PORT TOWNSEND — A rescue dog, the moon, the beach: These are inspirations for the artists in the new Showcase 2024 exhibit in downtown Port Townsend.
Northwind Art, the nonprofit organization based here, will open this new show Thursday and celebrate with the artists during Art Walk on Saturday evening.
The Showcase exhibition fills the entire back space of the Jeanette Best Gallery at 701 Water St. through the end of the year.
“Every three months, we’ll bring in a new remix of artists from around the region,” said Northwind Art spokesperson Diane Urbani.
“The show opens with artwork from 17 makers from Port Townsend, Quilcene, Sequim, Port Angeles, Chimacum, Indianola, Bainbridge Island and San Juan Island,” she added, noting that more than 100 works of art are part of Showcase 2024.
“Glass, clay, found objects, vivid colors of paint, ink and fiber are among the media appearing in this exhibition,” Urbani said.
Sunlight is yet another medium, in the form of Kathy Fridstein’s photography. She walks the beach near her Port Townsend home, watching the tides come and go, and photographing the sea life and stones.
“I am in awe of the gravitational pull of the moon and sun that create these lovely, transitory and ever-changing beach deposits,” Fridstein said.
Showcase 2024 artist Corinne Humphrey has always dabbled in photography, but it wasn’t until she adopted Rudy, a mutt, that inspiration “flooded my brain,” as she put it.
Humphrey now creates paintings that reflect the joy — and learning — she shares with her dog.
She also writes children’s books along similar lines.
Shelley Jaye, a geologist, also walks the beach with her pup, Leon. Her art form is mosaic. One of the new artists in Showcase 2024, Jaye forages rocks and turns them into complex works of art.
Kate Dwyer is a longtime member of the Port Townsend art community who’s bringing her fabric bowls into Showcase. The seed for these creations was planted when she walked into a fabric store and, dazzled by colorful materials, wanted to make something out of them.
But Dwyer doesn’t sew.
Instead, she learned to make adapted papier-maché bowls, and now, besides showing them in galleries, she teaches classes in her art form at Northwind Art School.
“Many of the Showcase artists will be on hand during Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. So people who are curious about their creative process can come and chat,” Urbani said.
Other artists whose work is being unveiled include painters John Holm, Diane Walker, Sandra Offutt and Linda Tilley of Port Townsend; woodworker Evan Miller of Sequim; printmaker Kelli MacConnell of Chimacum; painter Elizabeth Reutlinger of Quilcene; painter Donna LaHue and etcher Egor Shokoladov of Port Angeles; glass artist Dennis Rogers and painter Vivian Chesterley of Bainbridge Island; abstract painter Leslie Newman of Indianola; and ceramicist Craig Britton of San Juan Island.
For more about Showcase 2024 and Northwind Art’s activities, see https://northwindart.org. The site’s Courses page also features classes and workshops for adults and youth at Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park.
Northwind Art can be reached at 360-379-1086.
Shelley Jaye’s mosaic titled “Porphyry Celebration” appears in Showcase 2024, Northwind Art’s exhibition opening this week in downtown Port Townsend.
“Petrichor” by Chimacum printmaker Kelli MacConnell is part of the new Showcase 2024 exhibit at Northwind Art’s gallery in downtown Port Townsend.
