A Mile In My Shoes

By Bob Stowell

“Dwarfs are still the butt of jokes. It’s one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice.” ~Peter Dinklage

St. Patrick’s day used to be one of my favorite holidays. My love for Irish music, the parades, the parties, the festive spirit. But that joyous spirit wore off as the years went by. As one of the few people with dwarfism in our community, it turned into the occasional outburst of “HEY WEEMAN!!! Let me put ya up on my shoulders and you can be my lucky Leprechaun.” The drunken men that would chase me around the pub, trying to lift me up and the ladies who’d laugh at that behavior. Those moments became the downfall to what could be a great time.

What is it that draws so many to continue to make people with dwarfism the acceptable form of harassment and prejudice? There is a minority within the minority of little people that seem to enjoy that type of humor. M***** Wrestling. Dwarf tossing. Mini-this and wee-man that... Little people that find no problem in selling-out on their size. And I get it. I’ve been there myself. Before having kids and during my drunken younger years, I had no problem going on stage and performing for others at the cost of my dignity. From Spokane to Wenatchee, many people would see a drunk, naked M***** fall around on stage while performing with a theatrical rock show. Why? Mostly for a sense of acceptance. I mean, if you’re gonna point and laugh at me, it might as well be for a reason. Now that I’ve grown, settled down and become a responsible father to my children, I realize how damaging my actions were to the progress and success of others with dwarfism.

I strongly believe that another factor to why LP’s (little people) choose the route of comic relief is that it’s very hard to find employment when you’re short.

My son and I, who share the same type of dwarfism, have been passed over for jobs, only to see our friend or another — sometimes less qualified person — get the job. Where as my average height daughter could find a job with little to no issue. A large percentage of the employment I’ve had came with a strong reference or recommendation from a friend.

I can’t blame the management. How often from birth to death do we hear “Your child is so tall and handsome (beautiful).” Society has placed this distinction that height equals quality. So from where I’m standing, I can see many excuses to why LP’s look to acting and comical arts.

You might have noticed in the news recently that Games of Thrones star, Peter Dinklage stirred a lot of emotions when he called out Disney’s Snow White remake. “You’re still making that fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box?”

He was trying to make the point that Disney is continuing to reinforce society’s prejudices. Even if they had seven real dwarf actors (not CGI), those actors are agreeing to take on demeaning roles that perpetuate this negative attitude.

Without respect, there cannot be equality. Society has come a long way from the days of sideshows and jesters. People with dwarfism have made some major strides that don’t involve comical themes. There are doctors, lawyers, teachers, mechanics, and the list goes on. By no means, am I putting down little people who want to follow their Hollywood dreams to become actors and actresses. Meredith Eaton, Nic Novicki and many others have made a great career in acting without taking roles that were based on their dwarfism. But humanity is lost when people are referred to as adjectives, instead of their real names.

At this point, you’ve probably noticed that I won’t type out the M-word. And out of respect for all LP’s, I try not to. If you haven’t figured out what the M-word is, it rhymes with Gidget. The term comes from ‘midge’ which refers to a small fly. I never hear it used in a way that makes me feel warm inside. It’s very dehumanizing. As unwelcome as that term is today, it was once used in the title to the association that Billy Barty had organized in 1957. The association was assembled so that other people with dwarfism could meet and mingle. It was an opportunity in that, for a moment, they would feel companionship amongst others. Since then, they have changed the name of the group to Little People of America. What started as a small group of 21 actors and actresses, has grown to over 7,500 members across America. And every year they hold a national conference filled with family type activities, medical forums, workshops, dances and other social activities.

Going back to the words of Peter Dinklage when he accepted the Golden Globe award in 2012 for his role in Game of Thrones — at the end of his speech, Dinklage mentions a friend he’s thinking of, Martin Henderson, from New Zealand who was a dwarf that had been tossed by a drunken England rugby fan. The fan and the English rugby team had just been to a dwarf tossing event held at the local pub in Somerset, UK. Martin was out celebrating his 37th birthday when he had stepped outside for a cigarette. The rugby fan came up to Martin, picked him up and dropped him on the ground. Martin suffered serious injuries that left him wheelchair bound and in 2016, he passed away at the age of 42. I tell you this, because it happens.

People, often men - often drunk, will try to pick me up. They aren’t expecting my 4’4” body to weigh as much as it does, because they usually fall, dropping me. By whatever powers that be, I’ve never been seriously injured. This, and so many other reasons (don’t get me started on public restrooms), will cause a high level of anxiety in me and other LP’s whenever we step out. From childhood to adulthood. Most of us with dwarfism just want to live our lives. We’re not here just for your comic relief.

That’s not to say I don’t have a sense of humor. There’s a huge difference when you’re laughing at someone vs. laughing with someone. Such as laughing at me and my son as he’s standing on top of the shopping cart to reach top shelf items vs. laughing at this picture of my son and I having our annual passing of the Lucky Charms.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Zen & The Art Of Sketching

By Ron Evans

Sketching is often a means to an end, to some degree. A rough outline of an idea that occurred to you at the coffee shop. A loose blueprint for your backyard deck. A quick roadmap for a complex graphic design project, later to be fleshed out. But sketching itself is its own art form and one that is not only artistically beneficial, but often therapeutically useful as well.

“Many people making art, but particularly people who define themselves as artists, may be aware of entering a state of ‘flow’ when drawing, painting or creating. It is that sense of getting lost in your process. You are less aware of what is happening around you. Your body is calm and focused and your mind is engrossed in the lines you are creating or the strokes you are making and everything around you fades or disappears. Drawing and making art activate the reward pathways in your brain that activate flow, lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the body respond to stress. Even when the idea of drawing can be intimidating to individuals who don’t consider themselves artists, the pleasure of engaging in drawing or the pleasure of creating something can increase levels of hormones in the brain which improve happiness including dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin.” says Michelle Ferber, a local Licensed Mental Health Counselor with an MS in Art Therapy.

Henry Stinson and Steven Reddy are two stylistically different artists I have seen out and about, peacefully sketching and illustrating the world they see. I reached out to each of them to chat about their love of sketching, especially on location.

Talk briefly about your history with art and what you’re currently up to.

STINSON: Currently I am finishing the work on my studio, insulating, drywall, plumbing, electrical, not in that order. My history: I started out sculpting, working in clay and metal. I moved on to figure drawing. My first figure drawing class was at WSU, what a waste of tuition, no instruction from a tenured professor. It was a high priced open session.

I started going to open figure sessions in Seattle with a buddy of mine (Alan Rushing) in an attempt to teach myself how to draw. We would sometimes draw up to twelve hours a day at open sessions. You’ve got to put the miles in to get better at anything in life.

In 1990, I found my painting teacher, Ron Lukas. I discovered him by attending his open figure drawing session and I was blown away by his work. I knew that he could answer my questions about painting that no one else could. Ron taught Ukrainian Impressionism. It was in my blood — my grandmother’s family immigrated from there at the turn of the century. I studied under Ron four nights a week for three almost four years, he made me what I am today. I am blessed to call him friend.

REDDY: I’ve kept a daily sketchbook journal since high school. In 2010 I met some “Urban Sketchers” at the Gage Academy of Art drawing jam. Until then my sketches had been rather undisciplined and eclectic. Regularly drawing on location gave my work a focus and a shortened time frame for each drawing, which made them less fussy and precious. After a year of sketching in Southeast Asia I published several illustrated journals and the how-to book Everyday Sketching and Drawing.

When and how did sketching or drawing on location enter the picture for you?

REDDY: Drawing with the Seattle Urban Sketchers helped me to draw based on observation and also gave me a finite time frame, so when the session was over, the drawing was done and I moved on without belaboring it. My sketching changed from being about the end product, to being about the process of drawing in the moment.

STINSON: Well Alan and I started drawing on location to supplement our figure drawing, going to coffee shops and bars on Capitol Hill in the 80s. Drawing was our life, we pushed each other to go farther, faster in the medium of drawing. We were a great duo.

What are some of the unique aspects of sketching what’s in front of you versus pulling solely from the imagination - or drawing as a means to construct a more finished work?

STINSON: I love drawing on location, training my hand and eyes to work together as a unit. An added bonus is building my visual memory, so when I work from my imagination I can flesh my ideas out fuller.

REDDY: Drawing on location for so many years has made me less likely to draw from my imagination. My imaginative drawings don’t contain the specificity of a drawing based on observation. I occasionally publish graphic novel style memories, dreams, reflections and conceptual pieces in my books, but the bulk of my work serves as illustrations for a series of very personal memoirs.

Do you find therapeutic benefits of sitting in a public space and capturing the world around you?

STINSON: Yes! I am never bored when I have my sketchbook with me.

REDDY: Absolutely. The meditative aspect of observing the same location for a couple of hours is one of its many allures. To be completely lost in the contours, patterns, textures, colors, shapes and geometry of a complex scene can be immersive to where my ego drops out and I’m surprised that hours have passed and the drawing is finished.

Henry Stinson

What are some of your favorite places or subjects to sketch?

STINSON: Waiting room, sporting events, airports, coffee shops, public pools are all my muse. People first and foremost — I get ideas from the people I sketch for future paintings, the clothes, style, hair, etc.

REDDY: Because I draw slowly with close observation, I rarely draw moving targets. People, dogs, birds, boats, vehicles, don’t hold still, so my drawings tend to portray somewhat of a ghost world, unpopulated and still. To avoid overthinking my choice of subjects, I’ve lately been setting my phone alarm to random times and committing to drawing whatever is in front of me when the alarm goes off.

What are your favorite materials to sketch with? Are you always carrying them in case a scene you want to capture arises?

STINSON: I always draw in pen in my sketchbook, even when I paint. I never use pencil in my sketchbook, it smears. Also you can erase, which is highly overrated. It takes courage to draw in pen, never fear making a mark. “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.” ~ Basil King

When I paint I use watercolor and gouache, and I carry all my sketching supplies in a wheeled backpack that in its former life was a bowling bag. No joke.

REDDY: I’m never without my materials which are very simple and compact so I can carry them in my pocket. Uniball pens, a tiny watercolor kit, brushes and my sketchbook are all I need. My most recent publication, Walks with Willa, is about exploring north Seattle with my new labrador. Because she’s always moving and we walk all day, many of the drawings in that book were drawn from photographs. During Covid I drew a lot through the windshield of my parked car.

Do you often take these drawings and flesh them out into more finished projects?

STINSON: Yes, I will use them for inspiration for a oil painting. No, I don’t work up the sketch into a larger painting itself. It gets me started looking for a model or set to fit my vision that the sketch started.

Steven Reddy

REDDY: The only time I do any planning sketches are for the graphic novel style narratives. The Urban Sketches are begun and finished on location. Even if I resort to drawing from a photograph I don’t let myself draw for longer than a few hours and I hold myself to the same time constraints, as if I was drawing on location.

Are your drawings compiled and archived in any way? Do you flip through old sketches from time to time?

STINSON: Ha, ha! Don’t make me laugh. Archived, compiled, all loose sketches go in a large drawer in my flat file, sketchbooks get thrown on a very large pile of older sketchbooks. Although I can tell newer books from older ones in that the newer ones have stickers of my art on their cover. Sometimes I do go back and look through my sketches, but that can be a wonderful or dreadful experience depending upon my mood.

REDDY: All of my drawings are kept chronological in their sketchbooks. On my bookshelf are hundreds of 9 x 12 hardbound sketchbooks. The only time I look through them later is for scanning them to be printed as books or when somebody contacts me about purchasing a drawing. Since I post almost everything when it’s finished, it’s simpler for me to flip through Instagram to see a previous drawing.

Any suggestions for people who are looking to get out there and experience the Zen of sketching for themselves?

STINSON: When I taught figure drawing in Seattle, one of the things that I would have my students do is draw on location. I would have them bring their large drawing pad (18”x 24”) so that they could not hide. It helped them get over their fears of working in public. Work from love never fear. It’s also good to have a partner in crime when you’re beginning this adventure, someone to support, and in turn be supportive when you need it.

I’ve made so many ugly drawings to get where I am now, don’t let that stop you in your quest to record your truth. Acknowledge the effort you put in, a bad day painting is better than not painting. Each minute you invest puts you further down the art road towards your goals/visions.

Steve Reddy

REDDY: My book, Everyday Sketching and Drawing is available everywhere and has hundreds of tips and tricks for inspiring artists to go out and draw from location.

But most good advice about drawing on location boils down to drawing for the love of drawing. Not for the final reward, not for the accolades and pats on the back from other people, not through a competitive streak where you want to be as good as somebody else’s work that you’ve seen — but drawing for the love of being absorbed in the moment in a specific location, thinking of nothing but what’s in front of you. C

Henry Stinson

Pee Freely: The Birth Of SheFly Apparel

By Ron Evans

I first learned of Charlotte Massey back around 2016 when I saw her incredible coffee paintings on exhibit at Lemolo in Wenatchee. Since then she’s remained on my radar via her social media posts and over the years I noticed a growing passion in hiking, rock-climbing and all around living the outdoorsy adventure life. “I have been on expeditions to Stok Kangri and Kang Yatse II in Ladakh, India, and up to 22,000 ft. on Aconcagua in Argentina.” Massey says.

More recently I noticed some rather eye-catching promotionals from her feed about a company that has designed the perfect “pee freely” pants. “I am a Co-Founder of SheFly Apparel, a patented line of women’s outdoor pants with flaps and zippers that allow women to relieve themselves without exposing skin to the elements or other people.” The busy entrepreneur says.

Now, as someone (be-penised) that’s been peeing freely in the woods (and pretty much anywhere else my whole life, I had to take a brief pause and acknowledge my pee privilege. I then reached out to Massey to learn more about this new product and its conception.

Tell us about the birth of SheFly Apparel and at what point did you get on board?

The idea for SheFly came from a summer my co-founder Georgia Grace Edwards spent working as a glacier guide in Alaska. She was one of only a few female guides and got frustrated with having to bare skin to the elements and other people while her male co-workers could do their business without exposing anything.

She shared that idea with my other co-founder, Bianca Gonzalez, who encouraged her to join a one month entrepreneurship class at Middlebury College (where we all went to school together). I joined the team before the end of that class and have been working on building SheFly ever since.

Where is the company based and how many people are part of it?

We are headquartered in Gunnison, Colorado. We currently have a team of 3 full time people (including myself and Georgia Grace), one person part time, one contractor, and two interns. I split my time between Gunnison and Seattle.

Charlotte Massey and Georgia Grace Edwards

Talk a little about how things went from seeing a need to having a concept to sliding on a real life pair of SheFly pants? Was there funding in place to begin with or was that an ongoing process?

We started by ripping the crotches out of existing hiking pants and sewing in zippers ourselves. Zippers are pretty tricky to sew, and we were soon hiring seamstresses around Vermont to help us. We funded the early stages with our own funds and prize money from pitch competitions, and then got a $20,000 investment from the Dorm Room Fund (backed by First Round Capital) to finish prototyping and file our patent applications. Then we worked with a technical designer to put together a “tech pack,” which is the booklet of instructions we needed to send to a factory in order to get the pants produced. We did a crowdfunding campaign on IFundWomen which tripled our goal and raised $54,000, and used that money to begin production at a fair trade and zero waste manufacturing facility in India.

Were there many actual prototypes before settling on a design(s) or was most of that hashed out in the early design phase?

We made hundreds of prototypes with every design we could think of. We tested snaps, velcro, buttons, and different sizes and placements of zippers. Most of these designs were tested by sewing different fasteners into existing pants.

Is the product designed strictly for “freeing the peeing” or can you essentially answer all of nature’s calls while wearing them?

You can answer all of nature’s calls, including #2 and changing menstrual products!

The marketing for the company is charmingly humor-centric yet it also does the job at getting across that this idea is not just about convenience. Tell us about your approach to balancing out that brand messaging and awareness?

We know that bodily functions, and especially women’s bodily functions, are highly taboo. We use humor to make our solution accessible to more people. Owning the awkwardness by starting out with a joke does a great job of making people feel comfortable talking about subjects that we think don’t get enough attention.

People can be weird about certain things that we all do (in this case NEED to do). Have you had any push back or resistance from the public as you have gotten the word out about the concept, philosophy and spirit of SheFly?

We have had small amounts of push back, mostly from men who don’t understand the problem or from women who are concerned that the zipper might not be comfortable and discreet — they’re always convinced once they try on a pair! But most people have been extremely excited about SheFly. We are addressing a clear need in the market and anyone who’s been outside with a woman understands that.

It’s one thing to see a concept, another to put it into practice of course. How did SheFly go about testing the pants out in the real world? Were there focus groups?

We had dozens of people test the pants all over the world, in all sorts of environments. I personally tested the pants on treks in Ladakh, India, while hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, climbing Mount Baker, and on an all-women expedition to climb Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America.

Who designed the brilliant SheFly logo?

I came up with the concept for the logo and then we had a friend help us vectorize it. The concept behind the logo is to show how our zipper design “unzips” access to the outdoors and welcomes more people to feel comfortable and confident outside. There’s also visual symmetry to anatomy that we like to play with — we like being a bit bold and cheeky!

What products are currently available from SheFly and where can people find them?

We are currently pre-selling our Go There hiking pants in three colorways on our website. The pants will ship in late spring — sheflyapparel.com

We are launching leggings this fall and shorts in spring 2023. Stay tuned for additional products and big news coming soon!

Is there a dream scenario concerning some type of collaboration or distribution deal for SheFly products you are chasing after?

We are launching in Moosejaw Mountaineering stores this spring and are interested in working with existing brands to license our zipper in the future.

Oh, one more thing. Are you still making coffee paintings? If so, is there any place online people can see/purchase those?

Yes, my etsy store is etsy.com/shop/UpTurnedPages (I don’t have a lot listed at the moment but I’m adding more soon).

SheFly:

sheflyapparel.com

IG: @sheflyapparel

Charlotte Massey:

peakcharlotte.com

charredlatte.com

@peak_charlotte_

Filthy Little Pictures

by Ron Evans

This January saw the opening of a conversation-starting art show at Confluence Gallery in Twisp. “Filthy Little Pictures” — a title we will talk more about in a bit — is a group art show featuring works of erotica, the nude form and sexual expression.

“The contributing artists were asked to shine their creative lights on the shadows cast by shame and to celebrate the human form and all its variations of physical expression. Artists were given almost total latitude within the confines of the show’s theme — as it should be, with a show celebrating freedom of expression.” says curator Penelope Varn.

I reached out to Varn to chat about this exhibit (which will run through March 5th) and to see how the locals reacted to such a prominent public display of Filthy Little Pictures.

Bar Stool by Benjamine Lester

Tell us a little about your background in the arts, and your role at Confluence Gallery.

I have been on the board of Confluence Gallery for several years and in the past couple of years, I’ve been on the gallery’s show committee, which concepts and curates all the shows (to be clear, each curator on the committee concepts his/her shows and pitches them to the committee, which votes on the ideas once a year at its annual meeting, in which we plan all the shows for the coming year).

Before that, I was on the board of Coyote Central, a Central District arts organization in Seattle. My professional background is print journalism. I was an energy reporter for maybe a decade; I have a masters from University of Texas (at Austin) journalism school. In undergrad, I studied art history and languages with the goal of becoming an art dealer. I also have been an oil painter, but I don’t throw those pearls before swine.

Tell us how and when the concept for Filthy Little Pictures arose?

I had been pushing the show committee for two or three years to have another erotic art show. Maybe a decade ago, the gallery had an erotic art show, called XX-XY, I think. It caused quite a stir in the community, which can tend toward the provincial. I think the (non-profit) gallery only lost one donor over it, in spite of a 4-foot-long blue penis sticking out of the wall. Anyway, I had pitched an erotic art show last year, with the title “Stains on the Bed,” but nobody would go for it — probably because the title scared some of the more cautious committee members. Then this year, I pitched Filthy Little Pictures, and the show committee decided it was time for Twisp to have another erotic art show.

It’s really a rather tame show — in fact, I was hoping for less tame than what resulted. But the way I run my shows is that I give artists my theme, and let them use my theme as the rails for their artistic vision — then just let them run with it. I’m not a dictator about it. It’s art, and art is about individuality and personal freedom, sort of like Nick Cage’s jacket in Wild at Heart.

How many artists are featured in Filthy Little Pictures - are they all local?

About 22 artists, half local, the other half regional, except for Benjamine Lester, who hails from Dallas, Texas.

Even when presented as art in a gallery exhibition - nudity and sexuality always seem to be somewhat controversial. What has the response from the community been like for this exhibit? Has there been any hesitation or resistance against presenting it?

Initially, the Confluence board of directors and Executive Director, Kaileah Akker expressed worry about community reaction to the show, but we have had almost no negative reaction. This time around, the community embraced an erotic art show — so it appears Twisp has come around in terms of accepting freedom of artistic expression.

I’m sure there are many things you’d love to see come from this exhibit, but if you had to choose one thing - because some annoying magazine publisher asks you to - what would that be?

I would love for this show to broaden people’s horizons in terms of embracing freedom of visual expression and for artists in particular to experience community acceptance of erotic works. I think we could regress into a Neo-Puritanism — given the political climate — if we aren’t, as a society, careful. I hope in some small measure, this show eases us toward a more inclusive and less censorious future.

Safe Word by Joanne Marracci

The phrase Filthy Little Pictures certainly gets my attention. It also looks great on a poster. Talk a little about the title of this exhibit.

A lot of my show ideas spring from my ideas for titles (like The Color of Words, a previous show that featured visual interpretations of literary works). This time around, though, I heard the voice of my mother, a rather prim Southern Belle (now a dead one), who would have said of, say, Benjamine Lester’s piece, titled “Catch,” “Now that is just plain filthy.” As a kid, I took great humor in that word. So when I was concepting the show, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, I insisted on titling the show “Filthy Little Pictures” as a way of appropriating the phrase that someone like my mother would employ in her description of the show.

I think you can go onto my original FB post announcing the show — when I posted the show flyer — and you can see two people beating up the show title. They could not grasp that the title was born of humor mixed with appropriation.

Have there been any surprises in the reactions or conversations you have witnessed from guests as they make their way through the pieces on display?

Unfortunately, I don’t have any good anecdotes for this question. All the feedback I’ve personally received from the show has been positive. Maybe that is because we put a “Viewer Discretion Advised” sign on the front of the gallery to avoid anyone being caught unaware by a genital or two — which means that only people WANTING to see genitals would be in the gallery.

Reflection 1 by Sarena Johnson

Tell us about the work of curating art for exhibitions. Do you have a set process for finding new art and creators that excite you? Or is it a bit more varied?

I don’t have a set process. I’m sort of “abstract random” in the way I do things. This show was open call because I wanted any artist who desired to create work for this show to be able to; the show was about freedom of expression; I wanted to provide a platform for anyone who wanted to engage in that freedom. Usually, however, my shows are invitation only and I have a vision for the way I want the show to look, so I select artists whose styles work with that vision. I also try to find artists whose work is new to the community, so I tend to look outside of the local pool for new talent.

Do you encourage artists to reach out about exhibiting their work at Confluence Gallery outside of open calls? And is there any advice you could offer to artists who are maybe intimidated about approaching galleries?

I always encourage artists to register with the gallery’s Call to Artists list, so that they can see upcoming opportunities to exhibit their work. If I have a new artist approach me with her work, I will also send it around to Kaileah and Joanne Marracci, the show committee boss. And if a new artist’s work gets on my radar, I will try to work it into the shows I curate, whenever the work is suitable. In fact, one new artist who approached me a few years ago, Victoria Weber — her work was so stunning that I concepted “Cascadia” just to put her on the cover of a show. And that show turned out to be one of the gallery’s biggest selling shows ever.

Quantum Entanglement by Nichole DeMent

Advice for artists about approaching galleries — the worst that can happen is that a gallery boss or curator says “No.” The most successful artists and writers have heard “No” probably more than any other type of professional. So you have to relax, say to yourself “Who the fuck cares if they tell me ‘no’?” then send in your work for shows in exactly the way the gallery asks you to. Make sure your work fits the show theme and make sure you read all the submission guidelines.

Is there typically a selection process for submissions to these group exhibits? Tell us about that process.

For invitation-only shows, the curator contacts each of the artists she wants in her show and asks them. Then she sends the artists who say yes a set of submission guidelines, a gallery contract for artists, a show timeline and stuff like that. For shows that are “Open Call,” artists register on the Confluence Gallery web site to receive “Calls to Artists” for upcoming shows. Then when they get a call that fits their style, they just follow the directions to submit their work. Then, the curator will individually tell them if their work will be accepted for the show.

What’s coming up next for Confluence Gallery when Filthy Little Pictures wraps up?

“Biophilia: A Love Story,” which focuses on the connections between all living beings, and the fading, but innately human instinct to connect with nature. The show will open on April 30th and run through June 12th, 2022.

Do you have a dream project/exhibit you’d like to see come to fruition maybe a bit further down the road?

Actually I have an upcoming show that is my dream show, called “The Opposite of Entropy,” in late fall of 2022. It will be an abstract show, featuring Don DeLeva, David Hytone, Whiting Tennis, Vern White, Brian Scholdt, and other abstract artists. Also my dream as a collector — I’m dying to get my hands on some of this work that will be featured, and hang it in my own house.

A FEW ARTIST COMMENTS:

“I was inspired by Penelope’s vision of bringing to light the perceived “shame” that has been put upon us by society over the years, decades, centuries. Humans have bodies. Bodies have biological imperatives to perpetuate the species (pretty much true for every living thing). And we have certain tools and desires to get this accomplished. Someone decided along the way that we should be ashamed of this body and its directive to procreate (or at least participate in the various rituals, even if having a baby is not the main objective). I loved creating pieces that might help dispel the taboo of being ashamed of what we are and how we do it with the “tools” we have. In my little peep shows, I wanted to instill a bit of levity on what some consider a heavily loaded subject. The vagina as a miraculous organ, the penis and its pliable nature, and Bondage as a means to an end. Sex should be fun! And whatever way a person needs to get off (between consenting adults and within legal limits) is fine with me.” ~ Joanne Marracci

“From the very beginning of my artistic journey, I have always been drawn to the nude form. I, and many other artists with a similar calling, experience backlash and even hostility when displaying our artwork in public and even social media. That is what I love about this show! “Filthy Little Pictures” - perfect satire describing what our work is so often referred to. People come to this show primed to expect the taboo, but what they find is an open mind to experience the beauty these talented artists bring through their calling. Because, we will not paint just trees. We will use bare chests, genitals and buttock to explain our experiences being human; and all the pain, joy, sorrow, sexuality and vulnerability our talents will allow.” ~ Benjamine Lester

“I have worked with Penelope in a number of shows and had the pleasure of doing commissioned work for her also. I enjoy the confrontational aspects of erotic art. Nothing seems to scare people more than their naked bodies, yet human sexuality is one of the foremost aspects of our existence. It is reflected in our art, media, music, culture, and everyday connections with our fellow humans. To be included in a show that addressed this subject was a true pleasure. That said I really dig porno.” ~Vern White (Vblast)

confluencegallery.org

Kitty Milk by Nick Shiflet

Arcano Chemical: DATURA's New LP Materializes

By Ron Evans

Wenatchee’s DATURA unleashes a new full-length LP, Arcano Chemical, the trio’s first release under Sell The Heart Records who signed the band in 2021. The 11-track album features brand new material and some old ghosts all in the classic DATURA gothy, post-punk stylings.

Singer David Betancourt’s melancholic but catchy tones ring out from a fog of echo as if he’s lurking somewhere in the distant shadows, almost out of range. The gritty and metallic resonance of Betancourt’s guitar glides like a banshee over Jake St. Johns’s brooding, clean bass lines and Shafer’s subtle and clever drumming. It all comes together (seemingly) effortlessly with an eerie production and atmosphere that perfectly understands the ominous message it’s delivering.

As someone who was coming of age when bands like The Cure and Sisters Of Mercy were actually on top 40 radio (that really happened) it’s hard for me to not be somewhat haunted by nostalgia when listening to this album. I sort of wish I could go back in time and put “Orphans” or “Dare You” on a mix-tape for the gothy girl in science class that I had a crush on, but was terrified to talk to. And while the throwback to this era of post-punk is authentic and heartfelt, DATURA doesn’t go so far down that path that it’s not also its own thing.

Arcano Chemical is dark, melodic and focused with songs that have a strange enticing effect - like a siren luring us into the unknown. And we will likely follow because it’s just too damn catchy to resist.

I sat down with bassist Jake St. John to talk about the album, their new label deal and what’s coming down the road for the band.

Talk a little about the conception of the album and the timeline of recording and releasing it.

Some of the songs on Arcano Chemical have been around since the beginning of the band and even before David and I met. “Bloody Shores” for example was a song he wrote in his teens or twenties. He and I worked out that one in our first couple jam sessions before Tiffany joined. The song was dropped from our set for a couple years, but we decided to bring it back for this album. Tiffany really pushed to include the song and I’m glad we did it. “Orphans” originally appeared on our first EP. “Trapped,” “Phantasma,” “Dare You” and “Our Ship is Lost” were all written before COVID. When the pandemic hit, and our show calendar got wiped out, we retreated to the practice space to write the rest of the record and to tighten up the arrangements, tempos, lyrics, etc. We recorded the album in June of 2021, got in touch with Andy Pohl from Sell the Heart Records later in the summer and started working out the details for the release.

I don’t wanna expose any of the band’s powerful secret shit, but what can you tell us about the album title?

A couple years ago, I read the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, an absolutely mind-bending blend of science fiction and fantasy. Her world, characters, and plot twists are totally original, even psychedelic. Somewhere in the series she uses the term. I loved it and pitched it to the band for the album title. Without getting too far into the implications of what it means in context of the books or for its meaning for the band, it was a pretty unanimous yes.

Where was the album recorded - who recorded/ produced it?

We recorded the instruments with Chad Yenney at Earth to Emma and the vocals with Greg Shapovalov at Narrative Sound. We didn’t really need a producer for this one as all the arrangements were studio-ready before we went in. Tiffany put a ton of work into ensuring the tempos were solid, and David made sure the lyrics and concepts of each song were dialed beforehand, so there wasn’t much left to do but make sure we got good takes. I think we recorded the instruments at Chad’s place in one weekend, and then over the next couple weeks, we’d go to Greg’s to do the vocals a few songs at a time.

The one exception is our single “Everything Turns Black.” We played that song a bunch in practice for a while and tried out all kinds of things, but we shelved it because it wasn’t manifesting in a way we all really loved. I finally went into Narrative Sound in the summer of 2020 and the magic of it came together there. I went in with a skeleton, and the arpeggiated synth and guitar lines were fleshed out in the studio. When it comes to David’s solo project, SHANX FM, I believe a lot of those songs take shape as he works with Greg at Narrative Sound.

Album artwork by Pla.g.u.e

The cover art is incredible. Tell us about the artist and how this image came to be your LP graphic?

Thank you! We’re very pleased with how it turned out. A couple years ago, I started following this solo psych-industrial band from England called Primitive Knot. The guy is prolific. He cranks out multiple releases a year, and it’s all rad–hypnotic, riff-based, lo-fi. He did a record in 2021 called Fight the Future. I loved the album artwork. It’s this grainy and affected image of a dog’s maw coming right at you. I looked up the artist, who goes by Pla.g.u.e on Instagram. He produces lots of violent, apocalyptic digital collage stuff that’s very suited for extreme metal bands, but we asked him if he could work with us, and he agreed. He’s from a remote little village in Argentina. He was very responsive to our ideas, made sure the image fit the atmosphere we wanted, and would sit well with our listening audience. We keep in touch now. It’s been a fun relationship, and I hope to work with him on future projects

Any fan of what was happening in Seattle in the early 90s will likely know the name TAD Doyle. How did TAD end up in the mix? So to speak.

It was nothing crazy really. I just emailed him and asked if he’d be willing to master our album. He’s worked with some amazing bands over the years as a sound engineer. I’m familiar with more of his metal / hardcore leaning clientele: Zeke, Addaura, Black Bone Exorcism, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Heiress, Profound Lore Records. I think that he also may have worked on one of Andrew Houck’s projects (Ghost Power!!!/Otho). It was really cool that he agreed to work with us. TAD was amazingly quick, polite, and helpful with any questions we had about the process.

You recently signed with Sell The Heart Records, tell us how that transpired and what that means for the future of DATURA.

We got in contact with Andy from STH through Facebook a couple years ago. He posted that he was looking for new bands for his roster, and Ando (Peart) from Snatchee Records was kind enough to let us know. I sent Andy a quick email with some Bandcamp links to our first two EPs, and he got back to us right away about working with the label. It felt good to receive such an enthusiastic and quick response from him. We discussed releasing something on vinyl, but we didn’t really have enough material for a full album, and since our first EPs had already been released, we mutually decided it wasn’t the right time. After recording Arcano Chemical and talking with a couple other labels, we reconnected with Andy about doing cassettes, and he was into it. The vinyl productions plants were super backed up with wait times extending over a year, so a cassette run was appealing for everyone because sitting on an album for that long really kills the exigence. We figured we’d just do what we could with physical merch, so STH ended up pressing some CDs and making some shirts too.

What our relationship with STH means for DATURA is getting more (and quicker) exposure to a broader audience that we’d struggle to attain on our own. Andy is supportive, professional, hard-working, and he has connections and resources we don’t have. For example, we’re working with Tim Anderl at Sweet Cheetah Promotions through the label for PR, and it’s been very helpful. Tim is a killer dude who has lots of connections.

We’re not really sure what the future holds, as everything is uncertain. We do have a couple tentative shows booked for Wenatchee, one in Portland, and two in Seattle. Beyond that, we don’t want to say too much.

What are some other bands on the label you think people should check out?

STH is pretty eclectic, so I’d say there may be something for everyone. The label’s bread and butter is made of upbeat, driving punk bands like Decent Criminal, Neckscars, and JukeBox Romantics. Tulpa Luna reminds me of King Missile. Unconditional Arms and Snipers are soaring post-rock. Middle-Age Queers fucking rip it old skool. Check out their album Too F*g for Love.

You said the album will be released on cassette which makes me happy. What are the plans/timeline for releasing on the other formats?

Sell the Heart is releasing the album on CD; however, a couple weeks ago, we were contacted by Tomasz Woodraf, owner of Bat Cave Productions in Poland about doing a deluxe CD run for distribution in the EU. We’re super excited about that, as it is cost prohibitive for us to ship abroad, and we do have an audience in Europe. He’s currently doing pre-sales, and the CD will be available in March there. Bat Cave works with tons of goth and post-punk bands we admire from the states and around the world like Nox Novacula, Altar De Fey, Fearing, Otzi, Padkarosda. We are honored to be included with artists like these.

Most recently, Andy from STH proposed we do a small run of vinyl with the caveat that we get enough pre-orders to make it feasible. The idea was to run the pre-order campaign for a month, and it’s been going well, so hopefully we’ll be able to finalize this and get things rolling. We’re absolutely stoked because we’ve wanted to do vinyl all along but had accepted that it probably wasn’t in the cards for this album. Luckily, we had TAD do a vinyl master for us too, just in case.

What were you all listening to while working on the album?

Man, let’s see…Tiffany was on Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cramps, and Calabrese as well as La Luz and Messer Chups, but those last two didn’t really influence her playing as much as the others.

David got on a black metal kick and loves Mütiilation, Darkthrone, Spectral Wound, Këkht Aräkh, and a bunch of other bands I can’t spell, let alone pronounce. He’s also really into She Past Away, Drab Majesty, and Lebanon Hanover.

Typically, I listen to lots of metal in the mornings, and as the day progresses, I get into bands like Nick Cave, New Model Army, Wovenhand, Chameleons, Black Marble. In the evening, it’s ambient synth records, movie scores and world music like Jóhann Jóhannsson, Dead Can Dance and Stephan Micus.

Overall, my biggest influence for DATURA is The Cure. I remember talking with the mates around the time that the Bury Me EP dropped that the next thing we did needed to be in the vein of Pornography by The Cure. I don’t know if we nailed the vibe entirely, as some of the songs are more upbeat, but we got close with one or two.

As mentioned, things are still pretty up in the air concerning live shows at the moment, but are there any plans set on a tour to promote the record?

Since everything is so uncertain, we are reluctant to share more until we have something concrete to report. We have talked with Andy about playing in the Bay area and David has worked very hard to establish relationships along the Westcoast with bands, promoters and our audience. I hope a tour will eventually happen. It’s just a matter of time and will.

Anything else on the horizon you want to plug?

We have some video concepts for a few songs from the album, and we hope to work on some of those this year. We’re kind of on our own schedule with this and there’s no real rush to follow the album release with videos and tours. I’m always chomping at the bit to write new material, but that has slowed down a bit with our personal lives being so busy and with most of our attention going to the album release. It’s been a big project and has taken lots of time and energy.

We’d like to thank everyone for being so supportive. We appreciate seeing people come out to our shows, buy merch, and share our music with others. That means a lot to us. Special thanks to the local bands we play and to Ando at Snatchee Records for fostering a thriving local scene.

selltheheartrecords.bandcamp.com/

daturapnw.bandcamp.com

Seth Garrido's Debut SOLO LP

By Ron Evans

Nationally touring country musician Jason Hawk Harris (formerly of The Show Ponies) once dubbed Seth Garrido “Wenatchee’s Best Kept Secret.” Garrido opened for Harris at a 2018 performance at RadarStation, and he clearly made an impression. Well, the secret may be out now that Garrido (as Seth Garrido & The Long Relief) has released his first solo LP, Heavy Handed Heart. A soulful collection of original tunes that are a bit eclectic in style (or even genre) but still consistent, cohesive and…well, perfect if you ask me. Now, I’m not a music critic but I know what I like. And this album has been on heavy rotation here at Comet Headquarters and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

I’ve seen Garrido perform live around town for several years now (solo and with other groups like The Hoyer Brothers) and it’s always a great show, but you never know how stage presence, vocal tone — or whatever that magical shit is that some people just naturally have — will translate in the studio. In this case, it translates beautifully.

In a sea of squeaky, auto-tuned or otherwise ‘fake-sounding’ voices in the world of modern country/folk, Garrido easily stands out with a very authentic and genuine voice. And the production of this album works so well in bringing this authenticity to your eagerly awaiting earbuds. Read on to learn more about Garrido and the making of this album. And if you are reading this with some hesitation because you don’t like country music — stay with us. There’s far more going on with the album, and in the head of this local gem of a musician.

First things first, tell us a little about your history as a musician.

I grew up in a pretty musical family and I decided at about age negative four that I wanted to do music for my life. I went to CWU to study saxophone, took drugs, hung out and listened to records with my friends, and a mere 12 years later, decided college was maybe not the right thing for me. In that time, I played with a great little jam band called Open County Jo, and when I moved up to Leavenworth ten years ago, I began play with Patrick Foster and the Locomotive and The Hoyer Brothers, playin’ sax and singing harmonies. After those bands both became mist, I decided to learn a whole heap of classic country songs and start to get out and play my own thing.

Where do you get off having that much soul for a white boy? Wait, are you…what ARE you?

I am a product of Auburn, Washington, the undisputed epicenter of everything SOUL. I am, most decidedly, a white boy.

“Really, the most successful songs seem to be the ones that come out all at once like some sort of demonic possession or stigmata. It’s hard to take credit for them, frankly.”

The kids these days love their genres and subcategories. Your interests and musical styles seem pretty eclectic - bouncing effortlessly from country, funk and smoky pool hall jazzy ballads with hints of gospel. What would you file your LP under in a record store?

I suppose this first effort is pretty much an outlaw country record with a little bit of deviation. The next ones might be something totally different, I just happen to have been on a pretty heavy 7 or 8 year country kick leading up to this sucker.

The cliché question that I always wanna know the answer to - what are some of your biggest influences?

Willie is probably the thickest one in recent years, and John Prine, then probably Merle Haggard and Greg Brown, but I’ve spent a lot of time with Ani DiFranco, Aretha, Indigo Girls, They Might Be Giants, tons of jazz players, various weirdo classical stuff, etc. It’s a mess up there.

As someone who seems to live for the stage, how was the lockdown year for you? Did you write a shit ton of stuff, do some live stream shows or just take it easy a while?

I did end up doing a lot of writing, for sure, and a ton of little videos and streams, which was actually really fun. I think knowing it was my only real outlet made recording stuff for social media pretty exciting; I was pretty motivated. I wrote probably half of this album during the lockdown, and ended up putting up videos… kind of all the time. I was also learning to play my favorite songs from when I was 11 and just putting them out there, etc. This next phase of impending doom doesn’t strike me as so terrible, assuming folks will still hit up the ol’ Venmo for my online blabbering.

Tell us about the new LP. Is this group of performers an official band or was it an assembly of session players?

The band was an assembly made for the record, but I pretty much assembled all of my good buddies who also happen to be the best players I know. All of whom have their own really great projects, and I knew they’d all get along and kill the music, and that that would facilitate more playing as a group when the world came back.

Album art by Juliana Marquis

I hired Skyler Mehal to play guitar, Dan Taylor for piano, Norman Baker for bass. Norman brought on the drummer for his band, Jake Evans, when my original drummer couldn’t do the project, and that ended up being an incredibly fortunate turn. I also was super lucky to get some pedal steel on the record from Bill Patton, over whose shows I drooled in the early 2000’s. We also have some Hammond Organ from the absolute legend Joe Doria, and some guitar from my old friend and current Lil’ Smokies guitarist, The Right Reverend Matthew Rieger. We’re really hoping to get some shows going here early in the new year.

The album sounds fabulous and the production seems perfectly suited for the material. Where was it recorded/mixed?

Thanks, man! The producer was Brandon Busch, with whom I had worked previously on the Hoyer Brothers and the Patrick Foster records. He’s a master with a great ear and incredible gear, and we recorded pretty much everything live over a weekend in Fremont at Rare Earth studios, and then did some vocal tracking at Brandon’s studio in Northgate. Brandon (Sound Media Productions) did all the recording and mixing. The mastering was done by Rachel Field (Resonant Mastering). A very Seattle-heavy affair.

What formats is it (will it be) available in?

As it stands, it’s available on Bandcamp (sethgarridoandthelongrelief.bandcamp.com) for streaming and purchase, and each and every streaming service you can shake your earlobes at. We’ll have CD’s before too long and after that, I’d sure love to do up some LP’s, but they’re mighty expensive to produce, and my understanding is that there’s a pretty lengthy queue to get in if you wanna work with any of the major vinyl producers. So that’s a ‘fingers-crossed and the creek don’t rise situation.’ If anyone wants any other formats, just hollar at me, we can get something figured, I bet. Laserdiscs and DAT tapes by Fall.

Artists are a funny bunch, and rarely satisfied - which I suppose is part of what keeps them creating. How satisfied are you with the finished LP now that it’s out?

I mean, of course I’m not totally satisfied, but I think it’s a pretty good collection of songs. I think I’ve got some pretty amazing players playing them, and I don’t think you can ever expect more than that. I think it’s a fairly accurate representation of what you’d get if you came and saw us play. I’ll take it.

Photo by Doug Jongeward

Will there be any kind of tour to support the album? If so will it be full band or solo shows?

I play all over the valley all the time, but there’s no tour booked as we speak. Not even CD release shows with the band, yet, but those will happen sometime relatively soon. As far as touring, I sure would love to bring these fellas out with me, and if all goes very, very well a full band tour might just happen. But it’s more likely I’ll be slinging these songs by myself or with one or two of the guys for the next little while, and hopefully we can get rolling hard enough to get the band out on the road a bit. Whenever I do get full band shows moving, I’ll surely put the word out on my Instagram and Facebook pages (links at the end of article).

Talk about your songwriting process. Do you tend to go through phases of writing to get a collection together, or are you pretty much writing all the time?

I’m constantly catching little lyrical inspirations, which means every notebook in my house, and the, “notes,” and, “voice recorder,” deals on my phone are filled with one sentence ideas, and I generally have no idea what melody they were once attached to. Those do turn into something some of the time, like, the latest song I wrote, which I like pretty well. I got the last line of it on a walk one morning, and that line bounced around trying to be something for like 5 months until I finally smacked my own ass and made myself just go out in the woods and write the damn thing. Being a kind of lazy space cadet doesn’t tend to lead to efficient songwriting, but eventually, you sometimes get something a little shiny. Really, the most successful songs seem to be the ones that come out all at once like some sort of demonic possession or stigmata. It’s hard to take credit for them, frankly. The ones that are hard to write? I’ll take those. I mean, I’ll take the easy ones, too, I guess.

Some of your writing schemes are pretty damn tricky. Fun to sing along to - after the 300 listens required to learn it. Are you usually starting with lyrics written out in rhythm and rhyme or do you start with the basic skeleton of the melody and lay the words over it?

300 listens! You are by far in the lead, my friend... Words are usually first, but they kind of come in melodic form, or at least the rhythm is apparent right away, then the rhyme scheme kind of reveals itself as my brain flushes the topic out. It has happened where I have the music first, but my brain doesn’t work that way nearly as well.

Do you have a routine or dedicated space for sitting down and fleshing things out once the songs start taking shape?

No, but I spend a lot of time telling myself that I should.

Close your eyes and imagine your idea of the perfect scene/situation for your music to be playing in the background. What do you see?

Lots of people of widely varied ages in a comfortable place, something like a coffee house mixed with a brick and dark wood bar room. That’s what my closed eyes said. I kinda wanna play little theaters. We’ll fight it out.

The Comet 8 Questions:

Favorite Band: They Might Be Giants

Favorite Artist: René Magritte

Favorite Book: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Favorite Movie: Bringing Up Baby

Favorite Quote: “I was very religious as a child. When I was a kid, I used to pray every day for a new bike. Then I realized, the Lord and his wisdom don’t work that way, so I just stole one and asked him to forgive me.” ~ Emo Phillips

Item You Can’t Live Without: I don’t need any of this stuff, and I don’t need you! I don’t need anything! Except this. This ashtray, and that’s the only thing I need is this. I don’t need this or this, just this ashtray, and this paddle game. The ashtray and the paddle game, and that’s all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game and the remote control, and that’s all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddleball and this lamp. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that’s all I need. And that’s all I need, too. I don’t need one other thing. I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. Well, what are you looking at? Whaddaya think I am some kind of a jerk or something? And this, that’s all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and this chair.

Dream Collaboration: There’s a trombonist and composer named Ryan Keberle who’s been writing some incredible stuff the last little while. It’s fun to put something together with him.

Favorite Destination: End of the Icicle.

LIVE: Every Sunday, 5:00-8:00 w/ Rib

@ Yodelin Broth Co. in Leavenworth

1/8 @ Lagunitas Brewing in Ballard

1/15 @ Twisp River Pub

w/ Older and Wiser

1/18 @ Icicle Brewing Co. in Leavenworth

1/22 @ Wenatchee Convention Center

w/ Junk Belly

1/29 @ Patterson Cellars in Leavenworth

Facebook: sethgarridomusic

Instagram: sethy_the_body

The Meme That Stole Christmas

BY RON EVANS

You may have noticed (hard to escape it, really) an insanely popular meme making its rounds this holiday season. One featuring a rather big-bootied Grinch standing in the middle of the Leavenworth Lights event. The first one I stumbled across had the tagline “The Grinch has no business coming through with all this cake.”

Made me laugh.

Then I saw a few more. And eventually I discovered that I knew the human who was under all that Grinch cake! Wenatchee’s own Katie Renggli — she was hired by the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce to don the now-infamous costume and walk around town during the festival. I had to reach out to Renggli and see what was behind (sorry) this meme and to find out what it’s like to see yourself going viral.

When and where were you at the time this Grinch photo was taken?

It was December 4th in Leavenworth right outside of the Loft on Front St.

What’s the story with the big- bootied Grinch costume?

The costume belongs to the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce and the reason why the booty is so big is unknown. They’ve had the costume for a few years and it looks extra large on me because it’s about 5 sizes too big for me. I had to pin the elastic as tight as it could go and Jerry Rig some suspenders just to keep the bottom on. The pants portion is very heavy, especially when wet from the snow.

Do you know who took this photo seen ‘round the world?

I don’t know the guy who took it actually. He was a tourist there to see the lights.

Edit: The Comet traced the original post back to a Facebook profile by Danno Hanfling who claimed he took the photo.

When did you first realize this image of you had gone viral?

I had a friend of mine say people on her feed from Pennsylvania had reposted it. Then I decided to check Twitter and saw how many likes and shares it had. (Being picked up by) Tosh.0 got me though. That made me realize how viral it was.

What are some of your favorite versions of the meme?

My favorite one is “there ain’t no way the Grinch is sneaking up on Whoville with those things clapping” and “The Grinch who stole Thiccness” is classic. Also check out this photo Dan Meece took with his go pro! I call it the ass heard ‘round the world.

The ass heard ‘round the world. Photo by Dan Meece

Unfortunately, we can’t just have fun (thicc) things without assholes showing up. Sounds like there was an alarming amount of groping and harassment following you around in Christmastown.

“So much so that they hired my boyfriend Domingo to be my bodyguard. People would come up and grab my butt. I had people push and shove and try to pick fights with me. And I had a kid shoot me in the face with a wooden gun.”

Ugh. It’s a mean world, Mr. Grinch.

Writer profile: Lorna Rose-Hahn

By Holly Thorpe

This month, Write on the River spoke with local writer and board member Lorna Rose-Hahn.

Lorna is a Pacific Northwest writer and speaker. Her narrative nonfiction and poetry have been recognized by Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Oregon Poetry Association, and have appeared in several magazines and anthologies. Lorna also speaks publicly on motherhood, finding resilience through writing, and her experience in AmeriCorps. You can check out her writing at www.lornarose.com.

You recently completed your term as Write on the River’s board president and accepted a new position with the Oregon Poets Association. How was your time with WOTR and what are your goals in your new board position?

WOTR is great. After returning to writing when my son was born, I found them and started volunteering. I was invited to join the board in 2014 and then became president in 2018. I learned a lot in that time, including about how the nonprofit world functions and also my leadership style. It was exciting to help steer WOTR, respond to what local writers said they wanted, and also develop partnerships within the community. I also got to look at workflow within the organization, a carryover of my life in Corporate America, which was cool.

A year ago I was invited to serve on the board of Oregon Poetry Association, or OPA, after presenting a workshop at their annual conference. I pursued them because more and more I find myself writing poetry, and I wanted to get involved in that community more. Washington does not have a statewide poetry organization. I’ve learned more about poetry and have gotten to see how another nonprofit functions.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m always working on poems and personal essays; themes in my writing include motherhood, raising two neurodiverse kids, and complicated relationships I’ve had in my life. My bigger work-in-progress is a memoir-in-essay, which I’ve been working on since my second child, my daughter, was born six years ago (why I chose that particular time to start a memoir, I don’t know. I guess I had a concern to preserve my writing life, and it was the way to find balance). The project is about going from LA party girl to trail worker in rural Alaska. It started as a straight memoir, but it wasn’t working. The narrative was uneven and just boring in places. Also, I didn’t have the voice I wanted. So I worked with an editor, and said “hey, I like writing essays, I’m good at it, and I’m thinking of changing my narrative memoir into a series of essays.” She was like “go for it.” So far I’m happy with how it’s developing. I really like my voice, and I like not being bound by the confines of traditional memoir, like writing scenes and characters all the time. With this current form, I’m able to reflect and also tease out what I want the reader to know. It’s good stuff.

You write both poetry and nonfiction – do the two go hand-in-hand? How do you know when something is a poem versus an essay or memoir chapter?

You ask such good questions! I’ve found writing poetry has helped my narrative nonfiction – and vice versa. Narrative nonfiction reminds me to keep the reader moving forward, and poetry reminds me that words have a shape and a lyricism – and gives me more explicit permission to play with language. I don’t have a hard and fast rule of knowing the form a piece of writing will take. Usually it’s an intuition. I have found that if I want the reader to shape the words, they’ll come out as poetry. If I want more of a voice to shape the words, they’ll come out as prose. And it becomes apparent quickly what genre this piece is meant for. For instance, I wrote a poem about complications I had while pregnant with my daughter (which found a home in the journal Third Wednesday). I think at one point I tried writing it as prose, and it didn’t work. There is definitely something minimalistic about poetry that I enjoy.

You often write about motherhood and parenting – did you expect that to become a big part of your work? Do you have advice for those who might want to write about their experiences with parenthood?

Parenthood is what brought me back to writing after a ~15 year hiatus. I started writing about motherhood – staying home, pumping breastmilk, grieving my old life – and it took off from there. My writing has been enhanced tenfold by my life as a mother. I enjoy sharing the process of writing and motherhood with others. My advice would be to write about the good stuff – feeding in the nursery, the night time cuddles, the moments that will leave and not ever come back – and write about the messy stuff too, because that is just as valuable. Write about what surprised you about motherhood.

What advice do you have for writers just getting started, especially in your genres?

Call yourself a writer! That was one of the biggest things that improved my craft. The other big thing is to find a critique group or writing partner. Meet regularly, ideally in person. Set rules, because sharing your work is vulnerable, and you want rules that everyone understands and abides by. When you start thinking about sending your work out, do it! Submission to literary magazines and journals is a process in itself. Find your own rhythm. And know that everyone gets rejected. Learn to harness that energy to improve your piece, or submit elsewhere, or both. Above all, keep going, keep improving.

Specific to narrative nonfiction, there’s an adage that says to write what you know. I say write what you think you know. For the criticism I have of novelist and essayist Joan Didion, she did say something that has stuck with me. She said (and I’m paraphrasing) that she writes entirely to know what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling, what she’s looking at. Once your thoughts are on the page, you can claim them in a way that perhaps you couldn’t when they were just in your head, and you can start from there. It is freeing.

What is your biggest weakness or greatest struggle as a writer?

Social media is a huge distractor for me. It has stopped me from getting into the creative flow, especially when I have very finite time (which is all the time). I have interrupted myself so many times to check IG or Facebook, and it’s no good. And it’s not just on a personal level, but from an author standpoint too. The amount of marketing authors are expected to do today compared to the past is significant. Especially if you are working on building a platform, like I am, it can really take away from pure writing time. To mitigate this, I sometimes turn off Wifi, or practice discipline to respect the flow and go with it, not sabotage myself by stopping to check social media. I know of writers who write in 20-minute spurts, and then will allow five minutes of social media or whatever.

Sometimes it’s hard to know when to put a project to bed - how do you know when you’ve finished something?

That is a question for the ages. I think every writer asks him/her/themselves that. I’ve been so guilty of submitting an unfinished piece to a literary magazine. My personal litmus test is when I think it’s finished, I put it away for at least a week. Then I take it out again, revise with fresh eyes, and then, if possible, workshop it – have another set of eyes look at it. Ideally this is a critique group, a fellow writer, or someone who reads a lot. Really consider that constructive feedback – a hole in the plot, a sentence that tripped the reader up – to make the piece better. The process of workshopping is often what helps the most in terms of getting the piece where it needs to be, where I feel good sending it out.

How does the revision process work for you? Love it? Dread it? What is most effective for you?

I really like revising. I get to hone my voice, deepen my language, and try different things within the context of my message. Usually it takes me at least a couple revisions to get there. It’s also the phase where I need to be the most patient with myself. Sometimes access to my best writing voice doesn’t come right away, and that’s ok.

What are you reading these days?

I’m just finishing “Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing,” an essay collection by Lauren Hough, and am about to start “Blow Your House Down,” a memoir by Gina Frangello.

Coming up next...

Oct. 20: WOTR and NCW Libraries NCW Writers Group

Every third Wednesday, 4-5 p.m.

Join NCW Libraries and Write on the River for an inclusive writers’ club for writers of all ages, skill levels, genres and interests. The NCW Writers’ Club is a virtual writing community created by local writers, for local writers. This club is designed to connect people and artists, discuss the craft, ask for advice and share resources. Meetings are every third Wednesday from 4-5 p.m., with an optional social hour afterward. Wenatchee librarian Nik Penny and Write on the River board member Holly Thorpe will host the club virtually on Zoom. In-person options may be added in the future. All NCW Libraries virtual events are free and open to the public. Meetings will be held through the zoom meeting platform. Find more information at ncwlibraries.org

To learn more about Write on the River, become a member, or register for events, visit writeontheriver.org. Membership is $35 per year, and offers free or discounted access to all WOTR events. Questions?

Contact info@writeontheriver.org.

In The Valley of Grace - Sasha Syssoeva

By Ron Evans

Local (by way of Russia) painter Sasha Syssoeva can often be spotted out in the wild, skillfully and purposefully capturing local landscapes, churches, urban settings and just about any scene where she finds beauty, dramatic lighting and texture, “and sometimes melancholy atmosphere.” All with an unwavering connectivity to her spirituality and faith. Syssoeva will be premiering her new collection titled “In The Valley Of Grace” this coming Friday (9/3) at Mela in downtown Wenatchee. I reached out to the artist to talk about this show and to learn about her style and inspiration to pursue a higher calling through her work.

Talk about your progression through the art world - when you got started, what art (artists/style) spoke to you early on? Was your path always steered toward painting for the most part? And did you zig and zag your way to your current style, or was this what you set out to do all along?

When I was 6 years old, my mother noticed that I was always doodling something. She took me to a kids’ art school in my Russian hometown, but they said I was too young. Not taking “no” for an answer, my mother promised the teacher that she would stay with me in class and supervise. This convinced the teacher to allow me to stay. Later on, I enrolled into a City Art School where I was fortunate to study under a very accomplished painter and sculptor, Israel Ginsburg. My art education was based on the traditional curriculum with many hours of drawing human bodies, anatomical casts, architectural studies and plein air work.

Throughout my life, I was fortunate to travel and visit the most famous Art Museums in Moscow and Saint Petersburg where I observed and studied works of not only many Russian Masters but also the most influential masterpieces by Italian Renaissance, Flemish and French painters, from Raphael to Monet. In recent years, I saw the renowned art collections of the Metropolitan Museum in NY, as well as Chicago’s and Washington DC’s galleries. After taking a break from painting in my 20s to go to a law school and to build my new life in the United States, I came back to my passion for art a few years ago with a new vision and increased commitment.

Tell us about your upcoming show at Mela?

My new art show is called “In The Valley of Grace”. The name is a takeoff from the documentary titled “In The Valley of Sin” that described harrowing claims of child abuse in Wenatchee from over 20 years ago. I’m presenting several new paintings finished over the last year and a half that mostly reflect life in the Valley, joys and struggles of the pandemic.

Many of these pieces combine elements of nature along with rustic buildings, dormant factories and bridges. Is there a concerted aim to play with those juxtapositions or has that happened more organically?

As a traditional painter, I would always gravitate to the traditional subjects, but I do not choose random objects or scenery. Every subject matter is selected carefully and designed with a meaning or a story behind it. In my two recent paintings of the Wenatchee Valley with the Confluence Health Hospital in the center and the Red Apple Wildfire I express my gratitude and prayer for the local health care workers, first responders and firefighters.

When you set out to paint a scene, do you mostly paint exactly what you see? Or do you allow yourself to significantly modify things as it suits you?

Actually, a lot of work on a painting starts way before a brush touches the canvas. The process starts with an idea or a story and my visualization of it, then I will do several sketches, color studies on location, research on the subject and talk to the people who are familiar with the history of a location or the subject. I may use my artistic license to change or omit certain objects to create a better composition and bring clarity to the message I want to convey with my work. My goal is not to capture places and events in a photographic manner, but rather use my artistic skills to bring God’s beautiful creations and glory into a sharper focus, edify myself and others.

Your paintings often have pleasant, quiet and serene elements, and yet I get a bit of a pensive brooding feeling from many of them. Maybe from the dark tones of the palette, or certain textures in the brushwork. Does this resonate with you - or am I just pensive and brooding?

That’s a very good observation on your part, Ron. I do, indeed, try to create a soulful, moody, and sometimes melancholy atmosphere in my paintings. During the last year of this pandemic (and still ongoing), people here and abroad have reason to feel anxious and unsettled. In this context, I felt the need to resort to the stylistic expression more appropriate to this very different temperament of the times. My landscapes, including local churches, provide a haven for the weary mind with the soothing softness, delicate colors, the subdued hours of twilight and romantic light of a new day. These are places where one could retreat from the anxieties and physical stresses of the outside world of 2021.

You refer to yourself as a Christian painter, and much of your work involves churches or otherwise religious-forward themes. Many of your paintings don’t. Talk about how your faith plays into your work overall, and what you hope to convey to someone standing in front of your paintings?

I try to put my Christian faith into the reason I create my paintings. I think I was blessed by God with the persistent desire to learn this craft so I can create for His glory.

Some of my work is my visions of Biblical stories and messages. I painted the walk on water with Jesus and Peter, and Jesus’ First Miracle turning water into wine at a Wedding at Cana. It’s my way of praying and speaking out loud about Christianity. I recently heard that the person, a non-believer, who purchased my Wedding at Cana painting started contemplating about Christianity and God. I’m currently working on a new Biblical painting about the Samaritan woman who met Jesus, from the Gospel of John. Even though the tale happened thousands of years ago, people of our times can relate to it. It is a rich example of God’s love and acceptance, breaking racial barriers and old battles, and uniting people in faith.

Aside from the connection to your faith, what is it about churches you enjoy capturing in paint?

I visited several local churches during the shutdown last year in Spring. They looked lifeless and abandoned. I wanted to say “we are not forgetting you, we’ll come back.” Since the founding of churches by Jesus and His disciples, the church has survived barbarian hoarders, modern tyrants and the powers of sophisticated ideologies. It will survive the pandemic too.

Religion of course can be quite polarizing in any situation but I’m curious if you’ve been met with any resistance or exclusion in the fine art community based on these themes in your work?

I find our Valley’s art community diverse and very friendly. I always feel welcomed. I enjoy occasional art talk and constructive criticism from Brad Brisbine, Scott Bailey and others... Most people I have met in the Valley are believers. Even though many people do not talk about their Christian faith at social gatherings, the United States is the country with the largest Christian population. Many famous artists of the past, including Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, Levitan and many others, were Christians. We, contemporary artists, stand on the shoulders of the Old Masters, therefore we cannot deny their faith and the role it played in their work.

One thing we should certainly all be able to agree on is offering help to those in need in our own community. Lighthouse Ministries has been doing just that for decades in the valley, and you are donating a large portion of your profits from this show to that ministry. Tell us what personally speaks to you concerning this organization.

I learned about Lighthouse Ministries from my girlfriends in a Bible Study group a couple of years ago. This is a local organization in downtown Wenatchee that provides comprehensive services and ongoing support to the most vulnerable members of our community. People not only get help with the basic daily needs, such as meals, clothing and shelter, but also educational, mentoring & spiritual support. Lighthouse’s mission provides for people described by Christ “the least of these,” no conditions, no expectations. To me, it’s a model on how to live and be God’s agent of His saving grace.

Syssoeva in her element. Photo by Tyler Hale.

You often paint on location with a little portable easel - is this how you work most of the time or are you in the studio more often?

Thanks to the long summers of North Central Washington, I paint and sketch outside more often than when I lived in rainy King County. I enjoyed a guided tour of the Wenatchee Heights area with a local photographer John Applegate, getting lost in the orchards on Stemilt Hill, and walking the hills along the Columbia River. Working outside can be challenging with outdoor distractions, but it’s the best way to hone one’s observation skills and catch atmospheric changes in nature.

Are you a sketcher and pre-planner? Or do you prefer to just put brushes to canvas and see where it goes on the spot?

I improvise and I plan too. Both approaches require mental focus and attention, and both are equally valuable in growing in your craft.

What is your stance on reproductions? Do you sell prints or replicas of your work in any way?

Currently, I don’t offer prints of my work. I will try in the future after I learn more about how to make high quality prints that are affordable.

Has social media been a major means for selling your work? Where do you predominantly display/sell your paintings?

Definitely during the pandemic social media became a very valuable tool to share my art and communicate with potential buyers. I’m also very thankful to the local community, especially to the Facebook Group called “Love My Hometown Wenatchee” and my local friends for sharing their stories and giving me interesting historical facts about the Valley. These interactions help me see the subject matter from a more personal perspective. I prefer showing my paintings in person, especially locally, and you can see my artwork hanging at the Ohme Gardens, Two Rivers Gallery and other local venues.

Any shows or events down the road you have coming up? And where can people follow your art doin’s online?

My showing in Mela in September is the last one of the year. Next year in February people can see my artwork at the local fundraiser event Taste & See at Pybus Market to support Life Choices Ministry that cares for local pregnant women and mothers. People can always check out what I’m up to on my FB page Sasha S Artist, Instagram and my art website

Sashasyssoeva.com

Hot August Nights: Songs Stripped Down

By Ron Evans

Theatre is slowly making a return to the Wenatchee area following a year plus of dark stages, refunded tickets and cobwebbed auditoriums. The Numerica Performing Arts Center is one such art house that is now coming back to life with a brand new Executive Director, J. Woody Lotts of Lake Forest Park, and their first full performance since the pandemic started.

Hot August Nights: Songs Stripped Down is a two-night only event featuring performances of fan favorite numbers from Rocky Horror Show, Batboy, Cabaret, Chicago, La Cage aux Folles, The Full Monty, Hands On A Hardbody, and the yet-to-be-seen Pippin. The show, originally planned for the stage inside, will be held under the warm, dusky skies of the valley in the courtyard just outside the PAC. A space that has been utilized to charming effect with Twilight Theatre featuring an outdoor performance of The Tempest in 2019.

Songs Stripped Down director Jaime Donegan says with the new mandates set in place by Governor Inslee, the move outdoors made for a safer and more compliant event. The switch will also make for some logistical challenges but that didn’t phase the director. “It’s theatre, we adjust. And honestly, it was a pretty easy fix.” Donegan said.

The idea for the show came from a simple longing to get back to utilizing the venue, according to Donegan. “Alex Haley (Program Director for Numerica PAC), and Mike Locke (Technical Director/Facilities Manager for Numerica PAC) reached out to me when I got back in town in June, and they were like, ‘let's do something.’ And so we came up with using it as sort of a teaser for Mamma Mia, which loads into the theater the day after we finish this production. And plus, we still really want to continue Hot August Nights once this is over, and we can get moving again.”

Brian Higgins, Ernest Palmer and Matthew Pippin testing the acoustics of the courtyard.

That initial idea then evolved into the organizers kicking around a list of all the songs from the different shows they have done over the years in bite size, encapsulated mini-show style. The point wasn’t to tell the whole story but to play almost like a ‘greatest hits’ of theatre from the PAC. Donegan said that was the easy part, rounding up all the cast members (many of whom currently live in other parts of the country) he wasn’t sure would be so simple.

“I called Anthony Ieradi, who lives in New York. I said, I don't know if you would be interested in doing this...but since nobody's really performing right now - he's like ‘I’m in. I’m there.’  And then I called Christina Capehart, who’s currently in Florida and it was the same thing. ‘Let’s do this.’ Then I got Alex Isom, who lives in LA and she's like, ‘yep, I'll do it.’ And so then I have local performers that are also in the show; Brian Higgins, Daina Toevs, Alesha Perrin. Ainsley Shearer, Amy Edwards, Ernest Palmer. Paul Atwood, Ally Atwood, and Matthew Pippin.”

From a directing standpoint, stitching together a showcase of pieces from multiple musicals offers a different kind of challenge than presenting a singular story on the stage, Donegan says. Especially with so little time to rehearse with the full cast. But he also feels that kind of energy is part of what will make this event special and exciting. “We have three rehearsals for this. So we are going to really be pushing it. But I have faith in all these people that they know what they're doing. And they're so dialed in. They knew not to show up just learning their stuff. They needed to know it cold, and be ready to take direction.”

Watching the group rehearse on Tuesday night was a thrill on many levels. It was nice to see these performers back in their element and doing what they are so passionate about. It was also fun to see the last minute scheming of the crew as they dialed in the sound and talked about lighting logistics while performers waved to looky-loos and sang from the bushes surrounding the courtyard. All at the helm of a director who was saying “Well, let’s try it and see how it looks. Why not? Hmmm. You know, I think it’s great!” 

The cast and crew were clearly also having fun stretching their creative legs with a sense of freedom while still maintaining focus and trust on how the director was steering the ship. 

“Let’s try it and see how it looks!” Donegan experimenting with staging performers Alix Isom and Ally Atwood.

Christina Capehart expressed her sentiments on being back in town for a Numerica PAC performance. “Coming back to Wenatchee to perform after a year of Covid isolation feels like a dream. Jaime is truly a miracle worker dedicated to keeping the arts thriving in this community. There is no place I’d rather be.”

Local actor Brian Higgins has similar feelings. “Being back to Hot August Nights this year is the first time I’ve felt like life can be normal since the pandemic began.” 

Matthew Pippin said “It’s thrilling to be playing again with people I’ve worked with for seven seasons. Hot August Nights is the Wenatchee equivalent of American Horror Story. A new plot line each season, returning players playing different characters. It’s a gem, it’s love, and it’s life.  I can’t tell you how much I love Hot August Nights.”

With 20 separate vignettes in the lineup, this will be a full evening of live theatre and music out in the courtyard. Guests will be required to mask up so bust out your finest evening facial wear and snatch up those last few tickets while you still can. VIP table seating is sold out for both shows but at the time this story was published general admission tickets were still available for both nights. 

Like most performance venues the Numerica PAC has taken a major hit from the pandemic and they need your support now more than ever. What better way than with an evening of live theatre, a cold beer and some of your favorite humans? Well...there are of course other ways you can support them as well, according to Donegan.

“The PAC always could use more help. Volunteering for upcoming events, for cleaning and maintenance, all sorts of little jobs here and there. We all want this venue to keep going, and it's going to take people giving their time. Because not everybody can give big bucks. But if you can give some time - even two, three hours a week to the PAC, it will go a long way in keeping this great place for our community alive.” 

SHOW TIMES:

Thursday, August 26 7:30pm

Friday, August 27 7:30pm

Tickets available at numericapac.org 

Voices Of The Valley: Community Reading

By Ron Evans

Local poet and publisher C.G. Dahlin prepares to hit the trails out of Wenatchee to pursue creative academic studies in Spokane. For many years, Dahlin has been a non-stop force in the local poetry world. Attending, promoting and hosting open mics, curating and printing collections of poetry and short writings (Whispers Of Wenatchee Vol.1 and Vol.2) and always showing up to support and encourage other writers and readers as they step into the spotlight - many for the first time. 

There will definitely be a noticeable absence of his quality (and passionate) poetry here in Wenatchee when Dahlin takes his unique stylings away from us. But the community he leaves behind has a thriving, connected network of active poets and writers, largely because of the work he’s done here over the years. Before he rides off into the late summer sunset, Dahlin has organized a parting gift of sorts with a showcase of live readings by many of these talented poets and writers this Saturday at Pybus Market. Voices Of The Valley: Community Reading will take place outdoors on a stage set up at the north end of the market and starts at 11AM. I reached out to Dahlin to learn more about this event and about his new adventures as he aims his gaze eastward.

Tell us about the event on Saturday and what inspired it?

Upon letting it be known that I was set to leave the valley, the poetry group that I’ve led since 2017 brought up the possibility of a last hoorah. I was hesitant, given the cultural seclusion we’ve all undergone the last two years. Some time ago, at the RadarStation, I treasured the opportunity to host a Whispers of Wenatchee community reading. I remember this occasion fondly, bringing together all manner of voices, young, old, raw, and cultured. 

Having published the two volumes of the Whispers of Wenatchee, I now knew an even larger fold of creators. I wanted to, yet again, honor their works and provide a space where we can be heard by a likened audience, to assemble a community in otherwise divisive times. 

Was the decision to hold it outdoors covid-related?

Not necessarily. It was a happenstance of needing a place. Since 2019, public venues for such events have all but vanished. In other locations, it requires a substantial financial contribution. Being outside of Pybus, while convenient for covid-related considerations, offers both an open ambiance, and comfortability in more ways than one. 

Is there still time to sign up or is it a set list of readers?

Unfortunately the list of readers is now set. There are 16 in total. This already, given time considerations, is a lengthy event. Although I am not opposed to serendipity, if a familiar face comes wishing to read.

I’ll withhold the full list of readers for the event, however, here are some names your readers might recognize: Michael Schooler, Faith Merz, Holly Thorpe, Jessemyn Cacka, and Mitch McCarrell

Talk about your move from the area, and what are the odds of you returning full time?

I am moving to Spokane to undertake a Masters Degree in Creative Writing through Eastern Washington University. I made the heavy decision to sacrifice for the pursuit of furthering my craft. Poetry and Performance Art have been one of the few long standing passions in my life. The opportunity to lean into it and see where it takes me was the perfect lure to take me out of the valley I’ve grown to love.

I find it terribly tricky speaking of the future. I would certainly love if a teaching position were to open up at Wenatchee Valley College, or another congruent opportunity that would utilize my freshly earned credentials. However, there are no guarantees in this regard.

What I can say is that I will semi-frequently be returning to the valley. If there is ever a place that could put me in a show, I will drive that drive. I’ve been a Palm & Tarot reader at Ye Old Bookshop for 3 years and counting, and it’s very likely I will return to book appointments with regulars. Beyond this, how could I ever say no to a trip out of the city to get back to the Cascades. So in truth, I can’t speak about full-time, however, I can say, I’ll never be far away.

Will there be more Whispers of Wenatchee down the road?

Similarly, I can’t say right now. 

I want to take the time to express something about the Whispers that most might not realize. This collection is truly rare. By that I mean, contemporary poetry journals are painfully niche, oftentimes rife with nepotism, and overall narrow in their reach. The Whispers is quite the opposite. It’s broad, it involves a great many whom I’ve never met, and it’s unifying. There simply aren't any other anthologies like it, and intentionally so. The credit goes to each and every contributor, not to any institution that hosts it.

To get back to the point, I think it’s clear that I have no shortage of love for this project, however, at this time, I cannot guarantee a Volume 3. The Whispers was all about the community. The events of the last two years have largely shattered the connectedness between this community in the way of growth. Volume 1 was 34 contributors, Volume 2 was 68, by trend, if there is ever any way to expand this reach once more, Volume 3 will be made. However, it’s very possible that I will return to put on a future event much like this one, given that place, time, and all the intricacies line up.

Is there any place folks can follow your new adventures online?

Friend Request or follow me on Facebook - Connor Grisinger Dahlin. I make the profile more professional and active than any other internet presence I have. Otherwise, follow @cgdahlin on Instagram.

Panels & Gutters: Krampus Kave

By Ron Evans

Free Comic Book Day is coming up on August 14th, and it’s the perfect way to see what’s happening in the comics world for seasoned readers and new dabblers alike. It’s also a great excuse to venture into the mysterious, colorful (and often a little overwhelming) realm that is the comic book shop. Leavenworth’s Krampus Kave is one such realm, and they are giddy about Free Comic Book Day. Well... they may just be giddy in general, but if you have been looking for a new comic book to get into or an old classic series to get caught up on - they will happily lend you their qualified guidance. Opened in 2015 by owners Joe Seguin, Matthew Seguin and Sharon Seguin, the shop offers a dizzying variety of books, games, toys and collectibles - all curated and lovingly ushered onto the public by a team of passionate ner- ...ahem, employees. I talked with the shop’s manager, JJ Herndandez, to learn more about the upcoming event and about how Krampus Kave was formed in the dark and moody depths of a Bavarian village.

Tell us a little about when and why you started a comic shop?

I came up with the idea to start a comic book shop in Leavenworth while walking around at night with a local friend. It had always been a dream of mine to run a “nerd” shop since I first rolled a D20, so I asked my friends if they thought it was a good idea to open a comic book shop here since they lived in town. They said it was a terrible idea, and I ignored them.

Krampus co-owner Joe Seguin and manager JJ Hernandez

How has the industry changed over the years and talk about keeping up with the times concerning comics?

Ha! It feels like there’s a seismic shift every couple years. When we started we had one distributor for all our books, Marvel, DC, all of them and now we have like four. Everyone broke up and now order dates and release dates are all over the place. It’s definitely more work but honestly it seems like the end result is we can get more of what our customers want faster so... net gain?

Favorite books: new and classic?

Oh man, I spend way too much time reading comics. Current books I love are The Immortal Hulk which is about to end (crying emoji) and against all odds there’s Rorschach which is a Watchmen spinoff I expected to hate but fell head over heels for. As far as classic books, I’m afraid I’m less experienced but the old Marvel Conan The Barbarian books are fire and I’m partial to the Dark Horse Star Wars series as well.

If you had to pick one comic book (or series) to turn people on to reading comics what would it be and why?

That’s so tough! I don’t know these people! Send them to me and I’ll ask what they like and find the book they’re looking for. Also Murder Falcon by Daniel Warren Johnson, which I assure you is more wholesome than it sounds.

Has the explosion of comic book based films over the past couple of decades translated into interest in the books as well, or does it seem to be two different audiences?

100% People see and enjoy the characters in the movies and shows and look for more in the books. We are constantly selling out of Scarlet Witch books since Wandavision came out. Same with Invincible and The Boys and what’s really started to happen recently is as soon as new shows and movies are announced people are asking for the books to get ahead of the wave. Moon Knight especially is getting a ton of heat right now.

Other than comic books, are there any sources of revenue for the shop you dabble in?

Board games are our biggest seller by a significant margin. With Collectable Card Games (think Magic The Gathering and Pokemon) coming in second. Comics are like fourth or fifth despite taking up the most floor space.

Friendly Comic Guide Maxwell Reister at the entrance to the Krampus Kave

Tell us about Free Comic Book Day - and what are you most excited about concerning the titles available for this year’s event?

Free Comic Book Day is such a fun event for us. Watching people get to try out books they might not normally go for and get hooked is so delightful. Last year the big hit for me was Fire Power by Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead) and Chris Samnee. This year I’m looking forward to the X-Men book and just finding something new.

Any other events for the store coming up you’d like to promote?

Our favorite event of the year is Free RPG Day which is the weekend of October 16th this year. We are also looking to get some regular Magic The Gathering events in as well as a hobby/paint night. If anyone is interested in painting mini figures for DnD or Warhammer in a supportive group environment maybe having a couple of beers stay tuned to our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Social media/websites.

We’re on Facebook and Instagram @Krampuscomics

We also have a website where you can access our online store, Krampuskave.com We’d love to hear from you.

Long running Wenatchee comics staple Galaxy Comics at 5th and Western typically participates in Free Comic Book Day as well and folks in Ellensburg can hit up Central City Comics at 113 E 4th Ave. As of now there are no Covid-related restrictions in place but masking is highly encouraged.

Arts Alliance In The Makings

By Ron Evans

Over the past few years I have heard chatter in the local creative community about forming an alliance of artists and supporters of the arts here in the Wenatchee region. The chatter turned into a plot and the plot is being organized and furthered along. So we wanted to chat with one of those organizers, Kmbris Bond, about her role in this alliance - and about what the hay an arts alliance even is.

Bond is a teaching artist and was in the 2019-2020 cohort of the Teaching Artist Training Lab funded by the WA Endowment For the Arts. TAT Lab is a focused nine month training that connects artists from various disciplines - validates them as professionals and empowers them to advocate together for the arts, such as education for all ages, collaboration support, funding and community engagement.

Tell us about yourself and how you found your way to being a part of the efforts to form an arts alliance.

As a professional artist with a background in working on many nonprofit boards I’ve been interested in the art scene of the valley and wondered why we didn’t have a stronger arts advocacy group. After several conversations about this with various folks in the valley who lead or have led in arts disciplines I knew the interest was there, the need was there but the time, team, and resources had yet to align. This spring Scott Bailey reached out with a grant opportunity and after several conversations a group came together to start the process to form an art alliance while also submitting a letter of intent to the Community Foundation for much needed funding and guidance.

What exactly is an arts alliance when put into practice?

There are many alliance models out there and we are currently researching these models to see what would fit our region the best. Our survey is asking locals to give input into what is needed and wanted for the arts. There is clearly a desire for a collaborative hub for artists where they can promote their work and connect with potential commissioners, an education entity, an arts information source for promotion to tourism and economic development, and for me, I’d love to see a dynamic entity that promotes a diverse spectrum of arts disciplines and raises the awareness to the indigenous cultural history here. So my answer is basically, an art alliance is what a community needs it to be to promote and educate about the arts in their region or community. I’m hoping we learn from the survey what people really want, need and desire while developing the building blocks to a strong arts future for our region.

I think we need an arts advocacy alliance where outside funds can be received into the community through grant writing and lobbying locally, statewide and nationally, and I hope that deeper art appreciation through education and exposure will lead to a more robust art economy.

Talk about how it works concerning funding?

The steering committee is eager to get the alliance off the ground by working with Andy Fife, a consultant from Seattle. He is working with several regional nonprofits through the Community Foundation’s grant. We hope to be able to start applying for grant monies in a few months to secure funds to get things off the ground. We are early in the stages of what this will look like but various income streams will be investigated.

Are there examples of similar programs that are working successfully you can point people toward?

Methow Arts is one that is thriving! They support their local artists, provide funding for teaching and educational opportunities, are vibrant in how they represent the region and it attracts artists and art appreciators to the upper valley. Our own history has Allied Arts here in Wenatchee and I’d love for someone, like you, to research that and write about its successes. The committee is making a list now of the 20-25 that we will get a feel for and then dive into a handful that have aspects that we particularly are hoping to implement here. Andy has worked with many nonprofits and has suggestions. There are also several entities listed in our survey that we will explore. I’m specifically looking for how they engage with their communities, the businesses and champion the arts, what their funding structures are, their governance structures, and why they formed, what worked and didn’t work for them as they formed. If readers have seen alliances in other places that are doing it well, we would love to hear from them. Austin’s art scene is vibrant and supports up and coming arts in various disciplines; I want to learn more about how that happens there. Other more local established organizations that may inform our efforts are Ellensburg, and their Gallery One, Tieton’s Mighty Tieton and Yakima Allied Arts.

What steps are being taken to get this alliance off the ground?

A steering committee has organically formed made up of amazing and passionate art supporters, karen dawn dean, Scott Bailey, Lindsay Breidenthal, Natalie Dotzauer, Jamie Howell, Megan Kappler, and myself. We’ve put out the survey to glean as much input as we can from the community. As mentioned, we have obtained the services of Andy Fife to guide our efforts and to efficiently work through the process of becoming a non-profit with clear mission, values and purpose. We will be needing help and I hope that our community supports these efforts to dream with us. We plan to host on-line/hybrid ‘townhall’ type gatherings in the upcoming weeks to get input from those who support or identify in the areas of visual arts, performance arts, production/film arts and other forms. We will use contact information from the survey to communicate with the community about upcoming conversations and opportunities, so please complete the survey to get on our list. -Info on how to do that below-

How can people get involved if they want to help?

The committee would love for people to complete the survey. It is the container we have to glean contact information, feedback, input, concerns, ideas, hopes and dreams while we are still in a pandemic world. Our committee members will be looking for help to host the various ‘town hall’ events addressed above so if readers would like to help, let us know in the survey and please plan to attend.

Have your voice heard by taking the survey here.

Stare Well- New Art By Sharratt DeLong

By Ron Evans

Local painter Sharratt DeLong brings a new collection of works to Collapse Contemporary Art Gallery in Wenatchee on Friday, August 6th. The show, titled “Stare Well,” will feature ten new paintings by DeLong all focusing on the still life that exists in the stairwells of the downtown apartment building where he lives and creates. We chatted with the artist about the synapsis for this show and his process for bringing it into existence.

Talk about this upcoming show and how you were drawn toward the still life of the stairs.

About a year ago I was searching for the subject of my next show. I hiked around taking photos of sagebrush (a subject that still fascinates me) and one day I begrudgingly took the stairs because the elevator was out. I live on the top floor of an old building and it’s a long hike to my floor. That day the light shone in through the windows and hit the angles and steps of this space and I just knew. Something spiritual emanated from these spaces and I felt the stillness and excitement that always tells me I’m on the right path. I then became obsessed and returned to the stairwells during different times of day and in different types of light. Each time I observed something new and subtle, and it reminded me of the way images are projected onto the inside of our eyes and how those images speak to us and interact with our constantly moving thoughts and emotions. It felt very touching and human to me.

Are you setting up sketching or painting stations in these locations or painting from photographs?

I used photographs for my references. I love using the tools of photography in my paintings. Photography helps me to compose and capture moments in time. I am always careful to capture color and value the way my eyes see them and if you know your tools well enough this is very achievable. For me photography is a wonderful resource and a process that has fascinated me all my life. These paintings were also too large to be painted on sight. Logistical things so often make artistic decisions inevitable.

Beyond just experimenting, do you have any influences you are inspired by concerning this particular style?

I think Edward Hopper has always been an influence on me, even since I was little and tried to draw. He captured a stillness and a light that feels heartbreaking and beautiful. There is a vast and intimate feeling to his paintings that has influenced my outlook on the world ever since. I think another artist who I could point to as inspiration for this show would be the Dutch artist Vermeer. He painted such lovely interiors where light poured in through windows onto characters who held such serene tones. I always found mystery and peace in his paintings. I find that combination of emotions to be quite lovely.

At first glance with the naked eye, a stairwell is a stairwell. But you find quite a bit of variation in these locations. How do you approach this type of composition versus something that maybe is a bit more shoot from the hip, or free form?

I feel that all the freedom and chaos that can be found anywhere in the world can be found in these simple spaces if you look closely enough. These paintings did require a level of restraint and discipline to create and I think that has more to do with following the emotions that inspired the original idea. I think for me it’s more about following an idea, than creating one as I go. That more “shoot from the hip” approach seems to create the idea as it unfolds (a plan to be unplanned). For me the shoot from the hip part of the process happens when I’m just living and going about my day. My thoughts and emotions, in tandem with the physical world, mesh together and then I receive a certain feeling. That feeling is so charged, and I instantly know that it’s something I don’t have words for, and I have to share it with others through art.

What kind of challenges do you find with taking something stark and interpreting it in an artistic manner?

To me, nothing is truly stark and there is always variation. I heard an anecdote from another artist that went something like this: “Painting that figure model is easy… painting the white wall behind them is hard.” A white wall is never white. It’s always reflecting endless variations of color from the elements around it. There is such subtlety in everything and it’s often the simplest things that contain the most variation and nuance. Capturing this quality proved the biggest challenge and most fun when creating these paintings.

Were you on the lookout for interesting angles and lighting, or did you mostly stumble onto interesting scenes and decide they needed to be captured?

The first moment of inspiration I stumbled onto it. But once that moment caught hold, I returned and looked for angles, light and composition that captured the feeling of this space more potently. Eventually I became pretty calculated when the light would be shining in and from what angles. I worked with the space and would wait to try different times of day and different light. All these moments felt unique and offered me a different feeling.

Is there a subject(s) you have yet to tackle but have your eye on for a future project or series?

I want to do a show called, “Saints in the Garden,” and have it in one of the orchards here in town some evening. I’m interested in the figures that we still hold meaning to as a culture. Who is it we hold up and admire collectively and why? I will select a list of figures from history (some actual saints and some not) who I find inspiring and then find people to model them for me so I can create about ten or so portraits that will be intimately lit and viewed in a quiet space in a garden setting or orchard somewhere. I think it would be a lovely experience.

I’m still fascinated with the sagebrush landscape here in Wenatchee and I think that would make for some beautiful paintings. I think going more towards an organic subject would be a good direction. I know it’s a pretty obvious subject for this area, but I’d love to try to paint the orchards in my own way. This area still feels like the nineteen thirties in many ways, and I often get images of detectives on the sides of the highways around here wearing long coats and fedoras... There are so many ideas and impressions swimming around inside.

Sharrattdelong.com

IG: @sharrattdelong

facebook.com/sharratt.delong

Mystic North Jewelry

By Ron Evans & Sarah Sims

Amanda Northwind has been creating handcrafted jewelry for almost a decade. An indigenous artist born and raised in the Wenatchee Valley, Northwind manages to find time for her passion and craft somewhere in the process of raising twins.

“I first started creating jewelry after my daughters were born. It’s crazy to look back now and see how much it’s evolved and how long I’ve been making wearable art.” Northwind says.

Wearable art is a perfect way to encapsulate what Northwind is doing with her Mystic North jewelry line. Each piece has a unique form and flow with a delicate touch of a fine painter, fusing metal and stone with softer elements of nature. We reached out to the artist to learn more about what compels her to create.

Can you tell us a little about your brand and what inspires you to make your style of jewelry?

I get a lot of my inspiration from nature. I’ve been hand-hammering and wire wrapping since I first started making jewelry. Most recently I started working with electroforming and it’s been amazing creating items that look like you might find them out in a magical forest, pulled from an old tree, or out of the earth. Electroforming has been a goal of mine for the last three years and I’m super excited to finally be doing it! Last year I started making hand-stamped jewelry as well. That was a lot of fun, and a couple of years ago I got into resin work. My daughters and I would go on hikes and respectfully harvest local wild flowers for resin pendants, and it was nice to mesh my passion of hiking and being with my kiddos into making jewelry. I know there are so many people here in the valley who love when the flowers around the foothills and mountains bloom, and I thought it would be a cool idea to have a bit of that all year round. That avenue of work also led me to making cremated remains/memorial jewelry, and working with clients to make one of a kind pieces to remember a lost loved one. It is truly an amazing experience that takes a lot of trust and care.

What led you to this artform?

When I first started really getting into making jewelry, it was right after a childhood friend of mine passed away. He really lived the heck out of life and did what made him happy; traveling the world, exploring, and sharing his knowledge and love for nature. It really opened up my eyes to what I wanted to get out of life and to follow what made my heart happy.

Some of your work involves electroforming. Can you describe that process a bit, in layman’s terms? And how does this technique feed into the conception phase of your work?

Magic! It’s all magic! Just kidding. It’s quite a process and takes a good amount of time. To break it down, you start with what you’re working with; organic materials: bones, flowers, leaves, sticks, and crystals. I’ve seen people electroform all sorts of things. After figuring out what you’d like to work with, you start the process of sealing it and painting it. From there it’s placed into a bath to electroform the copper to it, the time frame for it to work its magic can range from a couple of hours to 24 hours. Like I said, it’s quite a process. After that, you do your sanding, polishing, and patina if needed, and finally sealing it all to prevent any further tarnishing. It usually takes me about 3-4 days to get items made depending on what else is going on, but it’s been well worth it. The best part is while it’s electroforming I can do my day to day chores/run errands and hang out with my kiddos, or work on other jewelry like wire wrapping!

Electroforming has definitely opened up a new door of opportunity for what I can work with material wise. Recently my fiancé and I have discussed collaborating on some projects together. He runs a shop called Wicked Wildcrafts. I’m pretty excited to start working with him on stuff.

Do you have any favorite stones or materials that you like working with?

Ohhhhh, that’s a tough one! I’ve always been drawn to labradorite. I love the different colors of flashes every stone has! Moonstones are another fun one to work with. Recently I worked with some blue kyanite to make a necklace and matching ring. I love how those turned out.

Do you do any rockhounding or have you incorporated any found stones into your work? Where do you get most of your materials?

I haven’t had a chance YET to go rockhounding, but it definitely is a goal to get out and do that! I have used treasures that have been locally sourced by Ty Stevens who runs Crystal Chameleon. I like to source my materials from other small businesses whether it’s locally or online.

Do you have a favorite part of the creative process? (The dreaming up of ideas, the actual crafting, seeing the finished product, etc).

Probably the creating portion for sure. I did some bead work for a while and I loved the quiet, calming process of everything. It was almost therapeutic. Seeing the finished product by far is always the best feeling. I’m pretty lucky to have an amazing circle of friends and family who have been so supportive of my work. I usually send everyone a picture after things are finished to get everyone’s opinion.

Where can people find your work locally?

Currently I have displays at Ye Olde Bookshoppe which is located down off Wenatchee Avenue, The Bubblery up in Leavenworth, and out at Wenatchi Wears which is located at the north end of Wenatchee. I’m in the process of expanding to a couple of other out of town and possibly out of state locations which is crazy awesome to think about! I feel pretty darn lucky to have these local shops take a chance on my work and have my displays in their shops, I’m very grateful for that.

Do you do trade shows, farmers markets or fairs to sell your wares? Or strictly boutiques?

I’ve done a couple of booths inside Pybus before, but it was hard with my daughters’ school schedule. Occasionally I’ll do trunk shows at Ye Olde Bookshoppe which are always fun, especially if other artists join in as well. I do sell items online through my Facebook and Instagram pages, shipping items within the U.S. and doing local meet ups as well.

Any shows or events coming up that we should know about?

Yes! I have a trunk show coming up July 17th at Ye Olde Bookshoppe. I’m super excited for that!

Instagram @mysticnorthjewelry

Facebook @mysticnorthhandmade

Ancient Lakes Theatre Festival

By Ron Evans

Theatre returns to the region in July with the world premiere of the musical “How Can I Love You” at Stage B. Located adjacent to Cave B Estate Winery in George, Stage B will be home to the Ancient Lakes Theatre Festival from July 15-25 with live performances, food and wine tasting.

“How Can I Love You” is written by retired neurosurgeon and Cave B founder Vince Bryan, directed by Eric Ankrim and composed by Rand Bellar. The musical deals with the subject of memory loss as experienced by three families. Despite the serious subject, the musical’s creators say it’s ultimately an uplifting story of love and acceptance with a powerful backbone of pop music and choreography.

“Obviously, as a retired neurosurgeon Vince Bryan has some unique insight into the world of memory loss,” Stage B Operations Manager Rhia Foster said. “It’s a very personal story, but one that will resonate on many levels.”

Foster says the musical is the launch of what will be a larger focus on theatre at Stage B.

“The owners of Stage B wanted something like what the earlier days of The Gorge were like,” she said. “Smaller, more intimate productions with a wider variety of performances.”

Vince and Carol Bryan founded the amphitheater that would later be known as The Gorge in 1986. It began as a 3,000-seat venue for their Champs de Brionne winery. In 1993, the family sold the venue to MCA who expanded the grounds into one of the most famous music venues in the world. It is currently operated by Live Nation.

“After they had planted this winery, they kind of stumbled upon this amazing space. Vince was standing at the top and his wife was down to the bottom with family members and was like ‘I can hear every word you’re saying. That’s crazy.’ So in order to sell some wine, they decided to start hosting music there and you could say it took off pretty well,” Foster said. “And while everyone loves The Gorge, the Bryans also loved the days when you could have events going more frequently and every night it would be something totally different. They are huge supporters of the arts.”

With the sale and growth of The Gorge, the Bryans were forced to close their Champs de Brionne winery to create more storage for the venue. In 2000, they created Cave B winery and boutique nearby, and in 2017 they added Stage B to the grounds with the idea of returning to some of those more intimate events.

“There have been orchestral performances, tons of live music and a pretty fantastic open mic on that stage,” Foster said. “The stage itself is actually the same size as The Gorge stage by square footage, so you can do quite a lot with it.”

Stage B organizers have expressed interest in bringing in more theatrical performances along with collaborating with existing local theatres and troupes. They hope “How Can I Love You” will help launch that plan. It’s fitting that the inaugural musical premiering in July was actually penned by one of the creators of this impressive venue.

Along with live theatre, Stage B will be host to an upcoming dance festival, touring local and non-local bands and musicians and a few things that are still in the works. Foster has her own ideas cooking concerning what would be a good fit for Stage B down the road.

“It’s the perfect environment for a big jazz festival,” she said. “Wine, amazing food and the beautiful location. It’s a no-brainer.”

Ancient Lakes Theatre Festival: July 15-25 - tickets, packages and information can be found at ancientlakestheatrefest.com.

Stand Up & Suds: Comedy at the Ridge

By Ron Evans

Saturday, July 10, comedy returns to Mission Ridge with an evening of Stand Up & Suds at The Chair 5 Pub. The show features comedians Ryan McComb and Gabe Rutledge. I reached out to event organizer/promoter Alex Haley about this show and about the stand up world during a pandemic.

Comedy has been creeping back out into the world as Covid restrictions have eased. Are there any rules or current guidelines that make stand-up tricky right now or is it basically business as usual?

Covid has definitely made everything more challenging for event production this last year. This will be the first show I’ve produced since March of 2020 but since things are opening up I think people are hungry for live entertainment. We just finished the Apple Blossom Festival which had record numbers so I think the people are ready.

Over the course of the pandemic we have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work concerning stand up, and one thing that didn’t really work...virtual stand up. Talk about the challenges of keeping comedy alive over this past year.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of took a hiatus from comedy over the past year. I’ve performed a couple times at Badger Mountain Brewery’s comedy night, but otherwise I avoided the virtual shows because the only thing I can imagine that’s worse than bombing doing stand up comedy is having to watch myself bomb doing stand up comedy.

Have you seen any creative examples of virtual comedy shows/work-arounds that did work?

I didn’t watch many of them but I know they worked for some people and that’s great! I figured I’d just rather wait it out and see comics in their full glory…I’m such a purist! The one thing I have seen work really well is podcasts. It became necessary for people to do them remotely, which as a byproduct made them more accessible to a lot of people. Not to mention the ample free time some people were forced into.

Is this show at Mission Ridge a one-off or part of an ongoing series?

I’ve definitely learned over the years that it’s better to start small and grow organically if people dig it -cough cough- Wenatchee Comedy Festival. So we’re going to try this one and see if people are eager for a comedy show with a dramatic mountain backdrop and delicious food to pair. If it goes well, you can almost certainly expect more.

Tell us about the event’s headliner.

Gabe Rutledge is always top of my list! He’s hands down one of the best to do it and also happens to live in the PNW - jackpot! He’s one of probably three comics I always go to when I’m launching a new show or trying a new venue because he always kills.

What does the future look like for the rest of this year concerning stand-up in the Wenatchee area? And is there anything coming up you’d like to promote?

Not too much on the books but it looks like it’s coming back! Really missing the RadarStation right now... I’m hoping to do some outdoor shows this summer though and maybe some private backyard shows, so keep an eye out. The roaring twenties are upon us!

The show is 18 & older only. Tix can be purchased at missionridge.com - $40 plus tax (includes dinner and entry for the show). Dinner will be served prior to the show with doors opening at 6:30 pm and the show starts at 8 pm.

Lumps Of Clay: The Craft Of MF Pottery

By Ron Evans

Mijanou Fortney is a potter and art teacher based in Leavenworth. She’s the owner and sole employee of MF Pottery, and stationed in a one hundred year old renovated barn at Tierra Learning Center, she produces goods of all sorts out of clay. The polished curves and bold geometry of her pottery portrays a certain confidence and understanding of the craft. And it took her a long time to get where she is.

“It took me a long time to get where I am.”

Told you.

She moved around a lot in her 20s and 30s. Everywhere she lived (ME, CA, MT, UT, WA) she would either find a ceramic studio that was open to the public or take a class at a community college or university, (MSU, College of the Redwoods, USU).

“Between having other jobs and starting a family I always found time to practice throwing pots, experimenting with shapes and forms and learning about surface design and glazing. I learned the production side of pottery while working at Fire Hole Pottery in Bozeman, MT. I started there as an apprentice mopping the floors and packing up pots as they were unloaded from the kiln and by the end of the two plus years I was glazing and making various slab forms. Everything came together when my family moved to Leavenworth. Shortly after we arrived, an opportunity to revive a dormant pottery studio in the “art barn” at Tierra Learning Center arose. I opened the studio to the public and at first I offered beginner pottery classes and open studio access to people who had previous experience. When I felt like my own work was solid enough I began to sell pots at the Leavenworth Farmer’s Market. Through word of mouth and community connections I started doing wholesale orders for local businesses. Seven years later I am still learning the trade and trying to grow my business.”

Was it a winding road to arrive at pottery? Were there interests in other art/craft styles along the way?

I have dabbled with many art forms and mediums for fun but working with clay has been my main thing and the only one I have ever made money doing. I have always loved drawing. My notebooks from high school and college always had more drawings than words. I usually bring a sketchbook and markers around with me.

A few years ago I learned the basics of screenprinting from my friend and artist Kaspar Heinrici. He and his wife Ali came to Leavenworth for a month long Tierra Arts residency. Collaborating with other artists that specialize in different mediums brings me joy and keeps the creativity flowing. During the pandemic I have been experimenting with watercoloring and painting.

What is it that speaks most to you about the process of ceramics?

I studied Anthropology in college and have always been intrigued by the ancestry and continuing evolution of the craft of ceramics. I spend a lot of time thinking about how people have been creating pots all over the world for thousands of years, first as a necessity and then developing into an art. I like taking a lump of clay and turning it into something that someone will use everyday. I like when random people tell me they drink their coffee or tea out of an MF Pottery mug every morning.

Is there one singular part of that process you enjoy maybe a bit more (or less) than others?

There are so many steps in the process of making a pot. Each step requires a type of focus and intentionality. Some steps are more tedious than others. Throwing pots on the wheel and carving patterns and designs into the clay are two of my favorite parts of the process. There are times while working on large orders when I start to feel like a machine. In those moments I try to focus on the meditative qualities to the repetitiveness. Loading and unloading the kiln is another part of the process that I enjoy. It is fun finding a way to fit all the pots. It’s like tetris or bagging groceries. The business and marketing side of the process is my least favorite. I don’t spend enough time working on it and get angsty when I sit down at a computer. I have a lot to learn still in this area.

When working on new ideas do you start with any sketching or plotting in 2D or do you just reach for the clay and see where it goes?

Both. When I sit down with a customer to talk about designs I sketch the idea on paper. When new ideas come to me I will draw them in my sketchbook. From there, I go from the drawing to the clay. It can take many attempts to get the right shape/size for a new piece. I prototype and fail. I have made so many coffee cones that now have plants in them. I have learned to not get attached.

Are you making (selling) one item more than others?

Mugs. Always mugs, with mountains or bicycles or fish or a logo from a local business. The ‘resist’ mug is still a bestseller.

I recently saw one of your teapots in Salt Creek Apothecary in Wenatchee. Is crafting a teapot by hand as tricky as it seems it would be?

Teapots are the ultimate challenge for a potter. They take forever to make. They have so many parts that have to be attached and dried evenly. The teapots at Salt Creek Apothecary are all hand built. Almost everything else I make is thrown on the wheel.

Where do you sell your pieces?

I sell my pots online through instagram and my website and through word of mouth. If you want to buy something from a brick and mortar you can find my pottery at Sage Mountain Natural Foods, Argonaut Espresso Bar, Tumwater Bakery, 97 Rock House, WAHI yoga store, Yodelin, Dilly Dally Yarn Shop/Prey’s Fruit Barn, Salt Creek Apothecary, The Plant Ally, Infuse Organics. I will have a booth at the Leavenworth Farmer’s Market sometime this summer as well.

Do you ever produce works for fine art galleries?

No but maybe someday.

I have seen company logos and personalized graphics on some of your pottery. Do you do custom/commissioned work often?

Yes I do custom orders all the time. My product line includes place settings, tea sets, vases, utensil holders, wine chillers, plant pots and other items.

For fellow ceramicists (is that even the term) or tool nerds out there, what kind of clays, tools and other paraphernalia do you typically use?

The white clay I use most is a mix of stoneware and porcelain. It is easy to throw and smooth like butter. This clay is great for carving and creating texture on the piece. The glazes I use work well on the white clay body. I have recently been using a speckled stoneware clay too. The iron speckles show through the lighter color glazes. This clay is great for hand building pieces like teapots or plant hangers. This clay is quite gritty and it tears up my hands when I throw too much with it.

Some of my favorite tools are from Diamond Core tools. They make a variety of tools used to carve clay in order to create designs or add texture.

Have you hosted classes on pottery?

One of the great things about this craft is the community that it creates. Unlike with other art forms, most people don’t do pottery at home. They need a studio with the equipment and supplies to go to. Right away when I opened the studio and started teaching, the classes filled up. People who had taken a class in high school or college came in to work independently on their own projects. I have met and connected with so many people through my studio. I share the barn with Mountain Sprouts preschool. I have done a few projects with the kids including tile projects and pressing plants and other things from nature into the clay. I teach after school art classes and workshops to kids of all ages. Older kids can attend the open studio hours and work independently. I have been hosting and teaching participants from the TRAILS (Tierra’s Recreation Arts and Independent Life Skills) Program for the last five or six years (besides this past year). The participants are adults with developmental differences and they bring so much creativity to the studio. I don’t even have to teach them anymore, they come with their own ideas and I am there to guide them. My studio and practice has grown and evolved over the last seven years. With all of the interest in classes and studio time, I quickly outgrew the original studio space tucked in the back corner of the barn. Thankfully Mountain Sprouts, the preschool I share the barn with, needed more space too and the barn was remodeled in 2017 to expand the preschool program and the pottery studio. Classes and open studio have been on hold for the last year but in May the studio will once again be open to the public. There will be classes, workshops, and open studio hours for kids and adults. I’m looking forward to providing a creative outlet for people again. Creativity through art is such an important piece of mental health and it has been hard to not share my space with people. I have also very much enjoyed the solitude.

Where can people shop or follow your work online?

www.mfpottery.com

www.instagram.com/mf_pottery/

STARHEADBOY: Burien Artist Gets Reflective

By Ron Evans

I first discovered Burien artist Starheadboy’s work at a showing at Collapse Gallery in Wenatchee in 2019. I was an immediate fan and over the past couple of years I have followed his output (which is nonstop) on social media and the work is always inspired and inspiring. His style is distinct and consistent but he still manages to keep you guessing a bit as to what will be coming next. I reached out for a chat about these influences, his techniques, work-ethic and even a little philosophy. Born in Seattle, Starheadboy grew up in the suburbs south of the city. He’s been drawing since he was a young kid, soaking up influences in the counterculture scene that surrounded him.

“Skateboarding changed my life in my early teens, then underground punk rock music and shows expanded my world further. I expressed all the experience in my drawings. I was scared of painting for some reason and didn’t start until my 21st birthday. I bought a bunch of paint and canvases and I became addicted immediately. The colors, pushing around the paint - I started devoting up to eight hours a day to it and became a self proclaimed hermit. I built a big body of work pretty quickly and started showing. I was also making hand pressed block prints and stickers. The stickers started going up around town. The shows led to collaborations with other artists, doing murals, and live painting with bands. When I moved to Seattle and started going on long walks, the street art stickers followed me. Right now I have this connection to the fine art community, crafty art community, comic based art and street art.”

What are your preferred mediums of choice?

My preferred mediums right now are a trifecta of pen on paper in sketchbooks, acrylic paint on canvas, and digital drawing on an iPad.

Who were some of your earlier influences and whose work keeps you jazzed these days?

My influences started out with Warner Bros. cartoons growing up. l loved them. Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote (my parents thought it was funny that I felt sympathy for Wile E. when he got hurt). Then Marvel Comics, especially Daredevil and The X-Men. Late 1980’s skateboarding culture took my mind - the graphics, music - it took over. The street exposure of skateboarding introduced me to punk rock. I loved all of it. Salvador Dali’s works were the first paintings to really hit me. My grandpa had a print of his and it was intriguing. Graffiti - Keith Haring, Basquiat, Egon Schiele, and Emily Carr. These days, it’s so much and so many. I love so many artists through social media. Everyone is putting out so much incredible work.

Your style is very unique and distinct, talk about how you developed the look of your paintings that -to me- seem to live somewhere between naturalistic illustration and Saturday morning cartoons?

There was a point in my mid-twenties where I was doing cartoony type work and also really darker, more expressive paintings. I thought I’d have to pick one or the other for some reason. I even ended up destroying some sketchbooks of the cartoon work. I quickly realized that I needed both sides and I fully embrace both now. I never get “artist block”; if I am a little burned out on the comic graphic characters, I just move to a series of animals or even landscapes and vice versa.

Do you hope to convey any kind of overall message with your art, or do you just start creating and see what happens?

I think if I have an overall message it is basically just reflective of my life. An imperfect being navigating the surreal experience of life. The stories that I am most attached to revolve around antiheroes and flawed characters. Most of my themes now are a push toward not punishing ourselves so much with the inner voice.

On the topic of messages, talk about your recent videos of spoken word on social media - they seem very Zen and contemplative yet non-preachy with a ‘shoot from the hip’ sort of vibe.

The new videos came out of my own desire to connect with the creators of work I like. I like to see their thoughts and ideas. Usually I’ll be out on a walk and an idea will float through my mind and I know someone out there will benefit from it too. I am definitely a flawed human making my way through all of this, but the little pieces that come through that make things make sense, I want to get that out there for others.

Are you much of a pre-planner in terms of sketching or thumbnails before putting paint to the canvas?

I used to just dive into every piece. I was doing a lot of live painting with bands and it helped so much to be really spontaneous. In the last couple of years I’ve been drawing things out in pencil first and spending more time honing ideas and images before the more permanent lines are painted.

Judging from the amount of new works you post online I feel like I know the answer to this - are you pretty much working every day? And is this your full time job or is there supplemental income keeping the art alive?

I am definitely working all the time, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like a very strange dream. I quit a job in an art store in 2010, then just let my work carry me until around 2015. I ran into this existential crisis where each day I felt I was just stuck in quicksand. I couldn’t move forward and needed to be shocked out of my routines. I took a warehouse labor job and worked that until the pandemic happened. I left there a year ago for fear of personal safety. I’ve been back to fully focusing on my artwork, it’s been really incredible.

Do you ever produce comics or long form narrative works?

I have in the past and I loved it. I drew a daily comic called “Perfect Abernathy” for around a year and a half; it was mainly autobiographical. Directly after that, I drew a weekly comic called “Woonsocket”. I really loved that one, the main character didn’t talk very much. All the other strange characters would talk to him. I’ve started different comics here and there. I love the feel of getting into the narrative of panel comics. I start to see everything around me as material. I miss drawing the comics, I’m hoping the feel of them comes back soon.

What’s the art community like in Burien?

I feel like the art community in all the suburbs around Seattle are growing. Kent, Burien, White Center. People are making great things happen everywhere. When I was growing up, Seattle was the cultural hub. Going there seemed to be the only way to see art and live music.

Has the Covid shutdowns affected your creative flow one way or another?

When the pandemic started, there was definitely some fear of the unknown, especially for personal safety. But I feel like the lockdowns were right in my wheelhouse. I’m used to working on my art, living in sketch pads, drawing and writing. I didn’t need to find anything to occupy my time, I already have it. My creative output grew with all the new time on my hands. I’m used to staying up until 4:00 am in solitude working as the rest of my family is sleeping. I ramped up my introverted side during the pandy, started moving all my artwork online and didn’t have to hang or take down shows. I was hanging around three shows a month, I’d been doing that for years and as grateful as I am for all of them, it really took a toll. Coming out of the pandy, I am focused on showing in only a couple of places; I’d rather spend my time creating at home and putting it online. It feels really good. Over the years, I’ve had multiple studios that were connected to monthly art walks and an average of two to three shows a month around town. The Seattle area has an amazing artist community and it is so awesome to have an excuse to get together with friends. I’m so grateful for my time especially at the studio space shows, the most recently being The Greenwood Collective in Seattle. The opening night is really just a rad party with friends. Connecting with new people through this whole journey has been so incredible.

Do you have a dream project or collaboration if money and logic were not roadblocks?

A dream project, which I am actively working on, is having a collaboration or even just having work present in some of the cities around the Oregon Coast. Especially Cannon Beach and Astoria. I’ve worked Cannon Beach into the storyline of the Burrito Unicorns. I have the landmark “Haystack Rock” in lots of my paintings and designs. Our family would camp along the Oregon Coast when I was growing up and it made a lasting impression. I’d like to do anything down there from a mural, a show (hopefully multiple) to just having merch in one of the tourist stores.

I am putting as many designs up as I can on my Threadless shop, I signed a contract with them last month to have a design tested in the Spencer’s stores. Threadless is doing a lot of partnerships with different retail, I’d love to see more of my designs get distributed.

Where can people follow your shenanigans online?

My shop is at Starheadboy.Threadless.com. People can follow me on Instagram, I add to that on a daily basis. Facebook, YouTube, Patreon, I have links on my website starheadboy.com. I also have all kinds of work from stickers to paintings available at etsy.com/shop/starheadboy

Woody Guthrie: And The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done

By Ron Evans

About 20 years ago I discovered the music of folk legend Woody Guthrie. I was listening to some radio interview with Beck, who I was obsessed with at the time, and he mentioned that his earliest recordings were largely inspired by Woody Guthrie. This sent me on a quest to find some of Woody’s music as I love tracing the influences of my favorite artists. I was immediately charmed by the simplicity of the tunes, the catchiness of Woody’s playful yet earnest vocals and the ghostly, frozen-in-time feeling you get when listening to these scratchy, muffled, tinny songs captured in the early days of recording. 

I was sort of shocked when I first heard Guthrie mention the Grand Coulee Dam in some of his lyrics but soon learned that not only did he write about the dam, he did so while he was actually up here in Washington State. And he was hired by the government to write an entire collection of songs to sell the American people on the idea of The Grand Coulee Dam and the notion of publicly owned power. It’s hard to truly express how surprising that sounded to me after learning of Guthrie’s often-polarizing politics, anti-government (in some ways) lyrics - Woody was even associated with the Communist Party, although most accounts claim this association has been somewhat exaggerated. But the biggest surprise to me was...how the hell had I never heard about this?

Around that same time, KEXP radio host Greg Vandy (The Roadhouse) had had a similar realization concerning Woody and The Grand Coulee dam. Vandy intended on getting to the bottom of this fascinating story and soon found himself working on a book (something he’d never done before) and the history he uncovered plays out like a Cohen Bros. film with a convergence of so many unlikely happenings, it hardly seems true. Yet it is. Vandy’s book, “26 Songs In 30 Days: Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest” paints the picture of this ‘almost lost to time’ story in great detail. I sat down with the author for an in-depth talk about the book, the folk singer and the mighty Grand Coulee Dam.

How and when did you first fall in love with Woody Guthrie’s music and how long after that did you start researching the book?

Well, I’d say it’s more like ‘when did I begin to appreciate his music’ and understand the greater context of why he’s considered so important. Woody can be a difficult listen, and like many, I knew the name more than his songs. I made the connection that he wrote all these songs about the Columbia River Project and then one day, when I was supposed to be working, I was in the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center. They have this really cool little theater there, and while I was watching all the reels of historical films about the building of the dam, there was some female harmony version of “Roll On Columbia” that I’d never heard before. It’s not like there’s a lot there to recognize Woody’s contribution to the project. It sounded like a 1980’s recording and I still don’t really know who it was. But I was like, ‘oh, that’s a new version.’ 

At the time I was developing these theme shows on KEXP, where I take one song and play the many versions of the same song. Usually traditional songs. It makes you appreciate the song and learn about it and see the evolution of it. So I started doing that with “Roll On Columbia” and then I realized there was a whole song cycle that Woody Guthrie wrote about his experience being employed by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Given this context, I understood and appreciated the songs much more. The same is true for his Dust Bowl Ballads. I became a fan like everyone else who seeks it out. 

I started doing research for a special three-hour radio show, in which I interviewed some of the people with first-hand experiences with the story, including Michael Madjic (University of Oregon) who produced a video documentary on the whole thing. I aired different versions of this radio show over the years, and it landed on the ears of Sasquatch Books who offered me a deal to write a book. I started writing it in 2014. 

The book sets the stage pretty early on for this collaboration between Woody and the BPA. And for unlikely as that pairing was, the stories leading up to it illustrate why it wasn’t quite as crazy as it sounds. Where do you begin to research for a book like this, which is part biographical and part historical documentation?

Well, I go from knowing that there’s this song cycle (which is on an album called The Columbia River Songs) to finding Madjic’s documentary and then producing the radio special. And then from there, after the book deal, I filled in the details with independent research with lots of help from people like Jeff Place from Smithsonian Folkways, The Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa and the BPA archives in Portland. Libby Burke was a godsend there. 

And so through all that I picked up on the amazing story and soon realized that not much had been written about it before. At all. The two main Guthrie biographies, surprisingly, only provide a scant half dozen pages or so to the BPA story. And most people who live in this state, and in Oregon, are unaware that this happened at all, or that Woody Guthrie has an imprint here where he actually wrote songs about us, about where we live here in the Northwest. And that “Pastures of Plenty” is literally about the Columbia River Basin and a big utopian vision to solve the Dust Bowl crisis and bring electricity to rural farmers.

It’s very exciting to find out that these songs are about us and where we live. It’s like going to a museum, and you’re like ‘Oh, I can see my house in that Rembrandt.’ It’s kind of mind blowing.  

The idea of writing 26 songs in 30 days is impressive on just about any level. But the fact that some of those songs ended up living on, like “Pastures of Plenty”, as icons of folk music - I think is pretty incredible. 

Although Woody was known, as were most folk musicians of the time, to borrow or straight up repurpose melodies for his new songs. Talk a little bit about Woody from a songwriting standpoint.

Woody’s process as a traditional folksinger is fairly typical. And like most folksingers, he sang the old songs. And this is something that I think is lost on a lot of modern listeners, because it’s certainly an old fashioned concept. But it’s really what folk music is all about, which is not necessarily writing new songs the way the Beatles wrote The White Album. It’s more like, there are these old songs that people have always sang to each other for generations, learning from each other and from song books well before the advent of recording technology. The songs passed from person to person in what has become known as the ‘oral tradition’ where people learn songs from people actually singing the songs. 

Over time the songs changed, morphed, and adapted, sometimes into whole new songs, to fit the needs of the performer and reflecting different geographies and local vernacular - where everyone has their own way of doing a popular song, his or her way. This is called the ‘folk process.’ When records happened in the late 1920’s and the first recordings by the Carter Family were released, these were old songs. Songs that A.P. Carter heard orally, from his community. He was like a collector. Then he recorded them. Woody was like this too, but Woody would write his own lyrics to existing song melodies. Again, not the first one at all. Joe Hill used and adapted old melodies for his labor songs at the turn of the 20th Century as did other protest singers. The idea being that if you knew the melody already you could follow the song easier. That whole thing is really fascinating to me - ‘the folk process.’ That’s what Woody Guthrie did. Nobody owned the old traditional songs. Still don’t. 

So yes, Woody adapted old songs to fit his needs all the time. 

Grand Coulee Dam mid-construction in 1939 - Photo/Bonneville Power Administration 

The idea of the Grand Coulee Dam was thought to be a pipe dream by most people. Just a thing too impossible to imagine or even justify. But one early visionary and champion for the project is a prominent name here in Wenatchee. Publisher of the Wenatchee Daily World, Rufus Woods. How important was Woods’ support for the project of the dam in getting things off the ground?

It was huge, because he was the ultimate booster. And it’s a little bit complicated as to what he wanted versus what ultimately happened, as he was for private interest and for making the whole project a private enterprise. The federal government at the time, however, was all for public power and for public ownership. So there’s a difference there. But Rufus was great, because he made it really sort of an entertaining story about how the little guy was gonna win over the big guy, and the Grand Coulee Dam is gonna help the community and bring a better life to the Wenatchee area.  

Understanding that time and place is so interesting and so important because they had these movie reels that played in all the cinemas back in the day. When you’d go see a movie you’d see the main feature, then you can maybe see a short and then there’s always a newsreel in there too. The story of the Grand Coulee Dam was a popular feature in these reels. This is before TV sets of course. And I think it was really fun and encouraging for people who were living through the Great Depression to know that there is a sense of progress going on. And I think that’s why it was such a popular story because not only was it the biggest thing that man had ever done in the middle of nowhere, but it was a sign of America coming back from the Depression. 

Along that propaganda line, there were plenty of people that were sort of scoffing at Woody Guthrie, his lyrics for these songs and his involvement with the dam in general as little more than propaganda, which I suppose, by definition is propaganda. Or do you see it differently?

Well, yeah, I think it’s classic propaganda but as I wrote in the book, it was also “public relations for The People.” That’s how Harry Hopkins put it (Roosevelt’s WPA Director). He said, “it’s about time people have propaganda for them. The big power companies spend millions on propaganda for private utilities.” 

And I think that’s what this was - it was propaganda to educate people that public power was something that was viable and possible, and that we didn’t need private interest to charge whatever they wanted for power from rivers that belong to everyone, because they are our natural resource. The project was aimed at improving the lives of common people by bringing electricity at a low rate to people in rural eastern Washington and Oregon for the first time. Literally bringing people out of the dark and providing a more modern lifestyle for everyone. It was part of The New Deal, and yes, it needed to be sold by a folksinger because this was actually our first folk revival, back in the 1930’s. A new American narrative featuring working people that was both organic and fully sponsored by the Roosevelt administration to promote New Deal policy. It’s quite fascinating.  

Plenty of artists or celebrities have cashed in on a paycheck to promote something or another. But a major difference here is that it seems to me that Woody truly believed in this project.

He needed a job really bad as I explained in the book. He was at probably his lowest ebb, ever. He was discouraged. He was broke. He had a family and needed a gig, and this was a great gig. But this wasn’t selling a bar of soap or a brand of cars. It was about a whole ideology of public or private. About public utility districts providing energy and power to people who didn’t have it before and irrigating dry dusty land for people in order to create something for themselves. A cure for the Dust Bowl and a place for migrants to settle down. So, yes, he was way into it. We make reference in the book that Mary, his wife at the time, said that Woody would come home super jazzed about the whole thing and he was inspired. That’s clearly evident in the quality of the songs. It was the perfect job for him. And he loved it. He loved this area too. I mean, think of how pristine and beautiful the Pacific Northwest was back in 1941. I think being from the Dust Bowl region, the lush landscape made a lifelong impression on him. 

“Roll On Columbia” was a song that we actually learned in grade school by heart. I don’t remember Woody Guthrie’s name ever being associated with it. It was one of those songs that just was. In fact, the song itself was famous before Woody’s recording of it was released. How does that even happen?

So this is one of the most amazing discoveries and most interesting aspects of the book for me. The fact that the most well known Woody Guthrie song from this song cycle was never recorded by Woody Guthrie. For years people thought it was never recorded by him. Now, this goes back to the idea that songwriters published songs in song books back in the day and that Woody wrote a million songs but only got a chance to record a fraction of them. And of the 26 songs we reference in the book, only 17 of those songs had been recorded. So it’s not too crazy to think that we know “Roll On Columbia” from other artists, or from summer camps or school via a song book. 

Treasure in the closet. Unearthed acetate of Woody’s BPA recordings. 

It wasn’t until 1987 that anyone heard a recording of it by Woody Guthrie. It was Bill Murlin of the BPA who discovered the old acetate when he made contact with retired BPA employees via an internal newsletter. And there were others too; all these lost acetates that Woody Guthrie recorded in the BPA basement as demos were found in private hands. I imagine this make-shift studio closet where he banged out these songs during his month-long employment there. And one of the lost recordings was “Roll On Columbia!” It’s pretty amazing and I imagine it blew the minds of hard-core Guthrie fans when it was discovered. 

There are actually 12 songs that came out of the woodwork from surviving, physical acetate copies which were in the possession of old BPA employees. And of the 26 songs that Woody wrote for his Columbia River song cycle, he recorded 5 of them later, commercially, for Moe Asch for his Folkways label in 1944, and those are the songs we know, like “Talking Columbia”, “Hard Traveling”, “Grand Coulee Dam” etc. Apparently, Woody forgot about “Roll On Columbia” by then. We try to explain that in the book.  The whole story has one amazing thing after another. 

It blows my mind that Woody was recording in the basement of the BPA. I suppose it’s too much to hope for some sort of preservation, or memorialization of that auspicious occasion.

The BPA moved out of their original building, and I doubt anything was preserved there. I’m not even sure the structure still stands. 

Another aspect of the dam that I don’t remember ever being taught in school was the devastation that the project had on the indigenous people of the area. Talk a bit about that and how it led to the Ceremony of Tears.

Whenever we talk about the Grand Coulee Dam there are two sides of that tale. In the introduction of the book we give a full disclaimer to inform the reader that this is a story about Woody Guthrie, and how this whole thing came about. And you have to keep in mind that while we tell the story, there’s a whole other side to it that’s terrible. The over-damming of the Columbia, turning this natural, beautiful river into a lake is a terrible consequence, environmentally. And the consequence of the Coulee Dam for Native Americans is the loss of salmon, lifestyle, and culture. And they received none of the power or electricity, even though the reservation is literally on the other bank of the river. The whole story is really ridiculous. The best book that I’ve read about this angle of the story is called “A River Lost” by Blaine Harden. He explains how arrogant it was to not consider anyone in this equation other than white males. So that’s a fact you have to know going into telling a story like this. 

The Ceremony of Tears was this moment in time when the native tribes were realizing their fate and that the Columbia River was going to be dammed, and that the river was going to rise. And that not only were the salmon going to be blocked, a lot of the land would be covered with water, including burial sites. The ceremony was sort of a solemn acknowledgement that things were going to change at that moment for them. And not for the best, obviously. 

Poster for the epic Woody Guthrie Day event at Grand Coulee Dam in 2016.

In 2016, you organized something that I had been waiting for for a long time, even if I didn’t know it. Woody Guthrie Day at Grand Coulee Dam. An all day event with live music, film screenings, panels and Woody-centric exhibits. How did that all come together? And was this a one off? Or are there plans for maybe future Woody celebrations?

Oh, yeah, definitely a one-off. It was meant to finally recognize Woody Guthrie at the Grand Coulee Dam, which they really never had done before. Which kind of surprised me and kind of blows my mind in a certain way that a guy as famous as Woody Guthrie who wrote a song called “Grand Coulee Dam” is not fully recognized at the Grand Coulee Dam. I felt like, you know, 75 years after the fact it would be nice to have some sort of recognition of those songs and the guy who wrote them. Granted, there is a display of him in the Visitor Center with a xylophone thing where you can play “Roll On Columbia”, but it’s easy to miss. My book was timed to come out on the 75th anniversary of Guthrie’s employment with the BPA, so we partnered up with the Bureau Of Reclamation to do the event. They were pretty cooperative in helping us out. 

We had Deana McCloud come out from the Woody Guthrie Center (in Tulsa), which was really flattering. Bill Murlin and Libby Burke were there from the BPA, and we had these great panels, which I think was the best part of the event, in that little theater. And of course we had singers and some bands. I really envisioned a whole big stage and a grandstand and Arlo Guthrie playing, but you know, we really couldn’t get that together. There was no budget at all. Everyone did it because they wanted to be there. The location is so remote that it was hard to get Seattle people to drive all the way out there. But it’s a special place in the Coulee Corridor, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a gorgeous road trip. 

When I first learned about Woody’s time up here with the Columbia River songs, I hit the road. I was on a quest to see the dam with renewed interest. I was also looking for any little roadside marker - some sort of attraction or mention of Woody that I could find, only to discover there was no such thing. Except for a little power substation they named after him - you know, one of those eyesore things that we all try to hide with fences and shrubs - somewhere down on the Oregon-Washington border, which is such a touching tribute. 

Your book really helps the story come back into light. But why do you think it ever faded to begin with? And why do you think these acetates ended up under the bed of some dude that just never really thought about it until someone brought it up decades later?

I don’t think anyone even knew what really happened until the 60’s. We mentioned in the book that there was a writer for the AP who sort of pieced it together for the first time in a news story. The original documentary film, “The Columbia”, that Woody was hired to write songs for eventually materialized but not until after the war, in 1949. By that time, it wasn’t very relevant and nobody actually saw the film. After World War II the country immediately shifted its focus to a more urban economy and the agrarian utopia featuring a Planned Promised Land was already out-of-date and not realistic. 

The rare, earliest Columbia River songs compilation by Moe Asch - oddly attributed to the Dust Bowl ballads in spite of the fact that the man in the illustration is clearly parked in front of the Grand Coulee Dam, as spotted by Vandy.

So not many people know this happened, even to this day. The five songs released commercially were heard much later, and music fans referred to these songs as “Woody’s dam songs” or his “Columbia River songs”, but not many knew that there were 17 other songs until Murlin produced the Columbia River Songs album in 1987 with all the unknown recordings. However, another prized nugget of my research uncovered an album that Moe Asch released in 1948, which was actually the first Columbia River songs album, with many of the songs we are talking about here, but for some reason Asch called it Ballads From The Dust Bowl. It’s weird because it had only one Dust Bowl song and all the other songs were Columbia River songs. So I assume that Asch was just using the tried and true Dust Bowl brand to sell the record. But the cover is a man reclining in his car driver seat looking at the Grand Coulee Dam. Nobody made this connection before, and when I called Jeff Place at Smithsonian about it, he agreed. It’s a pretty rare record. So that’s always funny to me.

One of the things I always thought would be amazing on a road trip of that region would be some sort of ‘Woody sat and strummed his guitar here’ roadside markers overlooking the river. A man named Elmer Bueller was tasked by the BPA to drive Woody around and basically do just that. Take in the sights, smell the fresh Columbia River air and write songs. You once interviewed Bueller about his time with Woody. How does he recall this experience? 

Yeah, I called him on the phone back when I was working on the radio show documentary for KEXP, probably around 2006, maybe? Just a few years before he passed away. He was a very elderly man and just a great guy to talk with about his experience - you know, having someone with first-hand experience at whatever you are researching is so valuable. Especially to someone like Woody Guthrie, which was pretty exciting. There are really not many people you can say that had first hand experience with him or with this whole story. Besides his stories, I wanted to know what the route was from Portland to Grand Coulee and back when they drove it in a government car - a brand new 1940 Hornet Hudson. And that way I could make a map and do what you’re saying, visualize Woody Guthrie singing over the river or whatever he did, and share the romance of that vision. Also, to make a definitive timeline because Woody only worked on this job for 30 days.

But, I just could not get him to nail it down. Of course he was 90 years old and this happened so long ago for him, but I was hoping for some sort of logbook, you know. When you work for the state or for the federal government everything is written down, so I thought there might be a surviving journal or log book or something like that. But the best I could get from him, which I wrote in the book, was they started going east on the Columbia and through the towns of Dee, Parkdale and eventually to The Dalles. There’s a story about a stop-over in Arlington, and a quick side trip to Lost Lake, which apparently blew Woody’s mind. He said something like, “I’m in paradise.” This was before the interstate highway so they were taking all these older roads and they cut up somewhere before Walla Walla, then north east to Spokane, and then from Spokane to Grand Coulee and from Grand Coulee they followed the river down to Portland. So that’s the route as best as I can tell. Speaking with Elmer was one of my favorite parts of the research.

Bueller once claimed to have heard Guthrie strumming his guitar in the backseat on one of these drives throughout the region. And apparently he was working and reworking lyrics to a song that hadn’t been recorded yet. A little tune called “This Land Is Your Land.” This isn’t one of the official Columbia River ballads, but is it fair to at least imagine that Woody might have been influenced by his time here in writing one of the most famous songs in US history?

Well, Woody definitely wrote that in 1940 in New York, but didn’t record it until 1944 with Moe Asch. Like I mentioned before, writing a song and recording a song are two different things, and back then Woody would record a whole batch of songs on a whim, then Asch would release them whenever, and as he saw fit. Folkways was a very small indie label, and most of the recordings Woody made back in the 40’s are on albums that came out in the 50’s and 60’s or his songs were made popular by other singers, like Pete Seeger. The Folk Revival of that time is how most people discovered Woody Guthrie’s songs, but ironically he was too sick (with Huntington’s disease) to play and participate in that new scene. That’s how the legend of Guthrie really began, in that people knew these songs that were written much earlier but he was a man of mystery to kids in the early 60’s folk revival scene. But he very well could have been still working on it and just singing it, or maybe changing it, who knows? I think “Pastures of Plenty” is just as important as “This Land Is Your Land” and it’s really the same kind of song in how ‘this land’ belongs to you and me, and the private versus public space argument. It’s the ultimate migrant song.

What we did discover about that song (Pastures), and Libby Burke has a lot to do with this, is that we know for a fact that Steve Khan, the guy that hired him at the BPA to write songs for his film gave Woody a copy of the book The Grapes of Wrath. Khan gave him a bunch of materials for Guthrie to bone up on the history of the area and the meaning of the project. So we think that he was reading The Grapes of Wrath with Elmer Bueller during those rides and that the book was really influential in writing “Pastures of Plenty.” And I figured out that Woody Guthrie had never read it before, even though he’d written a song about the lead character, Tom Joad. But he’d seen the movie. The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939. John Houston’s movie came out in 1940, which is a pretty quick turnaround for a movie of that magnitude. But I found this audio recording from December of 1940, five months before heading to Portland, where Woody was performing with Leadbelly in New York City, and in between songs Woody says, “Oh, here’s a song called ‘Tom Joad’. I haven’t read the book. But I saw the movie!”

On the topic of your book, as a radio personality and an author the obvious question, I suppose: Did you think about doing an audio book version? Or is that something possibly on the horizon?

Well, I talked to the publisher about that. I thought that’d be something great to do back then. But it was a question of cost considering you need the rights to the song recordings in addition to the rights to print the lyric manuscripts. It’s all very expensive.

There’s a company called TRO, The Richmond Organization that owns all the publishing for Woody Guthrie. And they were pretty hard to deal with. So for the audio recording, I think it would be cost prohibitive for any publisher to pay for those to use in an audio book. Who knows, I had my hands full just writing the book with my co-author, Dan Person.

I think a lot of people are surprised that Woody Guthrie isn’t in the public domain.

There’s so much to say about that. Public domain is about 1925, I think. But for this situation and for the sake of argument, when you write songs for the government you’re being paid for by the government - which is us. So really, don’t we own the songs? But to have that discussion with the rights holders... you may as well just forget about it. The other thing to say is I would never object to any copyright that Guthrie and the family lays claim to because the fact is, Woody Guthrie never really got paid. He was scraping and struggling his entire life and he got hardly any royalties from anything. When The Weavers did some of his songs he got paid a little bit, but it was far too little far too late. When Woody passed, a lot of the publishing rights served a great purpose in helping his family. So there’s no beef from me. 

Are there any other subjects that interest you enough to pursue a book? Or is this one good for you?

You know, in both Woody Guthrie biographies, there’s only like four to seven pages dedicated to this amazing, incredible story. So I’m very proud that we - me and Daniel Person, told the story, finally. And it’s a great story. I love the story. But, I wouldn’t call myself a dedicated author. This whole story, in a way, chose me. 

That was a while ago now, and considering I have kids and zero time, it’s hard to imagine doing another heavy lift - because the money just isn’t there. But to answer your question, the whole weird story of local hero Harry Smith would be a good one to explore. He’s the guy behind the Anthology Of American Folk Music and he’s from my hometown of Bellingham. He’s a very complicated figure, so I’m assuming that’s why no one has chased that dragon. Maybe someday! 

Final Note: After reading this you may just want to load up the car, pop in some Woody Guthrie and head out on a road trip to the Grand Coulee Dam. Unfortunately the visitor center is closed due to Covid but the park and the main vista points are all open so you can take in the vast views of this seemingly impossible monument of human ingenuity. Breathe in the fresh air of that ‘misty crystal glitter’ as the waters slide down the spillway and think about the culture, politics, dreams and hardships the Grand Coulee Dam represents. However you feel about this controversial creation, I think we can all agree that it might just be the biggest thing that man has ever done.

Woody Guthrie “killing” fascists in 1943 - photo by Al Aumuller