Islanders can see new art up close and personal at several island galleries this Friday and continuing, in most cases, through November. Wear a mask and follow social distancing and other safety protocols at all local art spots, as you would at any other place in public.
Anu Rana’s Healthy Kitchen
Local artist Suzanna Leigh is celebrating fall while offering a way to help island neighbors, with her show of 6 inches by 6-inch paintings on silk, at Anu Rana’s Healthy Kitchen. Islanders can take one home for a donation of $25 to Home to Vashon, payable through Leigh’s online store (Suzannas-school-and-studio.square.site) or by check or cash. Home to Vashon provides ferry tickets home to islanders who must travel across the water for medical appointments. The show will be on view through Nov. 30.
The Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery
A two-person show, “The Natural World,” will open at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. Animal paintings by Steffon Moody and animal mosaics by Kristen Reitz-Green will be in the show.
Reitz-Green is a local painter best known for her large-scale works of food. She also works in other mediums including mosaic, lapidary, and jewelry. Reitz-Gree turned to the visual arts after a career in classical music as a French Horn player. She currently shows work throughout the Pacific Northwest and has pieces in collections around the country.
Reitz-Green said she has long created mosaic works, but especially so during the time of the pandemic.
“With much upheaval surrounding us this year, it seemed timely to summon another voice in creating new work, rather than my most familiar medium of oils,” she said. “The natural world has always been my personal resource for renewal and the events of this year have made that feel even more crucial.”
Mosaics, like this one of an owl, are included in a two-person show of works by Kristin Reitz-Green and Steffon Moody, at The Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery (Kristin Reitz-Green Artwork).
Moody began his career as a visual artist at the age of 16, working as a theatrical set painter at the Muny Opera in St. Louis. He now teaches drawing and environment design at DigiPen School of Technology.
“In fourth grade, I would ride my bike to the St. Louis Zoo and spend all day there,” he said in a statement about his new paintings. “Just me and hundreds of exotic animals. I would pet the whiskers of Siegfried the one-eyed walrus. I’d watch giraffes reach down and stick out long blue tongues hoping for handouts. Giant gorillas would look back at me, bored, behind bars. And the tigers would always pace, endlessly. The three large oil paintings [in the show] are reaching back to then and setting those animals free.”
Other works by Moody in the show depict birds, drawn from photographs by Jim Diers.
Open Space for Arts & Community
A new public mural, with works arranged in a quilt-like square, now permanently hangs outdoors at Open Space for Arts & Community. The recently unveiled mural is part of Open Space’s Attention! Artists at Work jobs program for local artists. A stop to see the mural is best done during the day when the sun is shining. Local artists whose work is included in the mural include Bob Horsley, Odin Lonning, Kate Shinn, Hope Black, Robert Passig, Lenard Yen, Sharon Shaver, Rowan Schroeder, Madeleine Schroeder, Vera Schöpe, Carolina Silva, Jackie Merrill, Pedro Alvarez, Kathleen Webster, Kristen Reitz-Green, Cyra Jane, Lori Walters, Pearl Barry, Paulina Barry, Donna J Caulton and Julia Montagnet. To read more about each work in the mural, visit openspacevashon.org/the-mural-project.
Vashon Center for the Arts
The arts center will host a group exhibit by 21 Seattle-area artists from Fogue Studio & Gallery, in the Georgetown neighborhood. The gallery has both studio and gallery space and is dedicated to artists aged 50 and older. Its owner, Patti Curtis, is a new resident of Vashon. She recently announced that she is opening a second gallery in West Seattle.
At age 53, Curtis lost her job. After seeing that companies were not hiring people her age, she set out to dispel the myths of ageism, and in particular within the art world. She combined her art education with more than 30 years of marketing and retail experience and created a space where older artists with a wide range of life and professional experiences feel relevant and inspired.
“The future is celebrating our creativity right now by tearing down the rearview mirror and hitting the gas pedal,” Curtis said.
Curtis launched her idea in June 2018, and by June 2019, Fogue had expanded into a 6,000-square-foot art studio and gallery space with 37 artists and an online store.
VCA’s group show includes 21 artists and will open from 12 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, and run through Nov. 28. The show includes watercolors, acrylics, encaustics, ceramics, Indian ink, resin, mixed media, and found objects. VCA’s gallery hours are 12 noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. For more information visit foguestudios.com and vashoncenterforthearts.org.
VALISE
VALISE will host its annual 5” x 5” show opening, from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. See what the member artists of this cooperative gallery have created within these tiny dimensions in oils, encaustics, acrylics, assemblage, collage and even prose. All works cost $75 for 25 square inches of artistic real estate. Hours in November will continue from 1 to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. In addition to masks and social distancing requirements, only five people at one time are allowed into the gallery.
