By Sally Gracie
I was ready to take down the feeder above my back porch several weeks ago, but a hummingbird that loves the valley too much wouldn’t let me. She comes early morning and at dusk and has drunk half the jar of sugar water in the past two weeks. Flying away if I make the slightest move, she is too skittish to be one of my regulars.
Confluence Gallery’s current show “The Big Sleep: Conversations on Finality” requires a quiet, contemplative viewing. As the crush of the crowd and socializing with friends didn’t allow for that at the exhibit’s opening, I returned for a second visit last Saturday.
Local and regional artists have many personal things to say about death. Few approach death from the same viewpoint. In some cases, when a work’s theme was not apparent to me, I was helped by the artist’s written statement (these statements accompany each piece).
The human skeleton appears in the works of several artists and is the most literal and obvious of motifs related to death. Of these, the one that most appealed to me is a skeletal sculpture by Okanogan artist and teacher Dan Brown. The figure, “La Contrena,” can be seen as a celebration of the Day of the Dead or a sharp satire of a spiritually empty, materialistic life.
Steve Love’s sculpture, “Crossing,” is my favorite work in the show. Seated in a small boat, navigated by the hooded, iconic figure of Death, are the forms of a man and a woman. Steve has made their bodies seem vulnerable in their nakedness.
Another artist’s approach through his painting or sculpture may appeal most to you. Spend some quiet time at this exhibit, which runs through Nov. 8. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Vendors at the Saturday Farmers Market in Twisp tell me that the fires and floods heavily impacted their market season. Fewer tourists visited the market, which affected the crafts vendors perhaps more than the farmers although the farmers I spoke with last Saturday say business was down as much as 70 percent.
Joanne Burch says that local shoppers stopped at her booth to buy her pies and fresh eggs, but sales of her hand-made items were down. The same was true for Bonny Stephens, whose flowers and canned vegetables did OK, but whose hand-sewn handbags and dresses did not. She estimates she lost as much as 50 percent of her market income.
The fires forced some vendors, like weaver Cathie Lewis who lives near Twin Lakes, to miss one or more market days. Rubio and Latitia, whose produce stand is a fixture at the market, missed a couple of markets when the fires slowed down their crops. Rubio says that his sales were just 40 percent of what he has been used to.
Annie, who sells produce from her Iris Rock Farm in Omak, says that her 2014 sales are a third of last year’s. “I regularly sold out, but not this year” she told me. When she could, she gave leftover produce to fire victims.
Market aide Jodie Sellers says that a number of vendors did not return to the market after the fires. She and her husband, Ed, who live in Twisp, say that sales of their multimedia crafts were way down.
Despite losing her Beaver Creek home and many of her paintings in the fire, Cecelia Campbell did not quit the market and has continued to sell her art at her stand near the Senior Center. As I’ve come to understand, Celia is one-of-a-kind.
A few Saturdays remain until the end of the month, so we can still have an impact on our market vendors’ season.
