With colorful and creative pieces made with paint, wood, clay, collage, metals, pastels and even light itself, the 2022 ARTjam event is bringing another bumper crop of creativity to Rock Hollow Farm this weekend.
The community is invited, admission free, to the latest iteration of ARTjam from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Friday through Sunday at the farm, 505 E. Silberhorn Road, where a dozen artists working in a variety of disciplines will showcase their art.
They’ll be joined by a multitude of musicians and spoken-word performers on the Apple Tree Stage, along with a return performance by interpretive dancer Mary Lou Sanelli.
ARTjam is interactive as well, with art-making opportunities at the Community Paints tent, where attendees can splash color on canvas or on masks.
The event is handicap accessible, said longtime ARTjam artist Susan Gansert Shaw; people of all abilities “can pick up a brush and enjoy the fun.”
Attendees can walk a labyrinth or stroll the paths on the 10-acre site or simply hunker down and enjoy the scenery.
“I like it that people can come out and not feel pressure (to create),” Shaw said.
In addition, ARTjam will have an “open jam” from 4 to 5 p.m. on Sunday for musicians to close out the festivities.
A showcase piece, Shaw said, will be ARTjam member Ross Brown’s Sky Viewing Gazebo, set up in the hollow right outside the labyrinth.
Brown, who in 2020 installed a series of wind-activated sculptures that were placed in the field behind the barn, said his gazebo creation is based on the work of James Turrell, who has been working with light his entire art career.
His piece, with its centerpiece a triangle with color created by natural reflection from a painted surface, is a 6-foot by 6-foot by 8-foot sky viewer inspired by Turrell’s massive art project at the Roden Crater in Arizona — itself an ongoing project Turrell calls “a gateway to observe light, time and space.”
Also featured is ARTjam’s collective piece of art the group will auction — a drop-leaf table “combining the creative spark of the jam’s eight members,” with all proceeds going to the Sequim Food Bank.
“All eight of us have worked on it,” Shaw said, explaining that member Stephen Portner disassembled the piece and distributed it to the group to work on.
“We did it sight unseen; [we] never knew what the other was doing,” Shaw said.
Last year, the group’s painted chair that was auctioned off at ARTjam to benefit the food bank raised nearly $800.
The artists
Along with the eight participating members, the 2022 ARTjam event showcases four guest artists, including student artist Milia Nelson, doing block printing.
“She’s delightful (and) very, very sharp,” Shaw said.
Making a return trip to Sequim is Karin Anderson, a multimedia artist and ARTjam regular who moved to Santa Fe, along with abstract painter Terry Grasteit, a former ARTjam member, and Mike McCollum with new wood and resin boxes and 2D works.
Shaw, who is host and whose art involves paint, pastel and Susu sticks, has a “Circle of Lips” piece she’ll have on hand during the weekend event.
Other participating 2022 ARTjam members — affectionately known as the “Barn People” — include Brown, a fine sculptor and sky viewing expert; Lynne Armstrong, a painter who “draws” with paint; Brian Buntain, a silver and goldsmith of fine jewelry; Linda Collins Chapman, ceramicist/sculptural and functional works/new mixed media 2D work; Mary Franchini, a painter who loves to experiment; Portner, a fine woodwork artist Stephen; and Sharman Owings, a figurative painter.
For more information, visit RockHollowArts.com.
