EVERETT — World famous artist Chuck Close has a longtime mentor to thank in part for his illustrious career.
Close struggled with math and science in high school and was told he would not get into college.
When fellow church member Marjorie Day
invited him to dinner at her art-filled home, he was greeted with the encouraging words of Russell Day.
“They were certainly special to me and I think I became special to them.” Close said. “I essentially owe my whole career to Rus and to Marjorie for inviting me home for dinner.”
Clo
se would later attend Everett Junior College in 1958 and become a regular dinner guest at the Days’ home. Under what Close calls “an extraordinary art program,” Russell Day helped the budding artist to develop the celebrated skill he has today in photo realism and contemporary painting.
This is kind of influence that established Day, Everett Community College‘s first art instructor, as an icon in the art education world.
Last week, the 98-year-old was given the National Art Education Association‘s Presidential Citation award.
Typically given to a state agency, the award was given to Day at the discretion of the association’s president to recognize his contributions to art education.
“Gee whiz, it’s the highest award I could get, as far as education and art is concerned,” Day said.
He received the award at the first general session of the association’s national convention at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle.
The award, a foot-tall blown-glass vase, will go up on the shelf next to the 2010 Distinguished Service Award Day received from the Washington Arts Education Association.
“His contributions to the art world have been noted countless times,” said Jeanne Leader, dean of Arts and Learning Resources at Everett Community College. “It’s great to see recognition for his contributions as an educator.”
Day came to Everett Junior College in 1948 and pioneered the art program.
He is noted for an innovative approach to art and broadening the horizons of students with the works of various artists, media and arts movements.
Day was the first to establish the idea of a program dedicated to photography, a notion with little support from artists in the 1950s.
Former student Mar Goman looks upon that field trip to Day’s home as one of the transformative moments of her education. She fondly remembers peacocks roaming the grounds of his modest-sized estate, with kitchen counters tiled in a rainbow of colors and a shower that doubled as an indoor waterfall.
“Every element was a design element,” Goman said. “This was a clear moment in the development of my own visual aesthetic.”
When the college was rebuilt and renamed Everett Community College in 1958, Day requested an exhibition area in the foyer of the student union building through which all students would pass on the way to the library, restaurant and bookstore.
He did this with the notion that “appreciation of good art could take place informally through contact,” Day wrote in a book that accompanied an January 2008 exhibition named in his honor. The collection was put into a book with a passage from each former student about their experiences with Day.
Day’s, whose wife Marjorie taught classical literature at the college from 1958 to 1985, retired in 1976. The couple now live in Lacey and reminisce about their most treasured travels to Mt. Rainier.
The college honored Day three years ago by re-naming the former Northlight Gallery after him.
“His influence on the awareness of art and arts education at Everett is profound and remains strongly felt to this day,” wrote art instructor Lloyd Weller on behalf of the school’s Art Collections Committee in Oct. 2007.
This commemoration helped to re-establish a relationship between the retired instructor and the college, Leader explained.
Day was the first artist in the Northwest to work experimentally with glass and light modulation. Day was an early mentor of renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly and worked closely with the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, cofounded by Chihuly in 1971.
The Northwest Designer Craftsmen, in Seattle, used Day as one of the subjects in a film series about regional artists and art educators. The film “Living Treasures” traces Day’s impact on the regional art community.
“He is truly a treasure to the art world and EvCC especially,” Leader said.
Ashley Stewart: astewart@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3453
Visit the gallery
On April 15, Day will return to the college for the reopening and re-dedication of the newly remodeled Russell Day gallery. The exhibit “Western Technosites” will be shown at the gallery from April 13 to May 13, featuring photographs by Daniel Kasser.
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