Layered glass sculptor Deborah Harrison and watercolorist Jolene Sanborn are the featured artists of the month of July at the Blue Whole Gallery, with an exhibit dubbed “Color and Light.”
The community is invited to meet Harrison and Sanborn at the gallery, 129 W. Washington St., during the First Friday Art Walk from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, July 2.
“While I am always happy to share what inspires my designs, I am delighted when viewers simply respond viscerally to the exquisite, luminous beauty that stained glass offers,” Harrison said.
She said the translucent hues of stained glass have mesmerized her since childhood.
“While traditional stained glass projects were my focus in younger years, I have recently developed an unconventional technique: I ‘layer’ the glass. This method adds depth and complexity to my pieces, transforming them into three-dimensional sculptures.
“When placed in a sunlit window, the Waterglass Series comes to life. Its special rippled glass sparkles and glimmers with the light, creating the sense of peering into a watery realm.”
“Orange Glory” by Jolene Sanborn, a featured artist this July at the Blue Whole Gallery. Submitted photo
Sanborn said her family is full of artists, and that she grew up watching him paint with oils and acrylics.
“He was always asking me what I was ‘seeing’ with an artist’s eye,” she said.
“In 2000 I leapt into watercolor, the medium no one in my family had tackled and I haven’t looked back.”
Sanborn’s work is or has been displayed at galleries in the Seattle area and on Olympic Peninsula, and has been selected for the juried shows of the Northwest Watercolor Society.
She said she’s inspired by the natural world for her artwork.
“Living in the Pacific Northwest stirs my need for creative expression as I watch salmon returning, swans wintering in our fields, otters wandering across the yards or the clouds playing across our mountains,” she said. “I am driven to paint what I see and feel … Watercolor provides me with a medium that allows me to express not only the softness of a scene, but also the outrageous colors I experience around me.”
For more about the gallery, visit bluewholegallery.com.
