Hoquiam's First Annual Art Festival is Right "On Track"! by Nancy Draper

During the weekend of August 26th and 27th, 2006 - I participated as a vendor/artist in the very first “On Track Art Festival”, produced by the city of Hoquiam, in Grays Harbor.

Everything about this event was terrific - - from the planning, communications, cost to participate, and right down to the very enthusiastic and warm welcome each of us received. When I arrived on Saturday morning, I was immediately and warmly greeted by Barbara (one of the committee members), who offered to help me in any way possible.

The event was a joy in which to participate. I could feel the enthusiasm of everyone involved - - from the artists, the city officials, the volunteers, and all of the attendees, who were so happy to have such a great event in Hoquiam, and took the opportunity to thank each of us as they visited our booths. All of the local shop and pub owners thanked us for bringing both our art and our patronage to town.

Throughout the two days, the artists were treated like gold by the festival committee members. I was flabbergasted to attend an artist’s reception at the end of the first day, to find a buffet of food set up for all of us (that’s unheard of, really!)

We were all thanked repeatedly for our participation, and a grand prize was awarded to the artist judged to have the most interesting pieces of work (the grand prize was a weekend at the Quinault Lodge!)

There were artists featuring pottery, jewelry, weaving, photography, painting, woodwork, handmade soaps, teas and clothing.

My overall sales for the weekend were great - - and more than I had anticipated. I hope to be invited back next year, and if so, I will lock in the dates (which again will be the last full weekend of August.)

Mary Brown and her committee and the City of Hoquiam should be very proud of this first-time event. It was a great success, and I am sure that it will only get bigger and better!

Nancy Draper

Tacoma, WA

Pat Longley, A Pacific NW Artist

Original Encaustic Wax Paintings






Editor's Notes: This wonderful article about Pat Longley and her family originally came out in the King County Journal on September 25, 2004. Pat will be returning to Issaquah Salmon Days on October 7 - 8, 2006.

To see more of Pat's Encaustic Wax Paintings at Lady Nin's Original Encaustic Wax Paintings by Pat Longley

Tragedies help a wife and mother embrace her inner artist
By Mary Swift, Journal Reporter

It was facing death that taught Jeff Longley how to live. It was dealing with tragedy that led his mother to an art medium she'd never tried. And in the end, it is her art that is helping his family heal. At age 26, the future seemed full of possibility for Jeff. Then, he was diagnosed with adrenal cancer and in February of 2000 underwent surgery to remove a large tumor on his adrenal gland. He never saw again. ``He had a stroke during surgery,'' says his sister, Sammamish's Tammy Muller. ``He saw only pitch black from that day forward. ``For six weeks, we expected him to die. God had a different plan. I decided the hospital was no place for him and took him home. He lived with us for four years.'' Muller, who is married and the mother of two children, is an emergency room social worker. When she had to work, her mother, Pat Longley of Burien, took care of Jeff.


Tragedy changed Jeff, the two women say. Unable care for himself, unable to see, unable to drive, and unable to work, he had to give up his house and his brand new car. He lost everything. Everything -- that is -- except a part of himself he may not have known existed. His sight was gone, but Jeff had new vision. ``God took everything and gave him back a different personality,'' Muller says. ``Before he got sick, he was an Eeyore. He didn't really appreciate life. He was obsessive-compulsive. Cereal boxes had to be in an exact order, that kind of thing. After his surgery, it was like night and day. He appreciated life. He had to depend on other people so he learned the value of friendship. He was blind, but he had joy. He touched lives. He appreciated life.'' And that's how tragedy became a kind of gift for Jeff and those who loved him. ``He laughed a lot more,'' his mother says. ``He was jolly. He made jokes. His favorite thing was to ask you to move from in front of the TV. You'd do it without thinking, and then realize he couldn't see it anyway.'' Before his surgery, Jeff had been a better-than-average dart player. Longley was determined not to let her son's blindness get in the way of that passion.

One Christmas, she bought him a dart board. Standing behind him, she'd direct his throws: ``Right. Left. Up. Down.'' And Muller wasn't about to let Jeff sit on the sidelines either. One day, she took him out on a jet ski, then let him drive. He tossed them both in the water. The family still laughs about the incident. Watching Jeff's struggle was difficult enough for his family. Then, in August of that same year, Jeff's father, Ken Longley, was critically burned in a race car accident. He spent 32 days at Harborview before returning home. Pat Longley found herself searching desperately for a creative outlet that would help her deal with her emotions.

In the past, she'd dabbled in oil and acrylic paint, never with much success or satisfaction. One day, cruising the Internet, she spotted information about encaustic painting in which beeswax-based paint is heated and then applied to a surface with irons. ``I found a place in Wales to order supplies and went to work,'' says Longley, who has no formal art training. ``It just clicked. I could go in and paint and just lose myself. One of the things I hated about oils was that I had to wait for them to dry. With wax, it dries instantly.'' To create her paintings, Longley takes small blocks of colored wax, rubs them on one of her assortment of irons -- the largest is the size of a travel iron, the smallest the size of a fountain pen -- then uses the iron to apply the wax to a piece of paper placed on a warm hot plate. Keeping the paper warm allows her to move the wax around using a sponge or a tissue, she says. ``I also use a hair dryer to blow my wax,'' she says. Eventually, she began displaying and selling her work at art shows with the help of Muller, who does most of the matting and framing, and her oldest son, Terry. Sometimes Jeff would go along, at one point joking with his family that he could make more money if they'd just give him a tin can full of pencils. (As it turned out, Longley has sold many of her paintings -- a fact that still amazes her.)

``We needed something besides just coping with sickness in our lives,'' Muller says. ``Her art helped us heal.'' Last year, Longley's work won one of four awards presented during the annual Issaquah Salmon Days celebration. The award was for originality. She'll be back at Issaquah Salmon Days next weekend (Oct. 2 and 3). Jeff, however, won't be there to tease her. He died a year ago this November after being diagnosed with cancer a second time. Longley recalled the day Jeff learned he had cancer the first time. ``He and I and his dad stood there and we all bawled,'' Longley says. ``Then Jeff said, `OK, let's go get fish and chips at Skippers.' The day we found out he had cancer again, we all stood around and bawled again -- and then we went out to Skippers.'' She chuckled, recalling an exchange she and Jeff had during his illness. ``I told him if he died before me he could come back and see me,'' she said. ``He said, `If you go before I do, don't you dare come back and see me' -- and we all laughed.'' Longley says that before he died, Jeff made seven tapes for his loved ones. In them, he reflected on life, death and dying. ``What a tearjerker it was to hear them,'' Longley says. She and Muller plan to write a book about Jeff and his journey. ``What I think Jeff would want to tell people is this: Quit sweating the small stuff -- and tell people you love them,'' she says.

And she says she believes one thing for sure: ``I have a lot of faith, but I'm not super religious. I know there's a god. I can tell you there's a path. And at the end of every bad thing there is something good coming out of it.''

Art Can Help People Cope

'Art Can Help People Cope'


By Molly Shen

DUVALL - On the anniversary of Sept. 11, families will gather at Ground Zero. Coming together in that spot on that day is part of their healing.

Some of those victims' families will meet teenagers from our area who want to help. They are young enough to be called kids, but old enough to understand sorrow.

"My mom went through cancer when 10," said 16-year-old Sam Matson. "And I, I was quiet. I didn't talk to anyone."

Sam found something to help him cope.

"Art can help people," he says. And not just the artist.

"I hope they feel a sense that someone cares about them," says Rachel Land.

Art can help the person who receives it. So the art students are creating 100 wooden boxes, each hand painted with a child in mind -- a child who lost a loved one in the 9/11 attacks.

They will distribute them at Ground Zero.

Chloe Dziok hopes to meet the person who chooses her box: "I would say 'I hope you like this box. I put a lot into it. I hope when you see it you can realize people still remember what happened. And they still care.' "

Each box contains a gift and a note. The message: that joy can come from sorrow and good can come out of tragedy.

It is a deep sentiment wrapped up in 100 wooden boxes.

"I hope he feels just loved and thought of," says Sam.

The students at the Northwest Art Center in Duvall still have a couple dozen boxes that need to be painted. And they could use money to help them ship the boxes.

If you'd like to help, send an email to annedz@msn.com.

Greg Delaney, Artist and Actor

Curtains, a film noir

On Saturday, August 12th, my husband (whom I fondly call Lord Nin) and I ventured out to Capital Hill. After wandering around the wonderful antique shops, we attended a sneak preview of a film noir named Curtains created by Bob Allen, with Greg Delaney as one of the cast members.

Curtains, is a murder mystery set in Seattle in the fall of 1948. The following is a synopsis from Curtain's website: During the final days of World War II, the Allies were finding caves loaded with Nazi loot: art, diamonds and gold bullion worth millions of dollars on the black market. Five GIs - Jerry Allen, George Walker, Stan Goddard, Lewis Riley, and Sonny "Angel" Carmen - smuggled some priceless stolen artwork out of Germany and into the United States. Lewis, Stan and George become Hollywood movie producers, while Sonny disappears without a trace and is presumed dead. But what happens when not all goes as planned? A buyer for the stolen paintings made contact with Jerry Allen. It appears the deal of a lifetime is about to be made... but the specter of death hangs overhead. To complicate matters, a private investigator with a drinking problem - Dick Woodrow - is hired by a seductive and dangerous dame full of secrets- Helen Dean - to locate Jerry Allen. The investigation attracts an FBI agent - Harry Weinshack - and a beautiful Russian spy - Valentina Romanova - and everyone has a private agenda.

Greg Delaney deliciously plays Stan Goddard, a dastardly Hollywood movie producer desperate for his big score. One of a group of soldiers who made it out of WWII with a dark secret, he's ready to hit it big and nothing better stand in his way.

Quoting the website, and mirroring my own sentiments “Curtains is, above all, a labor of love; and proof that a quality product can be made successfully and - most of all - independently from the Hollywood circuit.”Be sure to check out Curtain’s website at http://curtainsfilmnoir.com/ for more information!

To view Greg's beautiful wearable art on Lady Nin's website,

Wearable
Art from the Mind of Greg Delaney