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A few miles away from a heavily trafficked exit off I-5, a 122 year-old bunkhouse once used by dike workers sits clinging to the edge of the north fork of the Skagit River. It seems to defy our present-day world. This is the home and workspace of painter and ceramic artist Natalie Niblack. It was a hot late August afternoon when I went to visit. Niblack's faithful dog, Lillybelle, ushered me through a screened door to her studio. A fan sent a cool breeze throughout the cabin, blending...
Joanna Sikes, the Museum of Northwest Art's development director from 2021-22 and executive director, 2018-2021, said goodbye to her leadership roles at MoNA in November. Sikes has had a long and storied career in the arts, one which she found quite actually by accident. It began in the 1960s in her early days at the University of California at Davis, where she had planned to become a veterinarian. Davis, located in California's Central Valley, a largely a rural farming country, was the perfect...
It is low tide on the Samish River. A man pauses at his cabin door to watch a bald eagle soaring overhead. Across the way, a venerable red barn, once used to store pea crops, leans into the tall summer grasses. A peacock displays his royal plumage by a steel ramp leading to a houseboat tied to the dock. This is the floating studio of northwest painter and sculptor Todd Horton. Horton waves from his decommissioned houseboat on the river's edge of the tiny town of Edison. The artist has chosen to...
Surrounded by a carefully curated assortment of tiny toys and random delights, Tom Robbins, one of the most engaging writers of serio-comic culture, leans over his keyboard. He is replying to one of the many love letters received daily from his fandom. It is July and the fireplace crackles inside this 148 year-old cabin in La Conner. Here and there, tables and shelves overflow with treasured memorabilia reflecting the boyish sweetness of a childhood maintained. Notable amongst this collection...
As the Museum of Northwest Art rolled into its 40th year it had become increasingly clear that the COVID-19 pandemic would once again restrict MoNA’s annual art auction. The traditional in-person excitement that MoNA depended on to support this fundraiser was, for a second year, at stake. Not knowing how the community would respond after a long and extremely difficult year fighting the COVID-19 virus, MoNA reached out to local volunteers and asked us to co-chair the auction committee with G...
Seventy-five miles south of the Skagit Valley, at the Bellevue Art Museum, glass sculptor Steve Klein is delivering a powerful message. At BAM’s Biennial 2018, “GLASSTASTIC,” a new, juried exhibition showing the work of 40 Pacific Northwest artists, Klein’s work sits proudly amongst the multiple installations. Klein, an internationally recognized glass artist, is digging in his heels. He has taken on our moral failings and his narration is loud and clear: we have allowed the abundance and bea...
