Well,
yesterday was quite the day for the art adventures of Martha and Rod. Our day began first thing with a trip to the
Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. There we met up with Brenda Abney
the Director of the museum and headed out to the City Yard to take a look at
the parade float that is in storage there. This is the same float that we and a
group of friends used a couple of years ago for the Apple Blossom Parade and which
was used by another group last year while we did the Giant Puppets for the
parade.
The group
that Martha is part of that wants to use the float this year is the Embracing
Cultures group for which Martha has been designing and making colorful birds to
represent the national birds of the various countries represented. So far we
have one four and half foot or so bird taking shape in our home studio. The
float is in a trailer and it looks to be in OK shape, but I’ll need to come back
and charge the battery up to get it started.
After
leaving the city yard we paid a visit to Terry Johnson at his Terry Signs
Studio to see about enlisting his support with the float project. He was all
good with that and shared that several years ago he had been a float judge for
the Apple Blossom Parade. I hadn’t known about that; so that was interesting
news. He offered to let us use some of his outside space and whatever we
needed. Thanks Terry… you’re the best. While there I showed Martha the Seal project I am working on which will eventually have a diver along with it.
Upon
returning home we loaded up the car with the Harvest Pride sculpture for the
Quincy Library and several small to medium sized prints and original paintings
of Martha’s to take to the Soap Lake Art Guild for her talk there in the
evening. Martha continued to work on the giant bird project through the day while
got to do more mundane repairs and such at one of our rentals. Ugh… the work
never ends.
Ahh…. but then
it was time for the fun stuff again as we took to the road. First stop Quincy.
We were a bit early, so we had time to take a look around the new library
designed by Brad Brisbane, a fellow member of Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee,
and all the art that they have acquired so far. They had work by a number of artists
that we know. There were paintings by Diane Sanford, Jan Cook Mack and Moises Napoles
that we enjoyed. There was also a large oil by an artist named Don Nutt who we were not familiar
with that depicted Native Americans on horseback overlooking the Columbia River
as they watched the first white men coming down the river by boats. We, also saw where Martha's family constilation sculpture sits high atop a piller near the Children's Section of the library. And, of
course there was an oil landscape by Brad Brisbane, his ‘Crowning Glory’ as Roxa Kreimeyer of the
Quincy Library Foundation later described it. It is a great piece and it sits
in a place of honor, as well it should, as he is the designer of the building.
When Roxa
did arrive, we set to the task at hand of installing the ‘Harvest Pride’
sculpture in its own special alcove. It
sits nicely between two farm themed paintings by Consuelo Soto Murphey. As we looked and appraised the setting, Roxa
asked if we could make a pedestal to raise it up just a bit more and Martha
offered to come back and secure the loose vegetables in the basket as Roxa had
a concern that at some point some kids might fiddle with them. So; the work
goes on and all with joy.
After, the
visit with Roxa, we hit the road yet again this time out to Soap Lake, a place
neither of us had been to before. Martha who used to work for Grant County
Mental Health many years ago, thought she had been there, but had really only
been as far as the northern outskirts of Ephrata. Once there… again a bit
early, we drove around a bit and got out of the car to take a close look at the
‘Calling the Healing Waters’ Sculpture and Sundial by artists David Govedare
and Keith Powell, a project that was completed and installed just in 2009 and which sits right at the shore of the lake.
After
touring the town a bit more we went to the Masquers Theater where the Art Guild
of the Soap Lake Area holds their ‘3rd Wednesday’ art presentations. They were
in the middle of their board meeting when we arrived (early) so we quietly set
up the art we had brought with us for the presentation. It’s a nice live
theater building with a great Marquee outside that is visible from the moment
you enter town. And, as it turns out Soap Lake has a very active community
theater program which performs there regularly. The next play there we were
told will be ‘Sex Please, We’re Sixty’ a comedy… what else could it be with
that title. It starts in March… and it looks hilarious on their web site http://www.masquers.com/
… we might just take another trip out there to see it time permitting. 
Once set up
and after everybody had plenty of finger sandwiches and cookies… I love
cookies, we all filed into the theater and Martha was introduced by Allen Lundberg. She then gave an entertaining presentation capped
off with a rousing and dramatic recital of one of her poems and then took a few
questions. Everybody loved the art and listening to Martha. While visiting with
the crowd after the talk, I met Don Nutt who had painted that large oil of the
Native Americans and the first white explorers that we had seen at the Quincy
Library. He invited us to come up and visit him at his ‘Cariboo Trail Studio
Art Gallery & Visitor Center’ in Coolee City. Another day - another adventure to come. It
was fun visiting with Don and the other folks there, I even met someone from
L.A. and we chatted a bit about the old stomping grounds. It never ceases to
amaze me when I find fellow Angelinos in various far flung places such as Soap
Lake.
After
visiting a bit in the theater we all headed over to the new ‘Healing Water’ art
gallery across the street. There I got a chance to visit with the owner Bridget
Ann Oie who showed me some of her photos of the soap of Soap Lake and explained
a bit about the lake and its medicinal qualities to me. The gallery was nice
and had some interesting pieces by a number of artists. Who knew in Soap Lake...
well, it is a pretty new gallery.
Well, that
was quite enough for one day…. believe me. And, now to work helping Martha with
those giant birds. Have a very artful day.
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