Art and Life at Northwind: Art Beyond the Imagination

A Northwind Art Column by Diane Urbani de la Paz

In this world with a lot of problems

All we need is a little loving

Thank you, thank you, oh, you make me

Thank you, thank you for your love

— Jon Batiste, “I Need You”

In my imagination there lives a welcoming space, where people blow in on the cold wind to find a warm, well-lighted haven. There’s color splashed on the walls, sculptures floating in the air, and mysterious mixed media things that sparkle and gleam. 

I envisioned that the folks who enter find art that moves them—and that stops them in their tracks with its beauty. 

In a twist of fate, my vision came true. I work in this place: Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery.

Last Saturday night, the story unfolded during Art Walk, the monthly self-guided tour of art spaces around Port Townsend. Hundreds of people flowed in and out of Northwind’s gallery, along with the other venues filled with fresh art. 

They came, they gazed, they walked up close at the work that called to them. They lingered in the hallway, alcoves and corners lined with art.

Then the visitors and the artists met one another. They hugged friends they hadn’t seen in way too long. Everybody talked. Laughed! 

And that was just in the first half-hour.

Around 5:30 p.m., music burst out, four women stepped forward, and a flash mini-mob swung into play. Mary Purdy, who teaches a twice-weekly dance-fitness class in Port Townsend, orchestrated this unleashing of joy and motion, to the song “I Need You” by Jon Batiste. 

“I need you! You! You! Come on now,” he sang out, as the women pointed at one another and sashayed across the floor. 

The dance lasted just two minutes and sparked a big ovation inside the gallery’s Showcase space. It had just been reconfigured to bring together 11 artists from around Western Washington, with about 50 paintings, photographs and sculptures. As it turned out, there was plenty of room in the center for a dance performance. 

Bottom line: You never know what might happen during Art Walk in a Port Townsend art gallery. People are free to express themselves and appreciate one another. And that, friends, is an awe-inspiring thing.  

The next first-Saturday Art Walk will happen March 7, and Northwind has weekend-spanning plans this time around. The two artists in Confluence, the vivid show on view in Jeanette Best Gallery’s streetside space, will give talks. 

Kristin L. Tollefson will share stories behind her sculptures and wearable art at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 7. Everyone is invited to bring questions, and to stick around for Art Walk, which starts that evening at 5 p.m. 

And Darwin Nordin, an artist and naturalist with a magic-realist touch, will offer a kind of walkabout among his works in Confluence, at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8. 

The art-curious can also explore the gallery during regular hours from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. 

And if you’re inspired, dancing is perfectly appropriate. 

Northwind Art Jeanette Best Gallery is at 701 Water St. in Port Townsend; information about shows, as well as Northwind’s art classes at Fort Worden State Park, is found at https://northwindart.org.