Longtime Snohomish County potter Marguerite Goff started sculpting salmon back in the late 1990s after a central British Columbia First Nation tribe commissioned a salmon tile piece from her.
“Salmon are an amazing species,” Goff said. “They are iconic to us because of where we live. Salmon also are a harbinger of environmental health, they provide food for other animals and their habits are the stuff of legend.”
So when asked, Goff decided to incorporate salmon in the piece she would create to advertise the 18th annual Camano Island Studio Tour this weekend and next.
“Camano’s is one of the premiere art studio tours in the region,” Goff said. “The beauty of the island is what draws artists to live there and that beauty is the added bonus for people on the tour.”
Carefully juried artists, galleries and studios are selected each year for the tour, all representing diverse mediums and styles. Each year, more artists apply and the level of skill and talent rises, organizers said.
Goff’s raku-fired clay sculpture “River Dance” was photographed for the cover of the tour guide, which includes a map and a list of all the artists involved in the tour along with photos of their work.
People from throughout the region make the tour part of their spring and Mother’s Day traditions.
“They come from Seattle and Vancouver to attend,” Goff said, “because they know what’s special about the tour is that it’s possible to form a friendship with an artist and learn about his or her process first hand.”
And the artists appreciate the relationship.
“Artists are communicating from a deep place,” Goff said. “The end of that conversation is having people see your art and respond to it.”
Goff earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Massachusetts and then she and her husband moved west.
The natural beauty and cultural influences of the region inspired Goff, whose first focus was in functional pottery, fired and painted bowls, mugs, pitchers, etc.
Goff now works in raku, a process in which a piece of pottery is removed from the kiln while still extremely hot and placed in a container of combustible materials, such as wood chips. The process creates interesting surface colors and textures.
Goff sculpts tiles and wall pieces, and she has provided work for many public installations.
The White Salmon Day Lodge at the Mount Baker ski area commissioned her first large relief-tile installation. Nearby, the city of Arlington has two works, “Council of Salmon” on the side of City Hall and the city’s gateway sign on east bound Highway 530. Currently, Ivar’s Salmon House on Lake Union is installing several of Goff’s salmon.
“River Dance” shows a trio of salmon swimming atop a tall pot indicative of the ancient columnar basalt rocks that line old river beds in the region.
“Salmon swimming in clusters have a musical nature and they seem to dance,” Goff said. “The salmon are sculpted in a realistic fashion, but the raku firing provides the serendipitous coloring.”
A few special stops on this year’s tour include
The Camano Island Mural, at the gateway to the island. The mural is made up of individual squares by tour artists in a variety of styles and mediums. Stop by mural organizer Danny Koffman’s studio (No. 24) to buy prints of the mural. A portion sales benefits the local art scholarship program.
Painter Linda Demetre’s 1916 Mabana Schoolhouse, which was recently designated a state historical heritage site. The school was built in 1916 by pioneers in the logging community of Mabana near the south tip of Camano Island. At the time, there was no bridge to the island, just a wharf where boats moved more timber than people. The building is now Demetre’s art studio, No. 3 on the tour.
Mary Simmons at Camano Island Art Glass, studio No. 17, will talk about her kiln-glass residency at the nearby Pilchuck Glass School, which is the most comprehensive center for glass art education in the world.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The free Camano Island Studio Tour is offered 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 6, 7, 8, 14 and 15.
See a video about the tour at vimeo.com/163561050. Download the tour brochure at camanostudiotour.com to figure out where to start and then pick up a copy when you get there. The map is in the middle. Start at the south end of the island and work your way back to Stanwood.
The artists
Ceramic artists include Chaim Bezalel and Yonnah Ben Levy Bezalel, Sally Chang, Roger Cocke, Dian Dangler, Joyce Dunn, Marguerite Goff, Dale LeMaster and Susan Cohen Thompson.
See glass art by Lee Beitz, Mark Ellinger, Ray Fossum, Dolors Ruscha, Mary Simmons and Hiroshi Yaham.
Jewelry on the tour is by Lee Beitz, Kathy Dannerbeck, Marie-Claire Dole, Patti Pontikis, Liane Redpath and Dolors Ruscha.
See painting and mixed media by Chaim Bezalel and Yonnah Ben Levy Bezalel, Dotti Burton, Ann Cory, Linda Demetre, Marie-Claire Dole, Betty Dorotik, Jack Dorsey, Jason Dorsey, Jed Dorsey, John Ebner, Joan Enslin, Suki Gluzinski, Jack Gunter, Liz Hamlin, Danny Koffman, Molly LeMaster, April Nelson, Janie Olsen, Frank Renlie, John Ringen, Michele Rushworth, Helen Saunders, Rod Sylvester, Susan Cohen Thompson, Christopher Tuohy and Naoko Yahahoto.
Photography by Kathy Hastings, Victor Loverro, Nick Seegert and Christopher Tuohy.
Sculpture by Yonnah Ben Levy Bezalel, James Ellingboe, Roy Johnson, Bill Matheson and Karla Matzke
Textiles by Opal Cocke, Kathy Edelman Hutchinson and Teri Jo Summer.
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