Local Theater Makes It Big

Tacoma Little Theatre’s production of The Pillowman took top honors at the American Association of Community Theatre Region IX competition in Spokane this year and is going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the national finals in June.

“Facing North,” sculpture with moss and other natural materials by Lucy Gentry Meltzer, overhead natural wood frame by John Corzine, photo by Scot Whitney

REVIEW: Lucy Gentry Meltzer at Salon Refu

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Lucy Gentry Meltzer’s Biophilia Collection at Salon Refu is a selection of small voodoo dolls and sculptural figures on dress mannequins, standing on the floor and floating from a natural wood frame just below the gallery ceiling. Figuratively, they’re wood sprites, fairies, medieval warriors and goddesses, …

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“Chromosome Painting Edition II 1-X” by Geraldine Ondrizek, dyed silk, photo by Lynette Charters

REVIEW: Tracing Genetic Inheritance at The Evergreen State College

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Works from three major installations come together in the show Tracing Genetic Inheritance: Recent Work by Geraldine Ondrizek at The Evergreen State College art gallery. This is a highly unusual, beautiful and intelligent exhibition that combines science and art in ways that should open the mind …

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"And They Call This Home" (oil on linen panel), Kathy Gore-Fuss

REVIEW: Kathy Gore-Fuss at Salon Refu

VISUAL ARTS REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS The exhibition of drawings and paintings by Kathy Gore Fuss at Salon Refu offers proof positive that practice makes perfect. When she started plein air painting in the dense forests in and around Olympia, then later at the gritty, industrial Port of Olympia, she found her …

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Proteus (Adam St. John) and Valentine (Jeffrey Painter)

REVIEW: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

THEATER REVIEW by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Quoting director Scot Whitney’s notes in the program for Harlequin Productions’ The Two Gentlemen of Verona, “Probably no one had argued that it is (Shakespeare’s) best work. It’s not…The jokes are often cheap, strained or downright corny. And though Shakespeare always played fast and loose with time …

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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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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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Alec Clayton

OLY ARTS Editor Alec Clayton is an artist and writer. In addition to being the editor of and writing for OLY ARTS, he has written art and theater reviews and other feature articles for the Weekly Volcano, The News Tribune, Art Access, The Olympian, and Thurston Talk. His published novels include “Teacher,” “Tupelo,” the three …

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