Brad Stave was perhaps born to be a woodworker. First off, there’s his name, “stave,” which means a vertical wooden plank that’s attached side-by-side to similar planks to make a barrel, bucket or other container. Then there’s the fact that he received his first toolbox when he was just 5 years old. He scrounged wood […]
Charlee Glock-Jackson
Freelance writer Charlee Glock-Jackson is the founder of the Olalla Bluegrass & Beyond Festival and the caretaker of an enchanted Olalla forest that's been in her family nearly 70 years.
Posted inPeople & Places
Patsy Surh O’Connell — Building Cultural Bridges through Art
Patsy Surh O’Connell’s life is filled with art. She has studied, taught and created art since she was a child, and has won so many awards for her artwork that she has lost count. As a 4-year-old in Korea, she started “scratching and drawing” on her father’s typing paper. In high school, she studied charcoal […]
Posted inAround West Sound
32 Artists Part of Greater Gig Harbor Open Studio Tour Sept. 14-16
Every year for the past 26 years, artists who live in Gig Harbor, Key Peninsula, Fox Island and South Kitsap have opened their studios once a year for the annual Open Studio Tour. OST (as the artists call it) provides a rare opportunity for the public to peek inside artists’ studios, meet the creative people […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Cameo Boutique & Wine Shop — An Experience to Inspire
If you’ve driven along the Hood Canal between Union and Hoodsport, you’ve probably noticed the cute, bluish-gray building with white trim and a white picket fence on the water side of the highway, just a short distance west of Alderbrook Resort and the historic Dalby waterwheel. On weekends, there’s a sign out-front announcing a wine […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Internationally Known Sculptor Mardie Rees
Enter the brightly lit studio of Gig Harbor artist Mardie Rees and you might find her working on a larger-than-life sculpture honoring the founder of a Canadian school, a World War II memorial to U. S. Marine Raiders or some other high-profile commission. Or she may be creating a sculptural portrait of a young woman […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Hands On Art Celebrates Kids’ Creative Spirits
Back in 2003, Gig Harbor resident Marla Morgan decided that she wanted her kids to have art classes in their school. The children were students at Harbor Heights Middle School in Gig Harbor and Morgan was active in the school’s PTA. Suspecting that other parents might have similar desires for their kids, Morgan invited a […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Lost Quill Keeps an Old Skill Alive
Long, long before word processors, computers, cellphones and inkjet printers were invented, all writing was done by hand. History was recorded by hand. Official documents and books — especially religious texts — were written with handheld pens and often beautifully embellished with richly colored drawings. Not so long ago, people sent each other handwritten letters […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Anthropologist Meets the Artist
Joan Tenenbaum has her feet firmly planted in two distinctly different worlds — the world of art and the world of science. In her heart, she’s an artist, poet and writer and has been since she was a child. In fact, the very first artwork she created in high school won an award. But at […]
Posted inFood & Entertainment
Olalla Vineyard & Winery
It’s been almost two years since Mary Ellen Houston and her husband, Stuart Chisholm, purchased the Olalla Valley Winery in December 2015. Much has changed in that time, but much has stayed the same, as well. They still grow and harvest many of the grapes that were planted back in 2008 by Joe and Konnie […]