Articles written by Claire Swedberg
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Jack Gunter’s 2022 tulip poster offers joy and dancing
Does the glory of the tulip fields make you want to dance? For those who feel like jumping for joy at the sight of the brilliant colors, this year’s Tulip Festival poster immortalizes that feeling....
Honoring complexity in the Northwest arts
Three months after stepping into leadership of the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), Executive Director Stefano Catalani has his eye on how the museum can best reflect the complexity of artists’ voice...
Lavone Newell Reim leaves art legacy in Skagit valley
If Skagit Valley’s community of artists could be considered a family, and if the family had a mother figure, she would be Lavone Newell-Reim. From 1987 to 2003 she annually hosted and supported...
Exploring glass powder, screened and fused
Inside a nondescript tractor storage building in La Conner farmland, glass artist Steve Klein has been testing the nature of glass. Klein has been renowned for his work with colored, kiln-formed...
MoNA Auction: Stop in to preview art now
This year the art is back on the walls. The Museum of Northwest Art is holding its 29th auction next week, celebrating regional art, the museum’s 40th birthday and the easing of the COVID-19...
Artists taking on new mediums in natural study
Some Northwest artists have recently learned fairly new techniques to express the changing forms in nature. That means sculptors were painting, painters were sculpting and other new techniques were...
Max Benjamin exhibit opens at MoNA
There are signs of hope in the Skagit Valley – even as COVID-19 drags into another year -- in the daffodil fields, in the partial reopening of restaurants and businesses, and at the Museum of...
Margy Lavelle and Ries Niemi in Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair
As an alternative to the canceled Seattle Art Fair this year, the Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair, 2020 (SDAF) brings art to the public in a blend of online and physical art displays. Margy Lavelle and Ries Niemi, from the Skagit Valley, are two of...
Order from chaos on display in Stanwood
La Conner artist Barbara Silverman Summers is extending the Northwest’s mystical art tradition this month with a solo show aptly named “Remixing Mysticism.” The exhibit opening takes place at...
MoNA displays Betty Black's art collection
Every community relies on organizers, supporters and patrons, and Betty Black was just that for the Skagit Valley during the more than five decades she lived here. She and her husband Ian Black were fixtures locally, supporting organizations, causes...
Bill Cumming mural saved, at MoNA
There was a lot of speculation at the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) Saturday night over how artist William Cumming’s mural ended up folded on a shelf in a Breckenridge family barn. Farmers, donors...
Generations of 'Locally Grown' art locally shown
As you are reading this article, someone in the valley is painting. Skagit Valley has been fostering the arts for decades and this month FORUM Arts is acknowledging that work, both current and historic. The ‘Locally Grown’ show features a half...
Skagit Valley artists' stones honor victims of gun violence
Almost one year after collecting weapons from the public – aiming to transform guns into art, a group of local artist has crafted an emotionally powerful exhibit dedicated to gun violence. Their...
Kitty Pippen remembered at quilt museum
Kitty Pippen once said she was first drawn to textile arts as a girl in China, watching the local women mend and design their clothes. She lived a life as a creative artists, but didn’t begin her quilting career in Japanese fabrics until the age...
Artist Dee Doyle practices what she teaches
Art is an ageless pursuit. La Conner artist Dee Doyle is not only painting, in what she calls her encore career, she’s teaching Skagit Valley locals from ages 50 to 100 to do the same. The Maryland...
Find sacred spirits at FORUM Arts exhibit
Entering a Shinto shrine is a practice of honoring what’s sacred in all things –the spirit that’s alive in trees, rocks and water. La Connerites can experience that practice themselves throu...
Archangels take flight at i.e.
Edison artist Margy Lavelle paints with conviction. In fact she pours so much energy into the process of moving paint across canvas she’s been known to knock her piece down or punch a hole in it....
Gary Giovane grows his art in La Conner
Gary Giovane is both an artist and scientist at his core. As a student of science he came to the Skagit Valley as part of an archeological dig in the 1970s. He returned after decades of teaching...
Art and science 'Surge' merger closes at MoNA
Research merged with imagination as scientists and artists gathered for a final time to consider the effects of their expressions about climate change as shown in their MoNA exhibits displayed during...
MoNA gift shop painted, recast
When locals visit the Museum of Northwest Art gift shop, they’re likely to notice some changes in store merchandise, and maybe find some old friends as well. The shop reopened in November with a...
La Conner's Forum celebrates this generation of arts
When Meg Holgate and Bruce Bradburn bought the red brick building that watches over First Street and Douglas, they envisioned a studio for Meg where she could invite other artists to share their...
