By Chelsea Baker, 9/22/10
The streets of downtown Olympia will flood with arts aficionados on Friday, October 1, from 5 PM until Midnight as the city celebrates its wholly unique creative community. This fall marks the 41st Arts Walk in Olympia’s history, and the event is as alive as ever.
Arts Walk allows downtown businesses to display a wide variety of artwork or host performances to encourage the public to visit downtown and see what our vibrant community is capable of. “We offer a framework people can work within so you’re always going to see something new,” said Stephanie Johnson, Arts & Events Manager for the City of Olympia. “It’s really what people make of it.”
This year’s Fall Arts Walk consists of 101 participating locations — the same number as last year — and features an abundant array of performance and visual art. Performances include everything from punk rock, jazz, indie folk, and samba music to kid’s workshops, yoga and martial arts demonstrations. The visual arts on display include paintings, drawings, sculptures, quilts, and installations of all varieties.
Scott Waeschle, featured artist at Red Door Interiors, works in mixed media by utilizing tree branches and sapplings in his paintings. “My work comes from my time in the forest,” said Waeschle, who’s been fascinated with trees since his first oil painting in 4th grade. His inspiration came from the avant-garde artists of the 1960’s who incorporated unusual found objects in their paintings.
“This area used to be an old growth forest,” said Waeschle. “There are trees in my yard that are over a hundred years old. I began to ask myself, ‘What if I projected these in a three-dimensional form?’”
Depending on how many pieces he can fit into Red Door Interiors, Waeschle plans on hanging five or six new pieces and two or three older ones. He’s currently in the process of finishing an 8 foot long piece to be submitted to the new Olympia City Hall. He’s hoping to hang it up along side his other paintings for Arts Walk, but he’ll be cutting close. “It takes a few days for oil paint to dry,” he says. “October 1st is coming much too soon.”
Arts Walk maps and schedules are available at most businesses downtown including all of the participating locations. If you can’t make it downtown the night of the Artswalk, there are 17 artists (Waeschle among them) whose artwork will be available on display all week, and 23 artists whose work will be up throughout the month of October. ◙