VCA names seven commissioned artists for upcoming art auction
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Honoring a long-standing tradition, Vashon Center for the Arts chose seven island artists to create special pieces of art for its annual auction, “Swing Time at VCA 2017,” slated for 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 22 and 23.
The auction is the nonprofit’s largest annual fundraiser. Last year, the event raised more than $150,000 for scholarships. Monies raised come from bids on signature experiences and artwork by more than 150 artists.
Featured artists for Friday night’s event, “Friday Night Dance Hall,” will include three island artists: Candy Gamble, Christina Nichols and Kathy Pine.
Gamble is a landscape photographer whose strong connection to place keeps her coming back to capture beloved images of the natural beauty found in California’s Redwood National Park, southern Oregon’s coastal wilds and central Washington’s plateaus. Her commissioned piece, “Lone Juniper,” was taken on Wyoming’s high plains, where she has deep family roots. Every year, she photographs the century-old tree. Gamble was also one of the early architects of VCA’s Artists in the School program.
Christina Nichols’ commissioned piece, “Communion,” combines etching, collagraph and pastel to tell a story that she hopes will inspire others to discover their own. Her own story takes place on Vashon, where she’s lived as an artist and art teacher for 35 years. The island’s natural landscapes and animals have inspired the prints she makes with Quartermaster Press. Artists who inspire her include Art Hansen, Wolf Kahn and Hokusai. She’s sold her work at Pike Place Market for nearly 30 years.
Kathy Pine, who many islanders know as the manager of the Heron’s Nest, has been creating jewelry for the past 20 years. A decade ago, she studied with Arline Fisch, a well-known metal artist who originated the wire-weaving method, a time-consuming technique that Pine enjoys and used in her commissioned piece. The delicate basket weave necklace and earrings are set in sterling and woven with fine silver, with one long, single 14-carat gold fill thread.
Saturday night — “Swing Saturday at the Savoy” — will include work by commissioned artists Ted Kutscher, Shawn Nordsfor and Julie Speidel and will honor Penny Grist as the celebrated senior artist, an award that originated last year. Without Grist’s many efforts over several decades, Vashon Center for the Arts would not be what it is today. She launched the original art auction in 1977 with a $5 spaghetti dinner and cheap red wine, introduced the Garden Tour, volunteered and worked for Vashon Allied Arts and contributed to the art auction since 1977. In response to her award of distinction, Grist donated her last mosaic sculpture, “Have a Ball,” to be auctioned. Grist said it reminds her of sunrise over Puget Sound.
For the past 25 years, longtime islander Ted Kutscher’s paintings have been a highlight of the auction. This year, the artist will offer “Island Wedding Arrival,” an image of young children riding the ferry to Vashon. Kutscher, who sketches on the ferry during his commute to Seattle, said he sees “things I like from a color and design perspective that’s evocative and either sketch or photograph it.” Celebrated for his landscapes, Kutscher studied figurative art for the last five years at Gage Academy with sculptor, teacher, “muse” and islander Michael McGrath. Kutscher credits his mother, Joan, also an artist, for giving him paints while he attended law school, saying: “You need to do this.”
Seattle native and island resident Shawn Nordfors has always been captivated by faces, which led him to study painting and sculpture at Cornish College of the Arts. On a Fulbright Scholarship in Africa, he combined portraiture with larger-than-life wood carvings, which have been shown at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bellevue Art Museum and VCA’s Koch Gallery. His commissioned piece, “Kekaye,” was inspired by a sculpture from King Tut’s tomb.
Internationally renowned artist Julie Speidel is known for her bronze and steel sculpture, but she continues to experiment in new mediums. Recently intrigued with the baren, a hand tool used in Japanese woodblock printing, Speidel worked with fine, handmade paper called kozo, walnut oil, hand inks and the baren to create “Aisling.” She said the hand process allows more control and “results in unbelievable transparency.” Speidel has shown this new work in Sun Valley, New York and Palm Desert.
Both evenings will offer swing music and dance performances by Ben White and Ariel Goh, cocktails from Seattle Distillery and dinner by Herban Feast.
Tickets are sold at vashoncenterforthearts.org.
