PORT ANGELES — A Jamestown S’Klallam tribal artist is carving out a welcome for the Peninsula College House of Learning Longhouse.
The public is invited to watch master carver Jeff Monson at work throughout most of the summer as he crafts the Welcome Figure for the entrance to the Longhouse on the college’s Port Angeles campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Visitors can see his progress and ask him about the process in a specially designed work area, marked by a white tent, near the Science and Technology Building, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe gave the college the cedar log that Monson is carving when the Longhouse opened in October 2007.
A blessing ceremony for the log was conducted in late May, led by Ben Charles, an elder of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
Monson began work on it June 1.
A ceremony marking the completion of the Welcome Figure is expected later this year.
This program is funded by a grant from the U.S .Department of Education Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
