Bond with the Arts!

VAA Art Auction is coming up September 21 and 22. Both nights begin at 5:30 pm in the big tent behind VAA. Friday night, enjoy an elegant bento box featuring flavors from around the world, provided by Mileta Creek Restaurant. Place bids for silent and live auction art, experiences and more. GoldenEye Auctioneer is Kevin Joyce and Jeff Hoyt will MC.

Casino Royale

Saturday nods to a Bond classic and promises a fun-filled evening with a signature cocktail and gourmet dinner catered by The Hardware Store Restaurant, enjoy a gourmet dining experience worthy of Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with Northwest wines. Our Spy Maker David Silverman is the auctioneer and Jeff Hoyt will MC.

Both Evenings

Steffon Moody and Company provide an evening of intrigue and surprises. Try your hand at games of chance and win fabulous prizes! Auction is VAA’s premier fundraising event and directly showcases and supports artists. Auction raises money to provide scholarships, artist commissions, instructor fees and operational support for education and development of artists of all ages. Auction 2011 netted $115,000, including $45,000 for scholarships and more than $15,000 in artists’ commissions.

Special thanks to generous sponsors: John L. Scott Real Estate, Puget Sound Energy, Sellen, LMN, Sparling, Vashon Thriftway, point b, Bangasser & Associates and Trigg Insurance Agency. VAA honors six exemplary Island artists for this year’s Art Auction. Each artist created a special commissioned piece in their medium to be auctioned during Art Auction weekend, Sept. 21 and 22.

Saturday night commissioned artists:

Book binding designer, maker of specialty art books and teacher, Don Glaister has honed the traditional craft into an art form that suits his sensibilities and feeds his passion for books and art. Using sanded aluminum, acrylic paint and coated steel wire for his commissioned piece, "How you get there from here," he strives to connect his wall pieces to his book projects. "I’m trying to make sense of it all."

Triptyches of aluminum squares connected by steel, squares are constructed of wood frames, aluminum stretched over frames and screwed into the wood, like a canvas. Black acrylic paint mimics shadow and creates depth. Representing the human element, copper tones add warmth.

An avid photographer, illustrator at heart and world traveler, Olivia Pendergast fell in love with the people of Bangladesh. Her commissioned work, "Girl with Goat," is part of a larger body of work. "I’m moved by line," she says.

Her elongated, exaggerated shapes and forms are influenced by German expressionism and artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. "When I first started, I was intrigued by Modigliani and Degas – their use of negative space."

Pendergast adds, "I’m more interested in painting as meditation. There’s an opening and these paintings are what come through."

Master Carver and silversmith Israel Shotridge grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska, surrounded by water, mountains, fog-shrouded cedars and a culture he knew little about. Over time he learned about his mixed ancestry, including the Teikweidee Taantwaan Bear Clan of the Tongass Tribe. Regarding his livelihood, Shotridge says, "I never planned it; this seemed to be my calling."

His auction piece, "The Blue Heron," a 6.5" long by 1.25" wide silver engraved women’s cuff bracelet, features a heron’s wingspan. Using a jeweler’s block or hand work, he uses ‘dead soft’ silver which is easier to carve.

"All my designs were borrowed originally, but as an artist, you come up with your own; it’s always evolving. I try to keep it simple. After 30 years, I’ve learned less is more." Shotridge is the unofficial caretaker of the totems in Ketchikan.