“Come Home for the Holidays” is the theme for this year’s holiday festivities in Langley.
And that means plenty of downtown jollification to get the whole family in a joyful spirit.
“The Giving of Art — The Art of Giving” is an art sale organized by
11 Whidbey Island artists who wish to emphasize the ability to make a difference both locally and globally with the giving of art.
The sale opens Friday, Dec. 14 and runs through Sunday, Dec. 16 in the Front Room gallery in the Bayview Cash Store.
The artists are making one-of-a-kind pieces specifically for holiday gift giving while also raising funds for two carefully selected charities, Operation: Sack Lunch and Children’s House International.
A percentage of all the artists’ proceeds will go to the organizations.
Artists and artisans participating in the sale include Tohnia Alexander, handmade soaps in lovely Scott Alexander wooden boxes; Maryon Attwood, functional ceramics, sunflower-tiles and platters; Adriana Gallagher, comment-worthy felted wool scarves; Elizabeth Haughton, mixed-metal jewelry; Robbie Lobell, soda/wood-fired and award-winning pottery; Sarena Mann, figurative papier maché mobiles; Barbara Stout, Taoist inspired works on paper; Tree Top Bakers, delicious holiday baked-goods; Michel Tsouris, small encaustic paintings and “ridiculous chicken paintings” and Jane Winslow, visual photographic poems.
Beverly Graham is a recording artist who started Operation: Sack Lunch to feed the working poor and homeless on the streets of Seattle.
The program has served more than 1.3 million meals since 1989 and currently serves 18,000 meals each month in the Seattle area.
Islanders are discovering the highs of dancing with a little attitude — and subsequently becoming heart healthier and more buff to boot.
Though two of the artists are sisters, the three women showing this month at Karlson/Gray Gallery in Langley all very much do their own thing.
Imagine yourself in your sickbed.
You need medication but that means overcoming the monumental task of getting your doctor to see you right away in order to get a prescription and then dragging your sick self to his office and then to the pharmacy before getting back to the relief of your bed.
Four years ago you were diagnosed.
You, happy island woman, wife, mother of small children.
Words you previously heard little of began the constant refrain that hovered near your unwelcoming ears. Words like PET scan, white blood cells, non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, lymphangiogram, x-ray, stages, malignancy, indolent or aggressive, contiguous or noncontiguous.
Living on an island, it’s good to know there is a boat available for escape.
On the South End of Whidbey Island, the ferries are the main connection between residents and the mainland, a valuable feature which was accentuated by the recent loss of the car ferry fleet on the Keystone-Port Townsend route last November.
The South Whidbey High School Jazz Ensemble is on a roll.
But their recent kudos were not garnered overnight. Under the tutelage of a passionate teacher, these students have been honing their musical prowess for a long time and, long after high school, music will most likely continue to resonate with them.
Have good food; will not travel.
Shop any local supermarket’s produce display and you’ll come across apples from Chile, grapes from Mexico, lettuce from California and oranges from Florida.
The busy hands of one artist will take her to the other side of the Pacific.
Of the 72 quilts that will be exhibited in Japan in one of the most prestigious quilt shows in the world, two were made by Whidbey Island artist Marianne Burr.
Brody Shawn Messer rang in the new year as the first born island baby of 2008.
Brody was born at 10:27 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2 at the Naval Hospital in Oak Harbor. He was a healthy 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 21 ½ inches long.
