The Washington Project - Days 4 & 5

Day 4

Tuesday was spent getting back to Seattle for an evening event at the gallery -a show and tell of Eva's sketches from Eastern Washington, completed prints from her 2010 summer trip to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands, and a chance to share ideas forming around this project.  Eva and I received a lot of good feedback from our audience, specifically that revealing the process of making this series of prints is in fact, interesting.  So that was good, a hunch confirmed.  Some questioned whether the political boundaries of Washington State were too come-lately and arbitrary when dealing with landscapes that were shaped over vast geologic time and by natural cataclysmic events, like the Missoula Floods.  Maybe it's about the Northwest in broader terms, and about commonalities and differences shaped by these natural events.  Others suggested that we expand the project: more artists, and more documentation, maybe a documentary?  All this makes my head spin.  It's exciting to imagine a much bigger scope, but how to grow the project and get the work done that this would require?  A huge thank you to everyone who has participated, in person and in blog comments, in this first stage of The Washington Project.  Everyone of you is part of the process.  Your comments and feedback have been so valuable.

Watching some video clips

Eva shows sketches of Eastern Washington

Day 5
Eva was scheduled to leave for the Olympic Peninsula, but gallery friend, Joe Kaftan called late on Day 4 to say that he was in bed, sick with a recurring bout of strep throat! We regrouped and #1 Gallery Volunteer, Mark Minerich offered to escort Eva to Paradise, at the foot of Mt. Rainer for the day. Another huge thank you to Mark, who kept the project going (and provided Eva with wool and rubber to keep the deep chill away as she sat sketching on 19 feet of snow. Based on the sketch I saw this morning, there is no question that Eva's handling of an iconic location is in no danger of looking cliche. I can not wait for this print. It is going to be really something.

Eva Pietzcker at Paradise, Mt. Rainier, WA

Sketching Mt. Rainer in clouds - a quintessential view