Palouse event will showcase trio of friends
More than two dozen artists will be freed from the confinements of their “studios” during the second annual Artists Loose on the Palouse Arts and Crafts Fair in Valleyford Friday and next Saturday.
Held at On Sacred Grounds Coffee, Tea and Specialty Shop, the event is the brain child of proprietor Elaine Rising.
“I wanted to create a sense of community here in Valleyford,” she said, “We’re not just a bump in the road.” Located where Highway 27 meets the Palouse Highway, the small community of Valleyford tends to go unnoticed.
Rising has added a 10- by 12-foot addition to her establishment in order to highlight the talents of regional artists in a country setting. During the event, artists Darrell Sullens, Don Walls, and Janet Adams will be the first to adorn the walls of the new “gallery.”
Sullens, Walls and Adams have known each other since 1980, when they all graduated from Spokane Falls Community College. Since then, the trio has gone their separate ways, taking jobs to support their art habits.
“As artists know, we all have to wear many hats during our life while trying to achieve our goal to realize our passion,” Sullens said, “I am no different. I have worked several types of jobs, a general contractor for a short time, then 20 years as an owner/operator of an art supply business; never forgetting that I just wanted to paint.”
Walls has worked as a graphic and commercial artist for more than 25 years, and Adams headed off to Las Vegas, where she designed signs and did a plethora of other things. Now back in Valleyford, Adams is free to create in her own personal style.
The trio’s showing at On Sacred Grounds is called “The Three Amigos” and will be the first for Adams and Walls. Sullens has shown consistently since 1995 at venues including Gallery West, Kinvara, County Gallway, Ireland, Goodworks Gallery and Ave. West Gallery in Spokane, and area studio tours.
Walls will be showing his digital collages of natural objects found in his own yard; flowers, herbs and leaves become mandalas or abstract designs. Adams will be showing photos of area attractions, local buildings and the foliage around them along with some of her oil paintings. Sullens will be showing oil paintings of unique landscapes, a Springer Spaniel, and a row of patient cows called “More Grain?”
Other artists will set up booths displaying jewelry, horseshoe art, wooden drums, gourds, dream catchers, paintings in all mediums and photography. Free entertainment includes a puppet show, stand-up comedy and a yo-yo class and demonstration.
A dinner is planned for Friday night catered by Fredneck’s where, for $10, your seat is reserved for the grub and serenades by the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church and Michael Robinson and Jason Luoto.
You may even be able to catch a film crew loose on the Palouse.
“Saturday, it appears that a small camera crew from RDF Media (based in New York) will be on hand to do some filming for an upcoming episode of Wife Swap,” Rising said, “They selected Artists Loose on the Palouse as a ‘background’ venue for the house husband who wants to be an artist. Time frames have not been established as of press time, but they hope that area residents will show up and maybe buy some of this guy’s pottery pieces and that he can talk to some real artists and get some pointers about how to make a living as a professional artist.”