“Walk This Way” Art in Storefronts Exhibition Runs March 15 - June 30, 2022
You’re Invited to the Opening Event - Artist Talk & Reception
Thursday, April 7, 2022, at 5 pm
Artist Talk at The Goldberg Building
Reception to follow at The Cider Barrel
168 4th Ave. W, Olympia.
Olympia Artspace Alliance announces “Walk this Way” – a new exhibition of artworks by local artists that will be on view from March 15 through June 30, 2022, in the windows of the Goldberg Building at the corner of Capitol Way at Fourth Avenue in downtown Olympia. The exhibition features work from Diana Fairbanks, Elizabeth Berrien, Bridget Joan, Rose Metting and Susan Parish. The funding for this project was made possible by the City of Olympia.
Olympia area artists were invited to propose artwork responding to the theme, “Walk this Way,” such as reflecting maps, exploration, vision, gathering, and new directions. Proposals were selected by a jury who sought work that is innovative and that will capture the attention of people walking through the streets of downtown Olympia; responsive to the space and the scale of the site; and content suitable for the general public.
Window A title: Walk This Way, facing Capitol Way. Artist - Painter Diana Fairbanks.
Window A title: Walk This Way, facing Capitol Way. Wire Artist Elizabeth Berrien
Elizabeth Berrien and Diana Fairbanks are installing sculptures and paintings to depict how wildlife ‘Walks This Way’ across Washington’s lands. Berrien is a world-renown wire artist with two- and three-dimensional work including animals, wild and domestic.
Diana Fairbanks paints in oils and will be sharing works from her “The Rivers of Washington Project” which she has been developing for the last decade. The paintings range from 5’x6’ to 6’x8’ and depict iconic views of Washington’s most significant rivers.
Bridget Joan is creating a custom skyscape of copper, brass, resin and wood. “I love to experiment and explore with the interactive balance between light and color. There is magic in how it's forever moving, shifting, and changing. My focus is on how my art is experienced and perceived, not just the visual appeal of the piece itself. I believe this creates a unique and special moment each time a piece is viewed,” said Bridget Joan.
Window B: Bridget Joan- “What Dreams May Come”
Rose Metting is creating a mixed media piece of puppets “walking” towards each other – representing youth and old age, with the sun, moon and stars hanging above.
Window C: Rose Metting- “Adventures of You and Me”
Explains Metting, “There are myriad ways to interpret the puppets: New ideas, wisdom. Younger generation, older generation. The inner child within the adult. A young person about to embark on a new adventure, or coming back from one, still connecting with their elder either way.”
This installation by Susan Parish will feature an ongoing photo-history slide show of images of this location from 1870s through the 1970s. The 10-15 minute slideshow will run continuously on a large screen monitor. If that is not feasible, the images will be displayed on easels.
Window D: Susan Parish- “100 Years on the Corner of Main Street and 4th Avenue”
Susan Parish is a well-known local photojournalist, writer and editor who has contributed to numerous local newspapers and regional projects. “Passing art and history along to other generations in a way that only the Visual Display can accomplish.”
The Opening Event was on April 7
Thanks to The Cider Barrel for hosting the reception!
Artist Statement - Elizabeth Berrien and Diana Fairbanks
We are artists who love to take our cues from nature. We carefully examine the world around us and use it as the basis for our ideas and images.
Elizabeth Berrien, wire sculptress, takes delight in observing and celebrating the forms of all living creatures. Fur, fins and feathers are read with fascination and reverence in her work.
Diana Fairbanks, painter, holds down the mineral and vegetable part of the story. She searches for juxtaposition of land, water, flora and man-made structures.
Assembled together, our work offers layers of meaning. We build an image of relationships between animals and their environment. We ask you to imagine the trackless movement of secretive, indigenous wildlife across familiar lands and structures. Consider this your invitation to ponder the paths and the beautiful travelers as they “Walk This Way”.
Artist Bio - Diana Fairbanks
Diana Fairbanks was born in Seattle and now practices at her studio in Olympia, WA. She specialized in Biological Sciences and Fine Arts at Wenatchee Valley College and then Fine Arts at Fort Wright College in Spokane, WA. She completed a B.A. and B.F.A. in painting, drawing and related media. Later, she received a Kellogg Allied Health Education Fellowship to study Medical Illustration and Educational Technology. She completed her M.Ed. and Ed.D.at the University of Washington.
During and after completing her graduate studies, Diana taught drawing, design, illustration and media production courses at public and private institutions of higher education including: Shoreline Community College, Bellevue College, University of Washington, Heritage University, and Western Washington University. She has been affiliated with Gallery Four18, Pacific Art Studio, Joan Longstaff and Associates, American Art Resources, Molten Blue Fine Arts Associates and State of the Arts Gallery and is a recipient of an Artist’s Trust EDGE Program Scholarship.
Currently, Diana is a full-time visual artist, author and teacher who fulfills commissions, fields group and solo shows of her work and is Artistic Director and curator at OlyImages Studio. She works in a range of media including watercolor, acrylic, encaustic, and oil painting and printmaking. Her work is represented in collections regionally and internationally and she has received public art commissions as well as corporate and private sources.
Artist Bio - Elizabeth Berrien - Godmother of Wire
Elizabeth Berrien's childhood included wonderful years on Whidbey Island, exploring the woods and fields around the old farmhouse her family lived in. She combined her innate fascination for all things textile — knitting, weaving, lacemaking and basketry, etc with her sense that all animals and plants have beauty if we just look close enough.
She wished she could make pen-and-ink drawings that would capture the energy flow of the lines in animals but always felt clumsy when drawing or painting. Fortunately, her high school art teacher encouraged her to focus on alternate ways to make art. She tried clay, plaster, wood, and finally… WIRE!
The rest is history. Since wire sculpture was mostly unknown in the 1960s, Elizabeth had the freedom of not being restricted by “right or wrong” ways to make things out of wire. Through creative problem solving and a LOT of trial and error, she applied a medley of her textile techniques to her wirework, evolving her own signature technique of textile wire sculpture.
Instead of going to art school, Elizabeth Berrien spent several years as a stay-at-home-mom in a confined existence. During that phase, making little wire animals to sell at craft fairs kept her sane. Later, as a single parent with a low-paying day job, she spent her lunch hours and evenings making wire animals to supplement her income.
Berrien's first breakthrough came with a commission to make a trio of large flying horses for department store windows in San Francisco. This brought her to the attention of better galleries, Gump's and Neiman-Marcus, and eventually museum curators. Berrien stepped away from her last day job in 1980. Her beloved wire sculptures have been her full-time career and livelihood ever since.
Today, Elizabeth Berrien is recognized as a founder of the contemporary wire sculpture movement. She has won a multitude of international awards for her creativity with wire. She creates custom, site-specific wire sculptures and wire wall art for public and private spaces in hotels, restaurants, corporate lobbies, hospitals, airports, parks and private homes.
Elizabeth Berrien is represented by Childhood's End Gallery at 222 4th Ave.
Her Wire Zoo studio at 113 State Ave is full of large and small wire sculptures, by appointment
Website: WireZoo.com
Artist Bio – Bridget Joan
One of Olympia’s most innovative artists, Bridget Joan, has been a member of the South Sound artist community for over 10 years. Joan has specialized in metal crafting of copper, bronze, and resin designs. Joan’s involvement in the Olympia Artspace Alliance has been extended as part of the “Walk This Way” art installation, taking over six large windows at the Goldberg Building on Capitol Way from March 15th to June 2022. She has received regional recognition for her commercial sign development with a custom-made sign for The Cider Barrel, a local Olympia business. Joan has also been featured in several local and national publications, including her work in Oregon with the resin “spirit” child riding a horse, which has redefined the medium with several West Coast art critics. Joan resides in Olympia, Washington where she grew up, attending The Evergreen State College, earning two bachelor’s degrees in metal sculpture and graphic design.
Artist’s Statement - Bridget Joan
Installation Title: What Dreams May Come
In developing these six-skyline window displays, I focused on a mysterious blend of copper, brass, and resin, to provide each visitor with a challenging visual combination of dynamic interactions. The goal is that each visitor gain perspective through the wonderous skyline views of the display, seeking out the moods of happiness, love, and adventure.
I love to experiment and explore the interactive balance between light and color. There is magic in how it's forever moving, shifting, and changing. My focus is on how my art is experienced and perceived, not just the visual appeal of the piece itself. I believe this creates a special and unique moment each time a piece is viewed.
Artist Statement - Rose Metting
I would like to create a mixed media piece that draws upon elements of sequential art and storytelling. I’m envisioning hanging felt/fabric puppets “walking” towards each other, through means of several copies of each puppet, with them hugging in the center.
One represents youth, the other old age. There are myriad ways to interpret the puppets: New ideas, wisdom. Younger generation, older generation. The inner child within the adult. A young person about to embark on a new adventure, or coming back from one, still connecting with their elder either way. A colorful, adventurous map will hang behind them, with many interconnecting paths. Sun, moon and stars will hang above.
Artist Statement and Bio - Susan Parish
Since 1982 I have been sharing, teaching, and celebrating local history and local artists by creating Visual History Displays in Public Places. My work is in hundreds of publicly accessible locations in the Puget Sound such as banks, restaurants, and professional offices including government buildings on Washington’s Capitol Campus. Many are in downtown Olympia. (Client List on my web site).
And I’ve long desired to show/share our Art/History in the Goldberg Building’s windows and I thank you for the opportunity to realize that goal.
I was born in Olympia in 1950 and as our family business was along the waterfront in Little Hollywood of what is now Capitol Lake/ Heritage Park, I’ve spent most of my life personally and professionally in this city and I know it as few others do both, so I bring context, experience, and passion to my craft. My degrees as well as my years of continuing education and professional experience are in the Liberal Arts. In Communications, specializing in Photography; in Humanities, specializing in Pacific Northwest History and, in Tourism & Visitor Services – both specializing in Olympia and the Capitol Campus.
A professional photographer since 1975, I worked as a Public Information Officer and as a Special Projects Director for the State of Washington and the Washington State Legislature creating Traveling and Permanent Visual History Displays from 1978 to 1995. As a Photojournalist, Writer and Editor I contributed to many of Olympia’s daily, weekly and monthly newspapers telling stories of our town along the way gathering oral and written history and being mentored by some of our best-known elders. Most of which are now gone, and I am now an elder telling stories of my home. Passing art and history along to other generations in a way that only the Visual Display can accomplish and I hope you agree.