Paintings by Bill Collins

Bill Collins Paintings at Allsorts Gallery

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Here’s a match made in heaven: Bill Collins and Allsorts Gallery. Olympia native Bill Collins has been painting pictures for 38 years. Allsorts is the living and dining rooms of artist Lynette Charters’ Olympia home, which every few months is turned into an art gallery. Charters says of Collins, …

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Kathy Gore-Fuss, Gabi Clayton, and Susan Christian at Salon Refu

Story Time at Salon Refu

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Olympia’s ever-surprising art gallery Salon Refu is instituting story time for the holiday season. Local poets, writers, storytellers and, as gallery owner Susan Christian puts it, “people of good will and excellent language skills” will read their work every Thursday through Sunday in December. During the month of December …

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"Tracing Genetic Inheritance," exhibit by Geraldine Ondrizek

Geraldine Ondrizek Visual Art Exhibit

by Christina Butcher for OLY ARTS Geraldine Ondrizek, artist and professor of art in Portland, Oregon, works in the crossroad between visual art, architecture and medical research. Her ongoing exhibit, Tracing Genetic Inheritance, is a synthesis of three of her most-recent collections (Chromosome Painting Edition II 1-X, Shades of White and mtDNA) and addresses issues …

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Julie Creighton, "A Favorite Place"

Oly Artists to Show in Bicoastal Exhibition

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Two Olympia-area artists have been chosen to show work in the bicoastal exhibitions Coast to Coast West in Seattle and Coast to Coast East in New York beginning in October and sponsored by The National Association of Women Artists and Women Painters of Washington. These artists are Susan Flora …

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Christine Malek

Gallery Boom Explodes

by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Gallery Boom, opening Oct. 1 in downtown Olympia, has come a long way. Geographically, it’s moved only four miles from its first home in the Fred Meyer parking lot in Tumwater, where it began two years ago as part of the city’s business incubator program. The big change: The …

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Margaret Noble, "Resonating Objects"

REVIEW: Margaret Noble’s “Resonating Objects” at SPSCC

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) gallery director Nathan Barnes noted that Margaret Noble’s exhibition “Resonating Objects” begs the question, “What is art?” Is it just painting and sculpture? What about sound, movement, light? What are the boundaries between visual art and the performing arts? There …

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Nikki McClure

Nikki McClure Nurtured by Olympia Art Scene

by Ned Hayes for OLY ARTS Once upon a time, Nikki McClure hung out with Olympia’s own “riot grrrls.” She danced on stage at Nirvana’s early performances and labored alongside K Records founder Calvin Johnson on a light table used for music newsletters. Over time, McClure also became a well-regarded papercut artist and began selling …

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From "My Love Hath / Kissed in Fixing," art by Shaw Osha

REVIEW: Shaw Osha’s “My Love Hath / Kissed in Fixing” at Salon Refu

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Salon Refu owner Susan Christion posted this on Facebook: “I have an art gallery, Salon Refu. This evening we finished installing a quiet, enticing, initially mysterious show of works by Shaw Osha, my friend and an important artist. Sometimes I don’t understand what Shaw is doing …

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"I Long to Be Free From Longing," sculpture by Margaret Noble

Margaret Noble’s “Resonating Objects”

by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS “Look, don’t touch” is a general rule with art. But “Resonating Objects,” at The Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC), invites viewers to touch and then listen. The exhibition of Margaret Noble’s sculptures incorporating sound, along with a video installation, has its opening reception Sept. 23. Noble’s …

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The new bookmobile with artists (from left to right) Nikki McClure, Ira Coyne and Jay T. Scott.

Olympia Library’s New Bookmobile

by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The downtown Olympia Timberland Regional Library now has a child-size, handmade bookmobile built by local woodworker Jay T. Scott, with a painting of otters on the back by artist Nikki McClure. On the side is an aphorism hand-lettered by Ira Coyne–“You Otter Be READING!”–and a poem, also lettered by …

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