Susan Osborn, right, with Mikaela Hansen at the Living Room this week. Osborn and her husband David Densmore will hold a farewell party at the Living Room on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 3 to 9 p.m.
Susan Osborn and David Densmore are not, repeat NOT, leaving Orcas Island. They ARE leaving the Living Room at the north end of town, and they are leaving the community arts “salon” a far better place than the one they moved into in 1998.
In celebration of their decision to vacate the Living Room, they will have a reception at the Living Room on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 3 to 9 p.m. David’s paintings are exhibited and will be for sale at up to a 40 percent discount. About 6:30 p.m. Martin Lund and Gene Nery will play music, and the Parking Angels will also perform.
“We’ll have a good time to send this place off with a bang,” says Susan. All are welcome to join the party.
Susan says “We know it’s time to go deeply and completely,” she also admits to a sense of loss that is just part of the human experience.
Osborn, a musician, photographer and artist, and Densmore, a painter and poet, have chosen to “make a living” as creative artists. While this conscious decision may have its insecurities, their careers have been guided by the freedom and the trust that things will work out.
Susan and David moved into the Living Room 10 years ago. It had a blue painted floor, pegboard walls and an aluminum ceiling. “It was really a dark place; it had a scary, creepy vibe,” says Susan. Previously, it had been a marine supply store. What is now a garden had been a gravel parking lot.
But owner Robin Woodward, Osborn and Densmore had a vision of a “kind of salon for music and art,” and with the aid of Robin Kucklick and Osa Caudill and others , and with “tremendous intention,” they planted the garden and painted the walls seven different colors of red. They invited neighbors to write prayers on paper — 150 prayers were imbedded in the walls. A labyrinth was painted on the floor.
“Some of these places have been deadened out of ignorance, but it’s possible to reclaim space and make it very individual – that’s Orcas.”
“It’s important that artists be in the community and be supported,” says Susan. We really appreciate Robin [Woodward’s] commitment to providing space for artists for so long, and for beauty and the garden,” Susan says, and points out that Woodward has also maintained the gardens at The Kitchen and Tres Fabu.
“Which brings me to the importance of community space and the recognition of every volunteer – that’s what makes it so special and alive – at the Orcas Center and the Grange and the Healing Arts, too.”
Artist Jackie Kempfer will be moving into the Living Room, using it as her studio and also hanging some of her larger works, says Susan.
Susan and David know only to listen and respond to what openings come next in their lives. “What’s life asking of us?” Susan says. “It often happens in creative life to let go of what you’ve known before and welcome the creative impulse – to let go of what we’ve known before we know what’s next.”
Six months ago Susan began to feel it was time to leave, but she wasn’t willing to let go. But now she is willing to act on what she feels and trust in her response. “you have to develop a sense of following your call – I certainly relate to being an artist in that way. It can be a challenge to honor your call. But everyone is an artist in that way; everybody has that challenge.”
“The advantage artists have is, the longer you live in the unknown the more you trust it and trust your perceptions.”
“We’re using this opportunity to gracefully let go.”
Susan will continue to make music from home, collaborating with friends old and new, such as Orcas Island 7th grader Mikaela Hansen, a young musician and songwriter. Earlier this year, Mikaela’s guitar instructor Dave Parish introduced her to Susan, recommending that they work together. “We’re pretty tight,” says Mikaela.
After the party Saturday night, Susan and David will go to Japan for a month for Susan’s release tour of her latest CD.
They will return to Orcas to re-arrange creative space in their home. They will continue to issue the “Snooze News” periodically.
They will continue to make music and paintings, write poetry, take photographs, and promote the arts.
They will both be performing in the last production of Jim Bredouw’s “A Christmas Carol” at the Orcas Center this December.
And they eagerly anticipate the “new rituals that want to come forward.”
They will not be leaving the island.
