Arctic Raven Gallery, which specializes in Northwest Coast Native art, is displaying a Sun Mask carved by noted Kwakwaka’wakw Nation carver Tom Hunt. The mask is more than 8 feet wide and just under 8 foot tall. Arctic Raven owner Lee Brooks could only guess on the weight, but said it took four people to pick it up and hang it.
I was in line at a store the other day and overheard the woman next to me say to her friend, “She doesn’t cook, so she’s really hard to buy gifts for.” “Well!” I thought to myself, “I don’t cook and I’m not so hard to buy gifts for. I’m a gardener!”
Sierra Fitts, 4, is the youngest winner of the People’s Choice Award at Gallery San Juan’s annual Kids Art Show, Dec. 7. All winners’ artwork will be framed by Gallery San Juan.
The truck eased forward, and the Adam Brown House was removed from the corner of West and First streets at about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 2, leaving soil there bare for the first time in 126 years.
Susan Osborn’s annual Christmas Concert is Dec. 12, 2 p.m., at St. David’s Episcopal Church, 760 Park St., Friday Harbor. Guest musicians: Carolyn Cruso, hammer dulcimer, flute, guitar and voice; and Ritambhara Tyson, cello and voice. Tickets are $15 at Griffin Bay Bookstore, 155 Spring St., Friday Harbor.
The lives of Roy Matsumoto and thousands of other Americans of Japanese ancestry were changed Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Matsumoto, born in Los Angeles and a graduate of Long Beach Polytechnic High School, was classified an enemy alien and sent to a concentration camp in Jerome, Ark. Eager to prove his loyalty to the country of his birth, he enlisted in the Army and became a war hero.
2010 was a prolific year for authors from the San Juan Islands. And history was the hot topic. Authors on San Juan and Lopez islands revisited the development of our local communities and the characters who added flavor to island life. Wolf Bauer, whose first job out of college was as an engineer at Roche Harbor Lime & Cement Co. in the late 1930s, wrote an entertaining autobiography about his experiences as a conservationist and outdoorsman. A book by Joseph R. Ornig chronicles the South American expedition of America’s greatest adventurer-president, whose legacy includes our system of national parks and wildlife refuges. There are more. Here’s a list of new local books worth curling up with during the holiday break – and worth considering as holiday gifts.
A wave of light will encircle the globe Dec. 12 as hundreds of services are held in remembrance of all children who have died. These
will be joined by thousands held informally in homes and other locations. The Compassionate Friends 14th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting will unite grieving families through an event that is so far-reaching, no one truly knows how many services will be held and how many people will participate. It officially is held at 7 p.m. local time for one hour, although services are held throughout the day.
Shirley Suttles passed away peacefully on Friday, Nov. 26. She was 88. Shirley Janet Smith was born March 25, 1922 in Seattle, the third child of Walker Conger Smith and Marie Beidel Smith. Her parents were both active in the labor movement. Her father was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, the editor of several labor newspapers, and the author of “The Everett Massacre” and numerous IWW pamphlets and editorials. He died in 1927, when Shirley was only five years old, leaving Marie with Shirley and her older sisters to support as a worker in a dry-cleaning plant through the Great Depression. Walker’s writings and Marie’s cheerful and stoic determination had a strong influence on Shirley’s development and choice of career as a writer.
Join San Juan Island National Historical Park staff and volunteers for the annual old-fashioned Holiday Social, tree-trimming and cookie potluck from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 4, at English Camp. Visitors are invited to bring holiday cookies and ornaments to hang on the tree, which will be erected in the old British Royal Marine Light Infantry barracks building — just as it was likely done in the mid-1860s when the camp was in its heyday.
The festive season is one of traditions, whether it be food, family gatherings or the chance to give back to the community. This December, Island Stage Left will bring all the classic traditions of story-telling to the Roche Harbor Pavilion. There is even the opportunity to enjoy the performance by the fireside — the pavilion’s and yours.
An artist would be hard pressed to find a creative place that is closer to nature than Danny Stough’s: At the end of an island road named for an edible mushroom, in a place with an ancient feel, amid standing cedars and cedars that have fallen and become nurse logs, a place where the soil yields surprises (like the spring that was revealed when a neighbor dug a foundation for a house).
It has been a tough financial year for many people. Your neighbors want to ease your mind a bit this holiday season. The community Thanksgiving dinners are a chance to relax, eat well, enjoy local company and not worry about the cost. They also provide a way to give back to the community through volunteerism.
