PORT TOWNSEND — Joy, color and passion is what artist Lacy Muhich wants to transmit with her creations.
Muhich is one of 11 new artists in the Showcase 2026 exhibit opening Monday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., Port Townsend.
She makes sculptures from maple, pine and walnut wood, paints them with vivid acrylics and gives them titles such as “The Wanderer,” “Tides & Time,” “Vast” and “The Drifter.”
Muhich’s work will go on display alongside scores of other creations by fellow artists. For more about the show and other Northwind activities, visit Northwind Art.org.
The varied exhibition will stay on view through March 16, with an opening celebration set for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 7 during Port Townsend’s monthly Art Walk. The free public event will include refreshments and a conversation with the artists.
The Northwind Art exhibition marks a new start for Muhich. She earned an art degree at the Columbus, Ohio, College of Art & Design, and then went to work for Amazon in Seattle. For nine years, she was the company’s global brand creative director.
Then, last year, Muhich knew it was time for a change — a big one.
“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, quitting this stable job,” she said.
Yet she felt called to return to her artistic roots. Her 40th birthday on the horizon, Muhich taught herself how to work with wood, and she remembered how she loved to make things by hand.
“I like to paint in large chunks of time … I get into a flow state,” she said, during which many hours feel like, oh, 30 minutes.
Muhich works on several pieces at a time, so if she gets stuck on one, she can move to another for a while.
Muhich’s sculptures are part of the Showcase 2026 mix that also includes dreamlike painted scenes by Mindy Dwyer, encaustic works by Thya Merz, digital paintings by Roger Morris, photography by Thompson Holmes and Melinda Martinez Robinson, whimsical acrylics by Corinne Humphrey, abstract paintings by Linnie Hodge and Lucia Enriquez, and color-saturated landscapes and florals by Louis Hurlbut and Lynda Burgan.
These artists come from Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Sequim, Snohomish, King and Kitsap counties, Seattle and Olympia. They compose round one of the year-long Showcase 2026 exhibit, and they will have their work on view through May 11.
The second round, with a cohort of 12 new artists, will open May 14 and continue through Sept. 7. The third cohort will run from Sept. 10 through Jan. 4, 2027.
“Showcase 2026 is a way to discover artwork like you have never seen before,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
“It is so exciting to have the variety of artists here: from professionals to emerging makers who are showing in a gallery for the first time.”
Jeanette Best Gallery’s regular hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. The venue, named after the late artist and supporter of the arts in Jefferson County, also hosts shorter exhibitions, including “Confluence,” a dual show featuring artist and naturalist Darwin Nordin and sculptor and teacher Kristin Tollefson.
“Confluence” is supported by the sponsorship of Sylvia White, an artist and cofounder of the original Northwind Arts Center who lives in Port Townsend.
Muhich, for her part, hopes to share the joy art making has given her. She empathizes, after all, with people who are feeling burned out.
“I like choosing colors and topics that are joyful,” Muhich said.
“We don’t have enough color and joy in our lives … I try to inspire people to find their own passions — the things that light them up.”
