by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS South Puget Sound Community College professor of art Joe Batt creates comically surrealistic ceramic figures of men and women, children and animals. Rabbits that look for all the world like they just stepped away from a Mad Hatter tea party appear to be his favorite creature creation &mash; and …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS Loralin Toney created Aquapia, the mixed-media sculpture on the cover of the Arts Walk map, in and around her tiny, off-the-grid home in Tenino. “I used to have a thousand-square-foot studio, and now I have a picnic table,” she said in a recent interview. “But I’m much happier here. …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Growing up in Bothell, Steve Bylsma loved drawing the natural world. The 2011 Evergreen State College graduate and freelance artist continually brings art and nature together. Bylsma enjoys creative problem solving, so his set-design work for Olympia Family Theater has been a perfect fit. “I generally enjoy designing sets …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Megan Bailey is an art student at The Evergreen State College. Allsorts is a private gallery operated out of the home of Lynette Charters Serembe and John Serembe. The painter and gallery match up for a short-run exhibition of Bailey’s most recent paintings. Lynette Serembe, an artist in her …
by Kelli Samson for OLY ARTS Most kids love to draw. The difference between artists like Corinna Luyken and many of us is she never stopped when she grew up. Luyken’s first book, The Book of Mistakes, was inspired by her young daughter crumpling her own artwork for the first time, declaring its imperfection. Luyken …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS Since 1974, the Nisqually river delta has been set aside for public enjoyment as the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. This biologically diverse estuary covers over 760 acres, the largest delta refuge in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a birdwatcher’s delight, with over 200 species alighting there each …
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, …
by Alec Clayton for OLY ARTS Coming next to The Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College is an exhibition of digital prints, sculptural objects, paintings and installations with sound components by Joe Hedges, assistant professor of painting and intermedia at Washington State University. Gallery director Nathan Barnes says he doesn’t yet know which of …
by Christian Carvajal for OLY ARTS According to the Daily Mail, there were over 200,000 wild lions in Africa three decades ago. Now there are a tenth of that number, with only five viable populations remaining on the vast continent. That’s why Madison Elementary is coming to the rescue. “Lion cubs are our mascot,” says …
by Molly Gilmore for OLY ARTS ((See the OLY ARTS Luminary Procession 2017 photo essay, taken by Shanna Paxton)) The subtler sibling to the many-splendored Procession of the Species, the Luminary Procession shines bright, filling the streets of Olympia with glowing paper lanterns and live music. When it began in 2009, this procession was intended …