Getting art to the community

Every year, Mountlake Terrace resonates with art at the popular Arts of the Terrace show. Putting on the event takes hundreds of hours invested by a team of excellent volunteers with go-getter Judy Ryan at the helm. She is an artist herself, and through her work in Mountlake Terrace helps hundreds of other artists gain recognition through the show.

She got her start with her father, artist Frank Nichols.

“He was a great influence on me,” she said, “and he taught me how to draw.”

He set up still lifes for his children to draw, pointing out shapes, lights and shadows.

For years Ryan made oil portraits and still life paintings, and today she works in mixed media with “acrylic, pencil, pastels, papers, found objects — a little bit of everything.”

Her lifelong experience made her a natural to become the volunteer chairperson of the Mountlake Terrace Arts Advisory Commission, which coordinates the Arts of the Terrace juried art show.

“As an artist myself, and having entered numerous shows, I knew what artists expected,” she said. “Volunteers need to handle the art with care, do not stack or lean it against each other, for example. Communication is also key to having a successful show, getting back to artists as soon as possible to answer any questions they may have.”

Through the commission she and her associates work continuously to implement the city’s arts and cultural plan, with stronger websites, a Facebook page and community outreach efforts through news releases, information in the “City Happenings” newsletter and through the “Craze” recreation program guide.

In her work she is buoyed by her belief that “you put art out there and people can appreciate it.” At Mountlake Terrace Fire Station No. 19’s bronze statue of a firefighter putting a hat on a little girl, “you’ll see people sit on the bench next to the fireman with their kids,” she noted.

“Art is meant to be shared,” she said. “Not only does it engage the community, it beautifies the city.”