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# A Look Inside the “Migration” exhibit at Northwind Art
- URL: https://www.jeffcobeacon.com/a-look-inside-the-migration-exhibit-at-northwind-art/
- Published: 2026-09-02T00:07:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T00:07:49.000Z
- Description: Artists explore personal history, birds and grandmothers in new exhibition.
- Author: Diane Urbani
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Northwind Art, Migration, Birds, Grandmas, Jeanette Best Gallery, Diane Urbani

As Carolyn King stepped forward to introduce her art, she invited her guests to pause and look inward. 

Think about your grandmother, she began. Visualize her in your mind’s eye. 

Then, turn to the person beside you, and speak her name. 

Suddenly, Northwind Art’s gallery filled up with names and conversations. Dozens of people turned and told one another about grandmas, nonnas, godmothers and bubbes, about Alma, Gertrude, Carmen, Mary and Mimi. 

King beamed. Her series, “El Espíritu de la Abuelas,” is six mixed-media artworks honoring grandmas—abuelas in Spanish—in Mexico, where King lived for two decades. 

The reason the artist invited the crowd to invoke their grandmothers, she said, was to bring a particular vibration into the gallery. 

“The love and energy and joy that we brought into this room was the energy I was inspired by to make these pieces,” King said. 

“I am not of Mexican descent. I went to Mexico at 19,” she added. 

King, who now lives in Tucson, Ariz., is one of four makers whose work is part of the “Migration” exhibition at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St. Port Townsend artists Kate Flores, Mary O’Shaughnessy and Loran Scruggs join her in presenting work that explores movement and resilience—of wildlife, people and ideas—across continents. 

![“They Dance,” a 56x42” charcoal piece of two blue herons by Kate Flores.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/a2/c6a241c6-69f5-450c-9fd7-6b170730e448/content/images/2026/09/They-Dance-Kate-Flores-.jpg)

**“They Dance,” a 56x42” charcoal piece by Kate Flores, appears in the “Migration” exhibit at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery. Image courtesy of Kate Flores* 

Northwind Art will celebrate the show and the artists this Saturday during Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Everyone is invited to enjoy refreshments and conversation, while more information is found at [https://northwindart.org](https://northwindart.org/?ref=jeffcobeacon.com). 

A self-described kid from suburban Chicago, King had planned to study for one month at the art institute in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. Instead, she stayed, and came to know people such as Doña Perlita, a woman who sold flowers on the steps of the art school. 

“When I learned enough Spanish to sit on the steps and speak with her, we learned we had something amazing in common,” King recalled. 

Both women had been models for figure drawing classes. Doña Perlita wore flowers and a traditional rebozo shawl. King wore a hat, sometimes. 

![A picture of a purple martin sitting on a branch made of various materials. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/a2/c6a241c6-69f5-450c-9fd7-6b170730e448/content/images/2026/09/Purple-Martin-Loran-Scruggs.jpeg)

**“Purple Martin” by Loran Scruggs is part of the “Migration” exhibit on view through September 28 at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery. Image courtesy of Loran Scruggs* 

Doña Perlita, also an artist who specialized in embroidery, is depicted in “La Bordadora Otomi,” one of the pieces in King’s “Migration” series. So are “La Reinita de Tehuantepec,” a Oaxacan woman King painted holding an iguana. This creature is a symbol of resilience and transformation, the artist noted. “La Reinita” is a tribute to photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo (1903-1993), who documented the women of Tehuantepec and other places in Mexico. 

Facing King’s work in the gallery are drawings, paintings and mixed media art by Flores, who found inspiration from another source. She learned, about two years ago, that hundreds of thousands of birds migrate over Jefferson County each fall. This led to a kind of pilgrimage: Flores traveled to eastern Washington for the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, where she beheld the birds in their dances. 

![Artist Mary O’Shaughnessy gestures at sculpture of a pile of small skulls. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/a2/c6a241c6-69f5-450c-9fd7-6b170730e448/content/images/2026/09/Mary-O-Shaughnessy-with-We-Are-All-One-Family.jpg)

**Artist Mary O’Shaughnessy discusses her piece “We Are All One Family,” part of the “Migration” exhibit at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery. Photo by Diane Urbani* 

O’Shaughnessy, meanwhile, focused on her own Irish-Celtic heritage. In materials ranging from cast glass to pastels, plaster and beeswax, she created pieces titled “We Are All One Family” and “Migration of Life,” a collection of molded, painted seeds recalling the ones migrants carried to new homelands. 

![Carolyn King discusses “La Bordadera Otomi” standing in front of a painting of a woman sewing. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c6/a2/c6a241c6-69f5-450c-9fd7-6b170730e448/content/images/2026/09/Carolyn-King-with-La-Bordadora-Otomi.jpg)

**Carolyn King discusses “La Bordadera Otomi,” one of her pieces in the “Migration” exhibit at Northwind Art. Photo by Diane Urbani*

Recycled materials—tin cans and bottle caps especially—are Scruggs’ chosen medium. Using bright yellow, red, purple and blue metal cuttings, she shows us migratory birds of various sizes, alongside young salmon. 

“The nature of life is movement,” a statement frequently attributed to Aristotle, “is what really fascinated me,” said O’Shaughnessy. 

“Migration” will stay on view through September 28 at the gallery, which is open noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Images of all of the works in the show, as well as information about Northwind’s exhibits and classes, is found at [https://northwindart.org/collections/shop](https://northwindart.org/collections/shop?ref=jeffcobeacon.com).