Our February show is elegant, classic and modern.
Mary Kohlschmidt’s jewelry is made from glass, beads, silver and crystals, and CDs and DVDs!
Mary Huels pottery celebrates her work as a firefighter, and her creativity by creating pottery with tree designs.
Rowan Chinook combines his experiences as a carpenter and theater lighting and special effects designer to create expertly detailed pyrographic art inspired by the craftspeople of Ecuador and Mexico.
Kim Russ captures moments in time with her cell phone camera, when the blur of life clarifies into a single point of focus.
Each of our February artists is excited to show their work at our gallery, and we are proud to have them here. Please join us to meet them on:
First Thursday – February 7
5:30 – 7:30 pm
Music by Dian McCracken
Artist Demonstrations by Peggy Bodle
More about these talented artists: Click their name to move down the page.
Mary Kohlschmidt (jewelry), Mary Huels (pottery), Rowan Chinook (wood burning), Kim Russ (photography)
Mary Kohlschmidt – Jewelry
It’s been one year since I was accepted as a member of The Broadway Gallery. My specialty is designing and making jewelry and paper art.
I’ve been creating handmade bracelets with Miyuki Delica Glass and Japanese Beads. Along with the bracelets, I have expanded to using Swarovski crystals and Sterling Silver to design handmade necklaces and earrings. These can be found in the main area of the gallery along with my eight-sided oriental boxes and handmade greeting cards.
For this show I’ve strayed from my norm and designed and made jewelry using compact discs and DVD’s. Yes, unusual – but interesting! You’ll see that all my pieces include CD or DVD material somewhere in the design. Most are made using accents of pearls and glass, 100% copper, Sterling Silver and plated copper/pewter.
I’ve designed my jewelry to be classy, elegant and, hopefully, just edgy enough to be new and exciting. I appreciate your coming to my show and hope you will enjoy my newest creations!
An accidental artist – that’s what I consider myself to be.
While working full-time as a forester I wandered into the evening ceramic class at Lower Columbia College. I’d never been considered to be very artistic, but found I liked playing with clay and had a little aptitude. I took pottery classes off and on from Richard Roth and Trudy Woods for many years.
Fed up with my forestry job, I left and became a casual hire wildland firefighter. Spring through fall, I go when and where they send me to work on fires, both on the fire line as a supervisor and safety officer, or in camp as an information officer. It’s a strange lifestyle, but it pays the bills.
The rest of the year I play with clay when the weather is too bad for gardening. Pottery lets me challenge myself to do something different and better, to be literally constructive with my free time. “Go do something constructive,” was the frequent admonition from our parents.
My non-clay art education is limited to what I learned through eighth grade. After many years working with trees and watching them grow, I’ve absorbed an ability to draw trees. Each of my trees is individually drawn, with no two ever growing quite the same. Sometimes I can identify which species I’ve drawn, but many are maples and oaks which cover a lot of growth forms. I hope you enjoy them.
Visit my website at Dancing Tree Pottery
Rowan Chinoock has been making pyrographic (aka wood-burning) art for several years. He studied electronic music at Bard College in Annandale, New York, where he worked as a set carpenter. While at Bard, he scored films and dance performances, played in ensembles, and created installation art that drew upon his work in theater.
After obtaining his BA he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and broadened his work in theaters to lighting and special effects, and continued to work as a carpenter and house manager. After picking up a decorated gourd at a garage sale, he was drawn to the gourd art of Central America, a subset of which is expertly detailed pyrographic art. Rowan visited Ecuador and Mexico to study and meet the craftspeople of this art form.
In 2009 Rowan began burning wood, and has worked with wood near daily for the past several years. His favorite themes are typography, poetry, sign-making, architecture, and Pacific NW native art.
“I’m proud and grateful to be showing my art at the Broadway Gallery. I’m displaying a selection of pyrography created in 2012. I have a daily practice of making pyrography, and I collect images and words that stick for me. Often this will be a saying that inspires me or a piece of poetry that captures my attention. By burning those words into wood, I’m performing a meditation on their meaning. Wood-burning is a very slow process and allows my mind to examine the meaning of words and images in a focused and quiet state. By burning these carefully chosen texts and images into wood, I believe I am increasing their power and effect on the world. I hope you enjoy!” ~ Rowan Chinook
Kim Russ – Photography: Along the Way: Images from an Ordinary Life
A photograph is created in a moment, scarcely a heartbeat, caught and held between vision, imagination, and technology.This mystical and mysterious combination can turn a moment into an eternity. Photography is magic – plain and simple.
As a photographer, I create my art by pushing a button on my cell phone camera when the blur of life clarifies into a single point of focus. The infinite magic and possibilities photography provides have allowed me to truly see, rather than simply identify, the intriguing images found in my ordinary life.
I invite you to explore some of my favorite moments.
Thank you ~ Kim Russ
