Farewell, 2017…

On this final eve of 2017, I’m sharing a recap of my art-related highlights of the year.

2017 was a crazy, hectic year, full of ups and downs, but a lot of wonderful things happened!

In February, Ryan and I drove out to the Washington coast to take photos of the Grays Harbor Lighthouse for a commissioned art piece I was creating. The weather was perfect and the clients were very happy with the final piece!

In May, we exhibited at SURTEX for a third, consecutive time and met more new potential clients. We also visited the Blue Print Surface Design and Print Show while we were in NYC. Blue Print has two shows in May—show one is the three days before SURTEX and the second show runs the same three days as SURTEX. We were lucky to meet (and have time to chat with) Paul of Cinnamon Joe Studio, the show runner, and decided to sign up for their 2018 waiting list. I’m super excited to say we made it in to both Blue Print shows in May 2018, and I will be posting more info about that very soon!

An interactive bird mural I designed for the City of Renton was at a few events around town, and was a big hit! I absolutely love working on projects with, and for, the community!

This year my good friend Mary Clymer and I joined forces to create more public art together. Mary masterminded a guerilla art project using embroidery floss, and in July we installed three prisms under a bridge along the Cedar River right before a large community event.

In an August Renton City Council meeting, the Renton Municipal Arts Commission was awarded a WA Governor’s Smart Communities Award for the Galvanizing Art Projects I spearheaded last year! You can read more about the projects we received this award for in my 2016 Recap blog post. Many thanks to Elizabeth for writing the submission for the award!

Also in August, was the Great American Eclipse. Though not directly art-related, it was an amazing, inspiring event and I just can’t do a recap of 2017 without mentioning it. We drove to eastern Oregon and stayed in La Grande (as close as we could get a hotel room even with almost a year ahead reservation) and decided to drive to our final viewing destination, Unity Lake State Park, at 2 am to beat the crowds. We slept in the truck until sunrise, and though it was very chilly, we watched the Perseid meteor shower while listening to owls and coyotes! The park was dead center in the path of totality and we were so fortunate to make it into the park before they shut the gates due to being full, as well as to have an amazingly clear, sunny day! Words really can’t describe how truly amazing the eclipse, and our overall day was!

Fortunately, in October we had unseasonably fantastic weather here in the Pacific Northwest allowing time for Mary and I to paint two murals (with extra help from my husband Ryan) before the fall rainy season arrived. The first was a mural I designed to accent some awesome architectural waffle type blocking on a building. Called COLOR, In Morse Code, the top row are the dashes, the bottom row the dots (the painted area spells out the word “COLOR”, in Morse Code). The second mural was for the Whistle Stop Ale House, and I designed it to incorporate an existing window into the smokestack of the train. Everyone was thrilled with how both of these murals turned out!

On Halloween I wrapped up the exterior of another project—my 8’x8′ “treeless” tree house! I designed and built all of it myself (with a little help from Ryan when needed), thanks to my trusty miter saw and skills I’ve learned throughout my life. I am thrilled with how it’s turning out and can’t wait to get started on finishing up the interior! It’s the perfect spot to work on my artwork, or to just hang out.

I hope you all had a wonderful year as well! Cheers to 2018 being even better!