the
heART of
Kittitas County ALMANAC 2020 DAILY RECORD
THE ALL NEW
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Contents
On the cover
Local artists creating in Kittitas County
T ounty hoef KAittR itas C the
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ANECAOCRD A20L20M DAILY R
Patrick Stanton Designed by Richard Dalton
Gallery One-based artist’s work takes many forms.
Kyle Bain Ellensburg musician’s journey ranges from heavy metal to blue grass.
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Samantha Fisher Local artists paints sweeping views and nostalgic memories.
17 Tony Ritter
Tattoo artist works with a living canvas.
20 Julie Prather
Julie Prather uses glass, photos, to express her art.
The heART of Kittitas County
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Welcome . . . to Central Washington University
Central Washington University earned the prestigious Higher Central Washington University earned the prestigious Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award—the only Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award—the only university in Washington to be honored four outfive of the five years. university in Washington to be honored out last of the last six years. We’re also also one affordable.With more than $109 million We’re oneof ofthe themost most affordable. With more than $109 million annually in in financial financialassistance, assistance,the the average annual out-of-pocket average annual out-of-pocket tuition forstudents studentsisis$3,000. $3,000. tuition for Find your niche niche in inone oneofofour ourexciting exciting degree programs with awarddegree programs with awardwinning faculty. Make a smart investment in your future. winning faculty. Make a smart investment in your future.
CWU is an EEO/AA/Title IX Institution. For accommodation email: DS@cwu.edu.
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cwu.edu
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welcome. At Central, Central,you’re you’realways always welcome.
Eclectic by design
Patrick Stanton’s art explores many forms By LUKE OLSON sports editor
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f you walk into Patrick Stanton’s studio upstairs at the Gallery One on Pearl Street, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of artist he is. Is he a jeweler when you see the multiple rings and pendants sitting at his table? Is he a Lego artist with the different models shown in the studio such as the “Lego Cuckoo Clock”, the “Path of the Zodiac” lamp or the “Lego Carnival”? How about a woodworker? Or even a digital artist? Stanton’s a bit of everything. “I usually have multiple projects going on at the same time,” he said. “That way if I get frustrated with something I just do something different.” Stanton’s been an Ellensburg resident since 1989 and has worked at Central Washington University in the finance department for 25 years. For two decades he’s served on local and regional nonprofits and social boards such as Ellensburg Chapter American Red Cross board, secretary for the Ellensburg Masonic Lodge, the Grand Lodge of Washington F&AM Finance Committee, and treasurer for Gallery One. But as an artist? Only about 10 years or so. And it all began with a metalsmithing course he took at CWU in 2010 from touted professor Keith Lewis. Stanton’s passion grew as he obtained as much information he could along with hours of practice. Today, he’s become adept in creating a wide variety of jewelry (generally in sterling, 14k gold, and enamel), and has used stone cuts such as fire agate, Ellensburg Blue Agate, and even jasper from the hills in Ellensburg for rings and pendants.
See Stanton, Page 5 The heART of Kittitas County
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Photos by Jacob Ford/ Daily Record
A LEGO custodian is seen through a window in Ellensburg artist Patrick Stanton’s creation/ cuckoo clock titled “Time Machine” in his studio in Gallery One Visual Arts Center Friday.
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STANTON Continued from page 3 And more often than not, he prefers the asymmetrical look for his work. “Maybe because nobody else does it,” Stanton said when asked why. “And because I think it’s harder.” Legos aren’t anything new for Stanton. Every birthday and Christmas growing up, he received Lego space kits. But after a long hiatus, Legos became part of his life again in the last decade. “About the same time 10 years ago, I realized, ‘oh my god, I’m a grown-up and have some money, I could buy Legos,’” Stanton said. “And I remember how much fun I had.” Now, he predicts he owns about 500-pounds worth of Legos. Stanton has used his imagination
to build plenty of astounding structures which include the aforementioned “Path of the Zodiac” tree lamp that was constructed in 2016 with thousands of Lego pieces to tell a story. A man, woman, and two dogs are on a path up the tree and pass each sign of the zodiac with a figure representing it. He also built a Lego dragon putt-putt hole that was displayed at the Gallery One in 2017. The ball would roll down the dragon’s red tongue and into its mouth which triggered a sensor to light up its eyes and make its wings flap. The ball, then, would come out the other end. It was hole No. 2. “My wife was like, ‘I never thought I’d be this old and wake up to my husband digging into a pile of Legos and laughing to himself,’” Stanton said.
See Stanton, Page 6
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
ABOVE: Ellensburg artist Patrick Stanton solders a pendant using a torch in his studio in Gallery One Visual Arts Center. RIGHT: Ellensburg artist Patrick Stanton stands with one of his pieces. The heART of Kittitas County
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Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Patrick Stanton shows of a bicycle bell he made in his studio in Gallery One Visual Arts Center.
STANTON Continued from Page 5 Woodworking, albeit, was something he picked up in 2014 after taking a woodshop course at CWU. He’s made jewelry boxes, a table, a bathroom shelf, Krenov-style wood planes, and is currently working on handrails for his staircase at home used with Bubinga wood. Stanton makes digital art pieces occasionally, too, which he’s done for 6
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about 15 years. There’s no limit to what he can create. And he does it for his leisure and often will give items away to friends and family, or donate it to Gallery One. “This is a hobby,” Stanton said. “I don’t even really want to sell stuff because I already have a job.” He does enter his work into regional contests, but if he does win money, he invests in more tools. But in all, art is a way to put his mind into a different place.
“You’re using a different part of your brain up there (at CWU). You’re using logic and math,” Stanton said. “But here, that part of your brain gets bored. It’s like therapy, I guess.” And Stanton wants to inspire the younger generation. “Every Christmas I put one (Lego structure) out on display and all the kids come out after-school classes and they’re all huddled around it and saying stuff like, ‘I can never do that’ and I’m like yes you can. Go
home. Get out your Legos and try,’” he said. “... The thing I like most about this gallery is it’s for people of all ages and walks of life, socio, economic, everything, it’s open to the public. “I like seeing kids in the gallery because if they have a good experience around art as a young kid, they’re more likely to participate in art their whole life.” You can check out Stanton’s work at: saintsjohn.blogspot.com.
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Patrick Stanton solders a pendant using a torch in his studio in Gallery One Visual Arts Center
Youth Services
- of -
Kittitas County
Our vision is that every child in Kittitas County will reach their full potential. We support this idea by connecting youth with trusted adults that are focused on providing a listening, encouraging, caring presence that children can count on over time.
Does your child need a mentor? Are you interested in becoming a mentor? (509) 962-2737 | 213 West 3rd Ave. Ellensburg, WA | www.youthserviceskc.org
The heART of Kittitas County
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2020 KITTITAS COUNTY
BUSINESS HERITAGE SINCE 1896 114 W 4th Avenue 925-9828
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209 E. 5th Avenue 925-9876
SINCE 1946
401 N. Main Street 925-1414
512 N. Pearl Street 925-1475
602 N Pearl Street 925-1911
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Certified Public Accountants
SINCE 1909
SINCE 1911
Herbert Snowden Insurance
SINCE 1946
Bivens & Wilson
Certified Public Accountants
SINCE 1948 208 W. 9th Avenue 925-5357
SINCE 1923
SINCE 1961
426 N. Pine Street 925-6174
114 E. 3rd Avenue 925-3778
SINCE 1936
SINCE 1968
211 S. Main Street 925-3777
1492 Thomas Road 925-4613
2020 KITTITAS COUNTY
BUSINESS HERITAGE
SINCE 1994 101 Main Street, Kittitas 968-9111
SINCE 1972
SINCE 1995
615 S. Main Street 925-6181
111 E 4th Avenue 925-2273
SINCE 1974
SINCE 1998
305 N. Pine Street 962-4767
101 W. 5th Avenue 925-1477
SINCE 1974
SINCE 2001
925-3176
101 E. W. 2nd Avenue 925-2902
SINCE 1977
SINCE 2010
111 W. 6th Avenue 925-2505
118 W. 5th Avenue 925-4134
SINCE 1994
SINCE 2012
601 N Main Street #1 962-9575
306 S Main Street 925-2253 The heART of Kittitas County
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Multifaceted musician K
From blue-grass to hard rock, Kyle Bain’s reflects on his musical journey By RODNEY HARWOOD staff writer
yle Bain sat sipping a beer, glancing down at the foam, one of those maneuvers a guy might use when someone asks a question he doesn’t have a ready-made answer for. Considering the guy asking the questions can remember song lyrics to ‘60s songs faster than he can tell you why he went into the kitchen, the 31-year-old, long-time Kittitas Valley singer-song writer did a pretty fair job picking out the bits and pieces of his life to expand on. “You know, to tell you the truth, I don’t really know what the difference is between Metallica and Led Zeppelin,” he finally said with a smile. “I grew up listening to Metallica, really like the way they play. Zeppelin is considered one of the first metal bands, but other than Jimmy Page, I don’t know much about them.” Bain’s musical interests are as multi-dimensional as the layers of music he produces. He used to front a bluegrass band called
“Centaur Midwife.” He currently plays guitar for “Cobrahawk,” which previously opened for Smash Mouth (September 2017) at the Central Washington State Fair and won the Yakima Apple Jam battle of the bands that same year. Bain’s also the frontman and rhythm guitarist in the “Chuck Boom.” After taking a little break from the business, he’s writing, producing and more active than ever. His musical influences range from Metallica and the heavy metal sound to bluegrass banjo to the revival of the pre-revolutionary Cuba sounds generated by the Buena Vista Social Club, produced by Ry Cooder. He’s written everything from heavy metal songs and power ballads, to folk songs to children’s music for the YouTube show Blippi (2014), where he also appeared as the character Nicky Notes until 2017. He’s been writing songs for a good, long while and there’s still a lot of music balled up inside, just waiting to come out, he said.
See Bain, Page 13
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The heART of Kittitas County
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Contributed photos
TOP RIGHT: Kyle Bain as “Nicky Notes” in a YouTube video. TOP LEFT AND BOTTOM RIGHT: Kyle Bain playing guitar in Cobrahawk. BOTTOM RIGHT: Kyle, right, poses for a photo with Centaur Midwife.
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BAIN Continued from Page 11 “I remember writing lyrics when I was in third grade,” Bain recalled. “I really liked the Wallflowers and Jacob Dylan at that age. I wasn’t even aware that he was Bob Dylan’s son, I just liked the song ‘One Headlight.’ “So I wrote my own lyrics to ‘One Headlight’ and would sing my lyrics along with their recording. After that, I started writing lyrics and gravitating to writing music.” His first original song was called “Birdseye View,” a simple melody about a bird flying over a red house, then a whale flying over a red house. “The third verse was about a crow flying over a red house,” he said. “My first real accomplishment was a lullaby to my brother when I was 14 and he was 4 called ‘It’ll be Alright,’ which was just a song to try and get him to sleep.” The countless garage bands and musical projects along the way added to the experience that has made him a pretty savvy songwriter over the years. Unlike the Nashville music scene where songwriters use a 9 to 5 business approach or collaborators like Elton John and Bernie Taupin, where one writes the music and the other writes words — Bain gives his songwriting effort a half an hour. “Whether it’s magic or not, if it doesn’t come in that amount of time I log it away and work on something else,” he said. “I store voice memos on my phone and go back to it later.” As he sat there at the table at the D&M Coffee on Pearl Street, he flicked the screen with his thumb two, three times and the voice files flew past. As he kept going, six, seven, eight flicks, it became evident there must be hundreds of files, combinations of words, musical ideas, key or note information, stored away for that time when he goes back to turn it into magic. Bain is multi-dimensional to be sure, but at the end of the day — he’s a music man. Whether it’s
hard-driving metal or the Slightly Odd Christmas songs he gives away every holiday season or children’s music for the YouTube show Blippi — he’s making music. “I do five songs a year for the Slightly Odd Christmas project — different songs, different keys, not your standard Christmas song — and give them away,” he explained. “I’ve been doing it seven years now, so there’s 35 songs available.” He ran into some business differences with Blippi, but his character Nicky Notes is still popular even after it ended in 2017. On a Facebook page Albert Tsang calls to bring back the popular character. On Jan. 12, Tsang posted, “His lyrics, instrumentals, voice, and overall composition were amazing. He was a huge part of why we love Blippi. We listen to Amazon prime music Blippi machines everyday in the car.” It’s not quite a Rolling Stones crowd pushing up against the stage, but praise is music to a music man’s ears, and there’s a certain amount of satisfaction, Bain said. “It’s an ever-changing business. I don’t make much, if any, from songs because it’s all on YouTube and people don’t seem to mind about the poor sound quality because it’s free,” he said. “Touring and merchandise is where you make your money,” he said. “For me, music is more of a hobby than a way to make a living. “I get paid for shows like Blippi to write songs. There is another show in San Francisco called Xsploor that’s just getting started. It is a children’s entertainment show focused on education and I’m just starting to write music for that.” Between all the different styles, it’s been an interesting journey. Kyle Bain didn’t have to stare at the foam on the bottom of the glass — to borrow a line from the Band, “,,, Life is a carnival, believe it or not. Life is a carnival, two bits a shot ...” To hear Kyle Bain’s music, visit https://www.facebook.com. KyleBainsMusicAndCreations.
2020 IN DOWNTOWN
First Friday Art Walk* Hosted the first Friday of the Month between February-December. From 5-7pm, enjoy art and community venues throughout the downtown.
April 25 Downtown Clean-Up
Join the Ellensburg Downtown Association and volunteers from throughout the community from 9am-12pm and help make downtown sparkle for its summer guests! We are coming up on the most popular season to travel and nothing welcomes out of town friends like a clean downtown.
May 2 Kittitas County Farmers Market Begins* 4th Ave from Pearl to Ruby
Shop every Saturday 9am-1pm through October to buy local, fresh produce, unique artisan crafts, and fresh baked bread.
May 7 Girls Night Out
Downtown shops, taverns, restaurants
A fun evening for the ladies filled with deals, giveaways, and pampering. This year’s theme is Groovy!
May 9 Children’s Day Downtown Rotary Pavilion
During the second Farmers Market, enjoy local youth music performances, sign kids up for summer programs, and check out activities and treats provided by the merchants.
June 20 Dachshunds on Parade 4th Ave from Main to Pearl
Dachshund costume contest, parade, tricks, and races make a day of fun for the entire family.
June 25 EDA Appreciation Celebration & Fundraiser Enjoy drinks, light appetizers, an awards ceremony, and learn more about how you can get involved in the organization. This will take place at Hotel Windrow’s “Top of the Burg” Rooftop Lounge.
July 26-28 Jazz in the Valley*
Three day music festival in intimate venues, all within walking distance.
August 17 Rodeo Kick-off Breakfast* Rotary Pavilion
Kick-off the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair Season with a pancake breakfast downtown.
September 2 Ellensburg Rodeo Hoedown in the Downtown Rotary Pavilion
Kick your heels up with great music and some of the best beers and wines Kittitas Valley has to offer.
September 25 Buskers Comedy Kickoff Third annual Buskers comedy show!
September 26 Buskers in the Burg
Various locations, 4th Ave, Rotary Pavilion
A weekend of family fun, music, arts, street performers (buskers), and an art parade.
October 31 Downtown Trick-or-Treat Downtown merchant shops
Bring your kids out in their spookiest, cutest, and most creative costumes for a trick-or-treating extravaganza!
November 27 Moments to Remember Downtown Ellensburg
Shop local for Plaid Friday. Take the kids on a cookie scavenger hunt. Enjoy kids dancing and activities, and end the evening with the Streets of Bethlehem and lighting ceremonies.
December 5 Teddy Bear Tea Kelleher Motor Co.
Kids! Come dressed in your Sunday best for tea and stories with Mrs. Claus, performances, and lots of teddy bears! This year, we ask that you donate cold-weather clothing, such as hats, scarves, gloves etc. to help children in need. Everything will be donated to the Court Advocates for Children.
December 10 Holiday Girls Night Out Downtown shops, taverns, restaurants
Just in time for the holidays! A fun evening for the ladies filled with deals, giveaways, and pampering.
This is just a snapshot of some of the great happenings downtown! Visit
ellensburgdowntown.org for a more extensive list.
The EDA works to strengthen our downtown through events such as these, our entrepreneur course, beautification projects like the street furniture, and general promotion of our downtown.
Join us as a volunteer or contributor. Contact (509) 962-6246 and get involved today. *Not an EDA event, but worth mentioning! 2000597
The heART of Kittitas County
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Learning landscapes
Samantha Fisher paints sweeping views and nostalgic memories By MATT CARSTENS staff writer
I
f Samantha Fisher were to put together a quintessential collection of her artwork, it might include a diaristic style of pop art, drawing inspiration from her younger years. But ever since she returned to Ellensburg from a year in Ohio, she’s been known for something a little different. Missing the open skies and sweeping views of the Kittitas Valley, Fisher started painting landscapes, and soon after she started getting more and more requests for similar work. Her friend still has one of her earlier renditions. “It was like half of a loosey-goosey landscape,” Fisher said. “I did more landscapes than I thought, ‘Landscapes? That’s so traditional,’ but then when we moved back I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna do some landscapes.’” That led to more and more commissions, and living in the Kittitas Valley, there’s plenty of inspiration all around. Fisher often takes photographs while out and about and brings them back to her studio in Ellensburg. “I just have bunch of landscapes in my head from photos I’ve taken,” she said. “I kind of want to be a little looser... as opposed to tight and detailed. I like playing with the paint and keeping it loose and expressive. I like the idea of someone saying, ‘Is that done?’ Like you’re listening to a song that’s not so put together.”
See Fisher, Page 16 The heART of Kittitas County
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Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Samantha Birks Fisher dabs her brush in oil paint as she paints a landscape painting in her studio Thursday in Ellensburg.
FISHER Continued from Page 15 NOSTALGIA ON CANVAS
One of Fisher’s favorite styles is thinking back to her days passing notes and doodling in class, and translating those daydreaming memories onto her canvas with paint. “My own kids are in school right now, so I’m kind of seeing them in school and seeing how they’re responding to the boringness of things,” Fisher said. “When I went, because I was always kind of an 16
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artist, I always got in trouble for passing notes, passing pictures ... to me that just made it more interesting to be in school.” Several pieces Fisher had on display in her studio showed stacks of CDs and cassette tapes from some of her favorite artists like The Pixies and Nirvana, remembering fondly the hard work that went into hitting record on the radio to capture it on a mixtape. “We’re all so disconnected from
that now,” she said. “It was just more creative back then. It’s creative in a different way now, but it (used to be) more tactile.” PROCESS
Fisher earned her bachelors of fine arts at Central Washington University before earning her masters at University of California Davis. Currently, she’s working on combining her landscape work with some of her older pop art styles.
After gathering the materials, Fisher said she jumps in on all the paintings at once, moving from piece to piece as she thinks of new ideas and lets old ones dry. Fisher said her Instagram (@samanthafisherart) is a perfect place to watch her pieces evolve over time. “You could come back and these paintings could be completely different,” she said with a laugh. “I change a lot, and that’s the nice part about painting. It’s so versatile and you can change it. You can just wait for it to dry and you can go back — it’s just a matter of having the guts to do that.”
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Samantha Birks Fisher’s painting pallet as she paints a landscape painting in her studio in Ellensburg. Fisher’s style of painting varies with influences of neoimpressionism, pop art, impressionism, realism, minimalism. Fisher said she wants her art to leave something for the viewer to interpret.
Discover History Today
KITTITAS COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Discover the amazing past of Kittitas County
Monday-Saturday 10am-4pm
2001522
Free Admission
114 E. 3rd Ave., Ellensburg,WA 98926 • 509-925-3778 • www.kchm.org The heART of Kittitas County
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Tattoo artist works with a living canvas By JACK BELCHER staff writer
T
Drawn to art
attoo artist Tony Ritter’s canvas is unique, it’s alive. Working on human skin presents a number of challenges most artists will never experience. “When you reach the ditch of somebody’s arm for instance, you know the bend and how thin the skin is up there, it gets super pissed and it bleeds and it’s gross to work on sometimes,” Ritter said. “It can be very tricky. Continually practicing how to work on different skin types because this particular part of the skin is so much more tender than other parts.” Ritter works at The Roost Tattoo Studio on Main Street. He and fellow tattoo artists, Jared Carter and Clayton Merritt, started in Cle Elum but moved to Ellensburg after a year. The Roost was opened by Ritter, Carter and Merritt in July 2013. They have hired “a bunch of awesome guys” since then. Ritter specializes in large, hyper-realistic tattoo art, working mainly in black and grey. For him, realism is a niche and something that has always drawn his interest. He has worked with color tattoos for years, but it was never something that he felt comfortable with. Today, Ritter avoids using color in his art if possible. “Black and grey is really more my wheelhouse, it’s just a really enjoyable art form for me, I’ve always really liked it,” Ritter said. “Growing up, I spent a lot of time drawing that kind of stuff so when I got into tattooing it just came a little more naturally.”
See Ritter, Page 20
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RITTER Continued from Page 19 Growing up, Ritter would draw hyper-realistic artwork. He said he “would draw on the backs of just about every homework assignment you could think of.” When he wasn’t drawing, he was thinking about it. He was always coming up with new ideas and designs that could improve his artwork. Ritter made the jump into tattoo art in 2012. He had friends in the business, and they convinced him to give the profession a shot. He was on the fence for a while, but they told him that they wanted to get a tattoo from him even if it was bad. He is really thankful for the “humbling” years where he learned how to become a master of the art. He believes that tattooing has become such a social norm, that he can stand out as an artist just as well as someone who paints with oils or acrylics. “Sometimes even more so because our canvases can talk to people.” A lot of advertising for his brand comes from word of mouth. People will show their friends the Tony Ritter tattoo they just got, and their friends will like the look of it. It is a piece of artwork that they always have with them and thus, can show anybody. Juan Ramirez just finished getting his Tony Ritter tattoo, a Lion wearing a Crown that took just under six hours. Ramirez spent the day getting tattooed, with a couple 20-minute breaks. Ritter works on one tattoo a day, four days a week. He takes time on his art and wants it to turn out well. Ramirez had to wait six months to get his appointment. This schedule works well for him, because he doesn’t want to get overwhelmed, Jacob Ford / Daily Record and wants the art he makes to look its best. Tony Ritter’s client shows off his new tatoo at The Roost in Ellensburg. 20
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“I saw him on Instagram, and I started liking his work,” Ramirez said. “When I saw him, I was like “Oh” I liked the black and grey. I gave him an idea and some reference and told him to go ahead and put his own spin on it.” That’s how Ritter works. He wants to work on a job where he has some say in the final product, it’s his art after all. Someone will give him an idea of what they want, an elk in the woods for example, and he will make that into his art. This is what makes it a Tony Ritter tattoo. To start, he will Photoshop real images together on his iPad, and then stencil something out. “I will still spend hours putting something together,” Ritter said. There are a lot of factors that can affect the price of Ritter’s work, including the time it takes and the difficulty of the piece. At first, Ritter’s clients were almost all locals from Ellensburg or nearby. Now, he says that almost none of them are. Most people are coming from Spokane or Seattle to get some of his work. He thinks this is “totally cool,” because tattooing in just a small town can be a lot of pressure, it puts him under a microscope. He knows that artists are always under pressure, and the critics are harsh. Ritter said that if an artist does a great work on a piece, everyone thinks it is OK, and the artist only receives a moderate amount of praise. However, if an artist makes a mistake, people will destroy them. What makes tattoos different, is that the most important judgment comes from the canvas itself. “What it comes down to is trying do your best work all the time and not really worrying about what everybody else thinks,” Ritter said. “We are just making art you know? Just trying to do the best job we can and it’s something that we want people to want to rock forever.”
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Tony Ritter , left, wipes down a lion on tattoo at his tattoo booth at The Roost.
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Julie Prather uses glass, photos, to express her art By MICHAEL GALLAGHER managing editor
A
Julie Prather lamp on an end table or on a bedside stand catches the eye, but with a flick of a switch transforms the room with colors and a captivating display of shades of light. Her lamps are a multi-dimensional art form, but start with far humbler beginnings — such as a broken plate or a beer bottle top. Prather has an artist’s eye that shows in her photography and ability to see art in what would otherwise be disregarded as debris, if not trash. “Probably started because I was such a recycler I was always picking up trash and things. Every once in a while I’d find a jewel of some kind and think this is cool. “Then I started doing windows when I started doing glass. It always creates scrap. Any time you have a curve in a window there’s the scrap you have to cut to get that curve. So I had all this scrap because I hate throwing things away and wasting. I don’t like waste so I thought what can I do with these little pieces of glass and that’s what got me started making my lampshades because it uses smaller pieces.” For almost 45 years, Prather has been creating art from the discard pile. EARLY INSPIRATION
Prather grew up in Los Angeles. She was not raised in a family of artists, but her father did work as a manufacturer’s representative for photography equipment.
See Prather, Page 24
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Bringing light to art
The heART of Kittitas County 23
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Julie Prather has a variety glass shards laid out on her light box as lamp stands rest on the floor inside her studio in Ellensburg.
PRATHER Continued from Page 24 “He’d make his own Christmas cards every Christmas. In the olden days they didn’t have fancy things so he’d take the pictures, we’d set up the kitchen as the darkroom and we’d put all of our photographs all over the house to make Christmas cards. “He was kind of creative with that so that was my interest in photography, that started before my glass.” Her interest in glass came from sitting in church and staring up at the stained glass windows. The direct road from a kid with an interest to an artist probably is not a direct path. “When I was young I never thought I’d grow up to do this. There wasn’t much art in my family. In my early 20s my husband knew I liked taking
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pictures so he gave me a really good camera so I felt like I had to live up to the camera. I started taking a couple of photo classes and enjoyed it,” Prather said. The story behind glass is similar in that Prather came across a stained glass class while living in Spokane. ‘Then I took a class in glass when I was in Spokane,” she said. “I was not very good at it. I couldn’t cut a straight line. But the interest was still there so I kept pursuing it. Even now today when I do my lamps instead of using a glass cutter I use a hammer.” Prather’s early work did not inspire much self- confidence in her future as an artist, but it turned out others felt differently. “My first series of lampshades were so crazy I titled the whole series ‘Only a Mother Could Love,’ and then I found out other people liked them, too.” All total, Prather said she has created about 117 lamp shades, including five that were destroyed in the fire at
the Darigold building, where she had studio space. CHOICES Prather is one of those artists you come across in a small town and think, “If her work was in (fill in the blank of a major metro area) it would sell really well.” But Prather started in as major of a metro area as can be found in Los Angeles and returned to that city for four years in the late 1990s to help take care of her father. “It was a choice. Four years in LA, taking care of my dad. I had a choice of inheriting the house, and staying down there. “I didn’t want to stay there, too pretentious. I like the community here.”
See Prather, Page 26
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
A window pane Ellensburg artist Julie Prather made for a door sits in a window inside her studio in Ellensburg. Prather says she hasn’t finished her door because she keeps selling the individual panes. The heART of Kittitas County 25
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Julie Prather seen in one of her mirrors she made inside her studio.
ANDREWS Continued from Page 24 Lives tend to be defined by choices and Prather’s generally took her down the path that does not lead to the three-bedroom, two-bath rambler with detached garage, a comfortable bank account, comprehensive insurance coverage and reassuring pension plan. “I just had jobs that gave me a lot of money for a short period of time for work, like waitress jobs,” Prather said. “I was a dancer too. It gave me time to do my dancing, my photography and my glass. Work and earn enough money to pay the basics, the rent and food.” But those jobs did not provide 26
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benefits like insurance coverage. “My kids grew up without health insurance because I made these choices of my crazy occupation over stability,” she said. She said he glass work has never provided more than supplementary income. Her photography did provide steadier income when she did weddings and family photography. The creativity Prather shows in her art, though, was also applied to covering some of the basics her two children required. While being interviewed for this story, Prather was doing repairs on a glass piece owned by retired dentist Judson Weaver that played a vital part in her children’s dental care. “I never took my kids to the
dentist because no health insurance so I finally decided needed to take my son. “My son, my daughter and I all went to the dentist (Weaver) and this paid for all three of our bills. My daughter didn’t have much done, my son had like five cavities and I had a couple.” Prather said she also used a window to pay her lawyer for work he did on her divorce. STATE PROJECTS
Prather has received four commissions through the Washington State Arts Commission. The work she created is displayed at four elementary schools across the state. She incorporated drawings from students at each of the schools in
her work. “Those pay pretty well, but they also take a year so you probably don’t make much more than minimum wage over a year’s time,” Prather said. MAKING NOT MARKETING
Prather readily admits she is not good at marketing her work. She does not have a website and outside of Ellensburg, shows her work in Everett and on Vashon Island. Her son lives in Everett and her daughter owns a vacation rental on Vashon. ‘Those of the people who really succeed are good marketers,” she said. “There are people like me who all I like to do is sit in here and do my work.”
Jacob Ford / Daily Record
Ellensburg artist Julie Prather works on soldering pieces of ceramic to a mirror she is making inside her studio in Ellensburg.
The heART of Kittitas County 27
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