Whatcom Studio Tour returns Oct. 3-4 and 10-11 across the county
Bellingham artist Christopher Moench had scheduled an open house at his studio in 1994, but it occurred to him that he could include more artists and more studios for the event. Thus, the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour was born.
It was originally open to any local artist, but now artists are selected by a juried system, featuring professional or full-time artists.
This year’s tour runs Oct. 3-4 and 10-11 throughout Whatcom County. Here’s a look at some of the featured artists.
Christopher Moench: Pottery with a message
Moench wasn’t always a professional artist.
After a stint as a probate assistant to an estate planning attorney at a local law firm, which he found “deadly boring,” Moench renewed his interest in “slinging mud” — making pottery, one of his favorite things to do in high school and college.
He initially made utilitarian dinner ware, architectural tile and whimsical garden sculptures.
Then a disaster shook Bellingham and turned his clay work in an entirely new direction. On June 10, 1999, the Olympic Petroleum Pipeline ruptured in Whatcom Falls Park, spilling a flood of gasoline into the creek. The explosion killed three boys.
Growing up in a family of nature-lovers, Moench “saw the pipeline disaster as a metaphor for our society’s profoundly toxic relationship with the natural world.”
As an artist, he was inspired by seeing a pre-Colombian Mayan sculpture of a ceramic vessel mounted on a turntable, with written reflections that people could read by spinning the vessel. Viewers could also write their personal notes and put them inside the sculpture.
Although he called his first vessel the Whatcom Creek Pipeline Disaster Story Wheel, he began to think of it as a kind of prayer wheel: “Prayer in the sense that the vessel and the writings within it are expressions of our dearest hopes, the ideas one holds closest to the heart and by which we strive to guide our actions,” he said.
The wheel depicts both the disaster itself and the restoration effort on the incinerated creek corridor, he said. The bronze version is installed in the lobby of Bellingham City Hall.
He now creates varied vessel shapes, sculpted elements and illustrated walls of the vessels.
In addition to commissioned work, he shows his work at Good Earth Pottery in Fairhaven, the Waterworks Gallery in La Conner, and the Sculpture Park on San Juan Island at Roche Harbor.
Mary Ennis Davis: From jewelry to murals
Bellingham artist Mary Ennes Davis’ journey has been shaped by saying yes to opportunities and by being willing to take risks. After college, she worked in marketing and sales for a title company and started making jewelry for the business attire that she was required to wear, using reclaimed materials: coins, collaged paper, metal findings, hardware. She was stopped one day while walking through Nordstrom by its Northwest buyer. They ordered jewelry for five of their stores.
That was her first order.
“I had no idea what I was doing or how I would fulfill the order as the pieces were all one-of-kind but I had said that I could,” she said.
After learning more from the gem show in Tucson and exploring other outlets, she eventually moved from creating jewelry to what she calls “guardians.”
Similar to Moench, she was inspired by the 9/11 disaster, creating figures from recycled materials, as a metaphor for the ashes in New York City.
The first ones were small enough to fit in Christmas stockings, but over the years they have grown and hang in public buildings and homes throughout the world.
“The materials are reclaimed and many of their wings are cut from reclaimed turbine blades that were left to rust along the shores of a river,” she said. The largest guardian that she’s made hangs in the courthouse in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Davis works as a teaching artist for Allied Arts of Whatcom County, creates art installations for schools and makes murals for hospitals across the country. She also teaches first responder courses and volunteers as a first responder.
Her murals can be seen at PeaceHealth Emergency Department and at its Birth Center, and she has a piece at The White Salmon Lodge at the Mt. Baker Ski Area.
One of her favorite memories was the opportunity to show her work at The Smithsonian Art Show in Washington, D.C., where she created a collection of pieces about democracy, titled “We the People, Inclusivity and Diversity.”
She’ll open her studio off Northshore Road for the tour.
Patrick Wickline: Portraiture and metal sculpture
Patrick Wickline, who lives and works at the historic Church House at 16th Street and Mill Avenue in Bellingham, grew up in what he calls a “maker” family.
His grandfather, father and cousin were big into model trains, radar-controlled airplanes and custom-built slot cars, so from early on he was exposed to the tools and methods required for those.
He dabbled with sculpture from elementary school on and showed an aptitude for ceramics. But he was more interested in drawing, which he said he was not good at.
“My breakthrough wasn’t until my mid-30s when I saw a documentary on Alexander Calder that showed him making wire sculptures. The wire medium combined sculpture, which he was good at, with line drawing, which he loved.
“I made some work, and at my first small show the lights accidentally cast shadows. People at the show said my sculptures were good but the shadows were great,” he said, “so that established my direction: to achieve the effects of traditional drawing mediums with shadow projection.”
He’s also the creator of the 30-foot giant squid sculpture at Pike Place Market in Seattle.
To create his work, he follows an approach to portraiture which is about revealing an inner state of a subject. But unlike traditional drawing where a single image is created, he makes wire sculpture that creates a myriad of “drawings” via shadow projection that can explore a wide range of states. In short, he said, “my goal is to reveal a wide range of subtle inner states of a subject with a single sculpture.”
“When people first see my animated work projected behind a screen, they often think it’s computer-generated,” he said.
Ria Harboe: ‘Vibrant colors and sweeping gestures’
Lummi Island artist Ria Harboe was born and raised by Danish immigrants in Southern California in what she said was a sometimes bohemian, creative and talented family.
“My mother encouraged me as a child to draw when I said I was bored, and my father audibly wished I would pursue a more lucrative career as I got older,” she said.
Her primary medium in early art life was in clay sculpture, but she painted as well, and she switched to just painting about 20 years ago.
“I think my clay work has informed my painting in terms of movement and 3D qualities. I like to use vibrant colors and sweeping gestures and keep the work loose.”
She recently completed a piece called “Eutierria” for a juried show at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp called “This Land is Our Land.”
“The theme resonated with me, taking care of our Earth,” said Harboe. “Creating this piece gave me great joy and peace and love for the natural world.”
She shows her work on the Lummi Island Studio tour, at the Scott Milo in Anacortes and at the River Gallery in Mount Vernon, as well as at juried shows like the Anacortes Arts Festivals and the Edmonds Art Festival, and she’s been a part of group shows at the Schack Art Center in Everett and in Bellingham.
She advocates for the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour because, she said, “there is so much beauty and diversity around us, and artists are one way to open visitors’ eyes to different ways of looking at the world.”
Jayne Baron: In awe of nature
Jayne Baron, a Bellingham artist who lives in a converted school bus, said she’s always been enthusiastically observant, especially of nature.
“From an early age I spent countless hours drawing animals from the encyclopedia,” she said. “I never figured out how to bottle my happiness to share with those who need it, but I figure I can put it into my paintings,” she said.
Some of her paintings are on exhibit at the Jansen Art Center in Lynden, and after showing her works at the Bellingham Community Food Co-op in Cordata, her works are now at the downtown co-op mezzanine.
This is Baron’s second year on the tour, and visitors can see her work at the Waterfront Artist Studio Collective on Central Avenue.
“The tour is a golden opportunity to connect with local artists, learn about their production process, support them by taking home some local art, and it might even get your own creative juices flowing,” she said.
—By Margaret Bikman