People may never look at a block print in the same way again.
That’s the intention of the folks behind Langley Artists Connect, a group of visual artists who hope to connect and educate the community through art.
“We felt we needed to support the arts on South Whidbey,” said member Cary Jurriaans.
“We met each other and decided we wanted to do something to help support the arts here, and to create a venue to support art.”
Jurriaans is a painter and the owner of the Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio in Langley. The other members of the crew are also painters and include Pat Brookes, Faye Castle, Truman Castle, Gordon Edberg, Sandra Hart Logan and Phyllis Ray.
The artists in the group, plus some invited guests, will have a five-tent area at Choochokam Arts on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10 where ongoing demonstrations of visual art will be on display. They have invited the Whidbey Island Sketchers to join them there, as well as the Plein Air Washington painters, among other artists, including a demonstration of block printing.
Models will be provided by local theater companies, including Whidbey Children’s Theater, Island Shakespeare Festival and WICA, an idea that these artists say illuminates their mission to link artists to artists, and artists to the community.
“The idea is to bring interest elsewhere through our art,” Edberg said.
An actor in costume being painted by a good artist is a clever way to stimulate a conversation about both the painter and the theater. The painter gets to talk about where a patron might visit a gallery with his work and the actor might hold forth on the enchantment of bringing a picnic to see “Romeo and Juliet” on a stage deep in the woods of Clinton in August for free.
“One of the things that seems to be central to our idea is to fill in the gaps and spaces between the community, the artists and the buying public,” Truman Castle said.
“We want to see what we can do to make some linkage there; to provide some synergy and visibility for other organizations. And the artistic demonstrations are tied to our concern that folks have a low level of understanding of what artists try to do and what their process is,” he added.
“People will never look at the product in the same way again.”
Formally, though Langley Artists Connect do not seek nonprofit status, the group did create a mission statement. The group is interested in attracting professional artists who wish to show, sell and demonstrate their visual art at local shows and events; foster the growth of the visual arts on Whidbey Island and Langley; develop and promote excellence in visual arts; develop and promote the use of buildings and public spaces for a variety of visual arts; promote art sales and educational opportunities for visual artists; promote events and programs that enhance the cultural, artistic and intellectual growth of the community in regard to visual art; and do all this in cooperation with local art galleries and artists.
At Choochokam Arts, the 36th annual festival of arts, crafts, theater and musical entertainment with plenty of food and drink, Langley Arts Connect hopes to act as a catalyst to increase interest in Choochokam and provide its first public venue for artists in action. At any given moment, visitors might get a gander at professional artists creating quick studies, pet portraits, a plein air painting or someone painting those good-sport actors.
Langley Arts Connect will sell raffle tickets at the festival for prizes that include a number of paintings by local artists and a drawing by David Riedel,who has been a guest teacher at the Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio. Tickets are $5 each and 6 for $25.
Beyond Choochokam, the group looks to a future lecture series featuring public presentations by international artists and to do virtually anything that will bring more awareness to artists in general.
“It’s also our intent not to be exclusive, but to include sculptors, woodworkers and other artists to make the variety of our group grow,” Edberg noted.
Members of the group expressed a desire to find imaginative ways to have the community and businesses on the island work with artists to promote and benefit each other; to find methods that have not been tried by other groups. They are also actively looking for a community building in which to house the group’s endeavors.
Jurriaans expressed her grand vision for the group, which she hopes will expand outward from Langley.
“My vision is to make this the Santa Fe of the Northwest,” Jurriaans said. Edberg ran with the idea.
“It’s rather bold and sassy to put that out there, but there’s no reason not to be bold and sassy,” he said.
Connect with Langley Artists Connect on Facebook or email langleyartistsconnect@gmail.com.
The group will be at Choochokam Arts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 9 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 10. They are still looking for volunteer models to sit for portraits during the festival.
