Visual Art Review: The Personal is Political

Visual Art Review: the annual postcard show at South Puget Sound Community College ART REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS You’ll find the good, the bad and the you-gotta-be-kidding-me at the annual postcard exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College. There are professional artists in the show, including many of Olympia’s best, and there …

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Visual Art Review: Jennifer Lauer at All Sorts Gallery

Visual Art Review by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jennifer Lauer’s Color and Light at All Sorts Gallery is a little gem of a show of still life and landscape painting in a classical modernist tradition. Lauer lays on lush layers of paint reminiscent of Wayne Thiebaud, with colors such as seen in Wolf Kahn’s …

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Kathy Gore-Fuss: At Home in Nature

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS For nearly four decades, the art of Olympia artist Kathy Gore-Fuss has moved through a fascinating metamorphosis from multi-media, surrealistic, abstract and symbolic to paintings that are as traditional as naturalism en plein air landscapes. Her gradual shift has not removed the indelible and unique signature look of her …

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Jeffree Stewart’s Breath and Bone Songs

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Jeffree Stewart has been making art in the Olympia area since the 1970s. Just off a month-long solo show at the Pierce College Steilacoom Fine Art Gallery, he is now showing a group of some 10 to 15 paintings at Allsorts Gallery in Olympia. Stewart is nothing if not …

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REVIEW: Susan Christian’s Long Journey

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Susan Christian’s paintings at Stable Studios are the real deal. They are painting as painting is meant to be: simple, straight forward, unpretentious and with no trickery whatsoever. Some might see the cut-off figures, oddly elongated formats and mysterious scenes as gimmickry, but they’re not; they …

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Olympia Beer advertisement: "Always Welcome"

“It’s the Art” of Olympia Beer Advertising

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS “It’s the water” is the slogan that put Olympia on the map — even though Olympia Beer was brewed in Tumwater. Now the Olympia Tumwater Foundation is hosting an art show called It’s the Art! It’s sponsored by O Bee Credit Union and features 58 advertising artworks created for …

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“Intimacy Happens,” mixed media by Marilyn Frasca, photo courtesy of the artist

REVIEW: Marilyn Frasca at Childhood’s End

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Marilyn Frasca is a marvel. If there was ever such a thing as a must-see show, it’s Frasca’s show of some 56 drawings at Childhood’s End Gallery. This exhibition is the result of a lifetime, so far, of making, studying and teaching art. Her drawing style …

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"Go-Stay," painting by Susan Christian

Susan Christian at Stable Studios

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Stable Studios is tucked away in an easy-to-overlook building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Olympia. The artist it’ll feature for Arts Walk this fall is anything but little-known. She’s Susan Christian, former owner of Salon Refu and a painter who’s been showing her work …

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Tom Rieger, left, and Amos Callender, right. Photo courtesy Thomas Architecture Studios.

Sand Carving at Thomas Architecture Studios

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS For the two days of Arts Walk and approximately a week thereafter, Thomas Architecture Studios will present sand carvings by Amos Callender and Tom Rieger. TAS is a combined architectural studio and art gallery. Callender says various factors will determine exactly how long the work is on view. Last year …

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Mariella Luz

Mariella Luz at Fall Arts Walk 2017

by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS In any community you’ll find people like Mariella Luz, who not only participate in the arts but actively support them. She does so through her work as a studio potter, instructor at Arbutus Folk School and founder and director of Olympia All Ages Project. Luz sits on the boards …

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