Art and Life at Northwind
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Teaching artist Jodi Ericksen discusses the "On the Road Again" piece in her Aging Creatively gallery talk. The piece by Elissa Greisz is on view at Northwind Art's Jeanette Best Gallery. Photo by Diane Urbani/Northwind Art. [/caption]
A Northwind Art Column by Diane Urbani
Writer Anna Quinn once reminded me about the ‘deeper why.’ When you’re toiling away at everyday tasks, hunched at a screen for hours, you’ve got to remember the deeper reasons for working this job.
So, what’s my “why” at Northwind? It’s revealing — reaffirming — the secret powers of art.
When people participate in a class or walk around the gallery (see below for details), they’re stepping inside a haven, a place free of hurry and insincerity.
I see it happen at the art school, when people show their fellow workshop participants the artwork they’ve just created.
In my office inside Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery, I listen as moms, dads and kids marvel at colors, shapes, paintings and sculptures unlike anything they’ve seen before.
It’s been a struggle, though, to connect the art school at Fort Worden with our gallery down on Water Street. Northwind Arts Center and Port Townsend School of the Arts merged in 2021 amidst the pandemic, but they still seem to run on parallel, not blended, paths.
Yet during the past week, two magical things happened.
Participants in the Feb. 22 Paint from Poems class at Northwind Art School selected poems that moved them. In response, each one created a painting or mixed-media piece. The poems and artwork are now displayed side by side at Jeanette Best Gallery in the “Ars Poetica” exhibit.
And here’s the magic. On April 12, the gallery hosted a party around the show, with poets and artists as the featured guests. They got to meet for the first time.
“It’s like a blind date,” one artist said. The poets read their work; the artists spoke about the emotions they heard there.
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Artist Raea Stika and poet Gary Wood share inspiration in the Ars Poetica exhibit, a pairing of visual art and poetry. The show is at Northwind Art's Jeanette Best Gallery in Port Townsend. photo by Diane Urbani/Northwind Art. [/caption]
“I felt a connection,” painter Raea Stika told Gary Wood about his poem “Native Roots.” Enough said, and perfectly.
Two days later, the gallery hosted the school’s Aging Creatively program for people with memory loss and their caregivers. Teaching artist Jodi Ericksen showed participants the artwork of Elissa Greisz and Maxwell Yakush in the gallery show titled “A Closer Look,” having done careful research about Greisz’ sweeping work “On the Road Again,” inspired by Jack Kerouac’s novel “On the Road.” Greisz carved an excerpt into her rippling, sparkling metal scrolls, echoing Kerouac’s typewritten scrolls from 68 years ago.
The Aging Creatively gallery talk was just an hour long — a sweet interlude, a chance to slow down, breathe, and gaze at something beautiful and mysterious.
We have more coming.
In the gallery, “Ars Poetica” and “A Closer Look” stay till mid-May, and then comes a new show starring Port Townsend’s Patricia Hagen, a brilliant plein air painter. In the adjacent Artists Showcase, we’ll unveil dozens of creations from 14 artists from around the region.
At the school, “Discovering the Self: Exploration of Self-Portraiture” is this weekend; Open Sew & Quilt is a community-building afternoon on April 27, May 11 and June 22t.
It’s all here for you.
What to know: https://northwindart.org has details about classes and gallery shows; Jeanette Best Gallery is at 701 Water St., Port Townsend, while Northwind Art School is at Fort Worden State Park. Email info@northwindart.org for information and to subscribe to the e-news.
