Two showings feature local artists

Next Friday, two local artists will be showcased in a featured artists' opening at Tsuga Gallery while across the street, the Hotel Cathlamet will host an art show featuring work by an artist with local ties.

Nell Coulson, who moved to Cathlamet in 1987, and Bob Kizziar, a more recent transplant, are both members of Tsuga Gallery and will be the featured artists for November.

"I've either been studying, or doing, or teaching art for 52 years," Kizziar, a ceramicist, said. "I think intention is what it is all about. Am I intending to make something to sell? Am I intending to make something I know my patron likes, or my gallery likes? Now that I have a retirement situation that sort of pays my bill, my intention can be just to make what I like. I've tried to blend that a little in this show. I've tried to make what I like, but things that are a little less edgy than everything else I've been making lately. I normally would prefer to make edgy, but I thought it would be nice, my intention is to sort of say hi to my neighbors with this show."

"I'm throwing more pots for this show," Kizziar added. "For this show, the biggest pot I threw was using 10 pounds of clay. Back in the day I would have used 35 or 40 pounds. Because of arthritis and trigger finger, because of old age, I don't know how much longer I can throw.

Coulson has been considering the relationship between nature and humans, and she is using pastels to express her thoughts.

"Right now I'm seeing if I can do better on the pastel," Coulson said. "I never get really good with one medium and then I'm off onto something else. I always feel like I really haven't got there, as far as being an expert on what I do. But I am learning, I'm getting better. And finding new interesting things. I tried a different ground in one of my pastels, it's iron oxide. It's gritty, but it sparkles. That was kind of fun. I've done oils and watercolors, and other stuff too, but not for a little bit."

"It's always about intention," Kizziar said. "Her intention is to arrive at something beyond where she has ever been.

"It's always the journey," Coulson added. "I love doing people. There is something really interesting about humans. I need to relate the landscape into humans and what it has to do with all of us. When I was a kid, I was always drawing and painting. And then I got married and had five kids. So I didn't see much of that for a long time. I figure if I'm ever going to get a chance, the gallery was the time."

At the Hotel Cathlamet, Craig S. Holmes, a Portland artist, illustrator, and graphic designer with a focus on architecture, will present his work, which will include buildings in Cathlamet.

The two shows open next Friday, October 25, from 5-7 p.m.