The artistic espressions of Washington's people reflect the history, heritage and character of the state. This gallery offers space for displays of modern and traditional creativity ranging from painting and sculpture to crafts, prints, photos, music and literature. Exhibits are changed once or twice each year, but this gallery always displays artistic work that is truly inviting to the spirit.
Below is a sampling of past installations.
Click any picture to view a larger image.
Virna Haffer (1900 -1974) was a multi-talented artist and an internationally recognized photographer. She was known for her experiments with the photogram technique. Her work was exhibited in many photography shows around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chicago Expo 71, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gallery. In 1964 she earned the prestigious Master of Photography degree from the Professional Photographers of America, an award based on excellence in photographic artistry, craftsmanship, and service to the profession.
In 1889, Abby Williams Hill arrived in Tacoma, Washington, in response to ads touting the grandeur of the Northwest. Rejecting the conventions of home and hearth, she spent a good portion of her life in the wilderness with her family, producing dozens of beautiful landscape paintings, most of which are still intact.
Trained in Harlem, Jacob Lawrence was the first African American artist to receive long-term acclaim in the United States. Already a famous artist at the age of 24, his success spanned 65 years, and his subjects ranged from the Civil War to Civil Rights. He moved to Seattle for retirement in 1970, and became the recipient of many awards and honorary post-doctorate degrees.
Helmi, as she signed all her work, was of Finnish descent. Born in Butte, Montana in 1903, Helmi moved to Seattle at the age of fifteen. An accomplished artist upon entering Queen Anne High School, she continued her art studies at Cornish and excelled as a motivated and hard working student. Boxes of notebooks discovered after her death attest to her passion for drawing—for constantly putting the world around her on paper.
Harold Balazs, a life-long resident of Mead, Washington, is best known for his metal and enamel commissions for public buildings. He describes the wall pieces created expressly for this show, as "shrines composed of cultural objects, Rube Goldberg inventions, things that have fallen together in very curious ways." Balazs was named one of Washington's "Living Treasures," and most recently was a featured artist in the year 2000 Henry Gallery exhibit, "What It Meant to Be Modern."
Christy's career began as an illustrator, but he eventually became one of the most popular portrait painters of his day with subjects ranging from military recruitment posters to American presidents including Franklin Roosevelt. Alexander is the personification of Horatio Alger's popular books from the late nineteenth century in which a poor boys makes good. From an impoverished background, Alexander became the owner and president of his own shipping company by the time he was 28.