by Colleen Monette
Visitors enjoyed the first Magnolia Art Market of the season in June. 33rd Ave W, between W McGraw St and W Wheeler St.
The Magnolia Art Market is the once a month art fair that coincides with the weekly Magnolia Farmer’s Market. It started last summer and July 20 will be the next opportunity to discover works by local artists right in the heart of Magnolia Village.
Colleen Monette and Laura Van Horne are neighbors and artists in Magnolia. They were both wishing there were more art events in the area so they got to work making it happen. Once upon a time, Monette had been involved with MAX- the Magnolia Art Experience- that started the monthly Magnolia Art Walk. Since MAX did not survive Covid, Magnolia had not had an art walk for years.
Last summer, Monette and Van Horne were able to work with Magnolia Chamber of Commerce, the farmer’s market, and with the city to get the permits. Through their personal networks and artist rosters, they found other Seattle artists and invited them to join the art market. “We love displaying our work at the market, it has been a great way to connect with the neighborhood and people seem really excited to have us there,” Van Horne said.
Van Horne was born in Canada and moved to Seattle in 1994. She studied at Pratt Fine Art Center and has participated in many group and solo shows throughout the region. Having grown up in a household that participated in more sports than artistic endeavors, Van Horne often turned to nature and other nontraditional art supplies to feed her creativity. Even today, she experiments with many different mediums and surfaces to create works that utilize vintage papers, matches, and fabrics. Her ink and resin pieces feel more organic and take on a meditative feel.
Monette, originally from Eastern Washington, has an eclectic work history that includes visual merchandising and owning flower shops and antique stores. These experiences have led her to work with a wide array of found objects and salvaged materials. She approaches her collage and assemblage pieces as a historian seeking to preserve the beauty of and connection to the people of the past. “I love the ancient, I swoon over beautiful penmanship, old love letters, a workman’s tool,” she says in her artist’s statement. “I also feel the importance of using the original materials, not copies, to lend authenticity to myself and the voice I’m hoping to bring to the original owner of the document.”
BethAnn Lawson has been a regular artist at the art market since the inaugural event last fall but her works have an entirely different feel. Inspired by her artist father and her early years in San Francisco, Lawson refers to herself as a “modern impressionist” with paintings that oscillate between abstract and recognizable. “I’m always trying to create something that viewers want to keep looking at so I put them together like a puzzle, leaving some pieces missing for the viewer to contemplate their own story,” Lawson said. Her favorite part about the art market is that Magnola feels like an oasis in the city
Monette appreciates the sense of community that the Magnolia Art Market creates. “I love sharing my art and my process with other artists and with the customers that come by.” And all of the artists enjoy the built-in audience that the relationship with the farmer’s market brings. She said it’s “almost like a guarantee of a lot of foot traffic and we’ve had some repeat customers which is great.”
Magnolia Art Market is located on 33rd Ave W, between W McGraw St and W Wheeler St. The next market is on Saturday, July 20, from 10am-2pm. And there will be two more, August 24 and September 21. More information about the art market can be found at https://discovermagnolia.org/. The artist’s websites are https://cemonetteart.com/ https://www.lauravanhorneart.com/ and https://www.bethannlawson.com/