimental and experiential art. They have made themselves quite the legacy. They usually house group shows twice a year, with some solo shows in between when possible. The Spring Arts Walk show through May 24 is a local open call. The theme is Labyrinth, and it is a deeply intriguing show because of its multiple interpretations of this universal theme and the uses of varied materials and compositions.
Trans Trad Music Festival
by Lynette Charters Serembe Trans Trad Music Festival is co-directed by Alex Sturbaum (they/them) and Hayden Stern (he/his). Stern said with the election and the craziness of what is going on regarding the executive orders being enforced restricting transgender people, as artists, they were wondering what they could do as an act of resistance. Celebration …
Celery Jones and her Deliciously Crunchy Art
by Lynette Charters Serembe Celery Jones has been making art since she could hold a pencil. Her parents met at art school, and her mother, De Selby (dselby.com), went on to become a professional oil painter. Jones vividly recalls frustration during childhood art lessons with her mom De, as she guided her to hone her …
Saundra Fleming’s World
Much of Saundra Fleming’s art is quirky and humorous, but there is also intensity. Her raw, unabashed, expressive paintings are packed with the movement and disarray of her very personal experience of the world around her, laced with a heavy and welcome shot of humor to make it ever-so-slightly more, but not completely bearable, which, let’s face it, is not too far from what we’re experiencing as a nation … on steroids. Meaningful art for our times indeed.
SPSCC’s 14th Annual Fine Art Postcard Exhibition and Auction: “Forgotten Conversations”
Gallery Director Sean Barnes says of SPSCC’s annual postcard show: “I find the collective contributions from the community to be the most remarkable aspect of the exhibition auction. Every year 100 plus artists and non-artists contribute hundreds of small works inspired by the theme which are cultural and universal in nature. The show brings our creative community together to support the arts.”
Critic’s Corner: Best Visual and Performing Arts of 2024
Many of the South Sound’s best theater and visual arts critics write for OLY ARTS. We asked six of them to highlight some of their favorite visual and performance art shows from 2024, and we congratulate and celebrate the Olympia and Tacoma-area artists selected. Due to the limitation we put on the critics of no more than two or three shows, we are aware of and acknowledge that many great shows and artists were not picked. We are lucky to live in such a vibrant creative community.
Paper Trails at Childhood’s End
The current Childhood’s End Gallery show, up through December 23, is visually impressive and stimulating and yet simultaneously very relaxing to be with, demonstrating the versatility, and diversity of paper. The variety of styles and skills of the artists are cohesively unified by their shared love of the material.