The Art of Connection: Balance, Friendship, and Expression at Orcas Center

||| FROM BETHANY MARIE for ORCAS CENTER |||

This summer, The Visual Arts Committee (VAC) of Orcas Center invites the community to an evening of art, conversation, and connection as three longtime friends – Kathleen Youngren, Mary Jane Elgin, and Susan Singleton – come together for a shared exhibition. The opening reception will be held Friday, August 22 at 5:30 pm, free and open to the public.

Though their mediums and styles differ, the three artists share a deep reverence for form, texture, and the natural world. Their work, shown side by side, reveals the harmony that can emerge from contrast and the richness of a creative friendship that has spanned decades.

Kathleen Youngren brings to the show her signature abstract landscapes, where color and intuition meet on canvas. Youngren paints with spontaneity and depth, evoking an emotional terrain as much as a physical one.

Mary Jane Elgin’s ceramic pieces are a meditative exploration of the interplay between the exterior and interior of form. Whether hand-built or wheel thrown, her pieces seek to find harmony and balance between the ever shifting solid & negative, light & shadow that is revealed to the viewer.

Susan Singleton contributes her striking, large-scale mixed media work – layered paper and paint compositions that play with light, surface, and scale. Her “Ziggurat” pieces, which have traveled internationally, are at once architectural and ethereal.

This collaborative show is part of the Orcas Center Visual Arts Committee’s mission to celebrate and support island artists through vibrant, community-centered exhibits.

Join us for refreshments and be sure to catch the community themed “Friends and Collaborations” show in the Madrona Room, this Friday, August 22 starting at 5:30pm. This show will be on display through September 23. For more information visit www.OrcasCenter.org/VAC or email vac@OrcasCenter.org.