visual art

South Sound Studio Tour is Looking for New Board Members

Many area residents and visitors have loved participating in the South Sound Studio Tour, seeing local artists’ creations up close and personal, talking with the artists about their art, and in many instances watching the magic of turning blank sheets of paper or canvas, hunks of clay or found materials into works of art. Now the Studio Tour is looking for volunteers to serve on the board, specifically, to fill the Outreach Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator roles.

Lightwire Theater’s The Adventures of Tortoise and Hare

You know how the race ended — but the story was just beginning. Lightwire Theater’s The Adventures of Tortoise and Hare: The Next Gen picks up a decade after the finish line, where Old Man Tortoise and Big Daddy Hare are now fathers navigating a world of smartphones and video games. When Tortoise Junior and …

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Artist Profile: Susan Christian Is Still Not Letting People Go to Sleep

Susan Christian has lived in Olympia for 54 years and she has been central to the arts community here. Irritated that there were few places for artists to show art, in 2011 she started Salon Refu Gallery downtown. There she showed many local artists, held poetry readings, book readings, and artist talks. It was a joyous hub of the local arts community. Speaking of her own work, Christian says she very intentionally doesn’t paint pictures of things, nor suggestions of things either. She describes her work as someone “touching the surface.” She points out that art needs to be visible and, not one for complacency, she was “not going to let people go to sleep.”

Slow Work by Susan Christian and Steve Belz at Childhood’s End

Slow Work is an excellent art exhibition featuring paintings on wooden lathe with a sea full of blue by Susan Christian and bonfire fired pottery by Steve Belz at Childhood’s End Gallery in Olympia — thought provoking, deceptively simple and beautiful art. This is a must-see exhibition through July 26.

Puget Sound Book Artists’ 15th Annual Membership Exhibition

The Puget Sound Book Artists are highlighting artists who have transformed the bare bones of books into fractals, dioramas, sculptures, and stunning blossoms of origami. The exhibition is running through June 30 at University of Puget Sound, appropriately in the Collins Memorial Library; surrounded by thousands of bog-standard books, the books being exhibited are wild and frequently abstract. One uniting factor among the works is the theme of “15,” which is interpreted in various ways.

Abe Singer’s Grass Lake Park sculptures

Sculptor Abe Singer turned an old water tank as large as a boxcar into a series of sculptures for Olympia’s Grass Lake Park. The water tank was on the park property before the recent park renovation. It was to be removed as part of the renovation, but instead of sending the tank to a scrapyard, the city thought it would be cool if someone could repurpose it for art. The city said they would deliver the tank to the selected artist if the destination was within 60 miles of the park. Singer lives on a farm in rural Montesano, so when he was selected for this project, the city delivered the tank to his shop on the farm property where it now keeps company with his turkeys. He utilized pieces of the massive tank to create the two mushroom entryway sculptures as well as the bird blind sculpture on the bridge.

Peek Into Artists’ Process on Studio Tour

“The point of the studio tour is to allow people to go behind the scenes and see how the work is made.” said Susan Aurand, acting president of the South Sound Studio Tour’s board of directors. Many artists are sharing their studio space with colleagues for the tour, happening the last weekend of May in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, so there’ll be about 80 artists involved, showing their work and offering insights into their methods.

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