PORT TOWNSEND — Gallery 9 is featuring Nancy Rody’s art glass and KarenLee Eaton’s photography in June.
Gallery 9, the home of the North Olympic Artist Cooperative, is at 1012 Water St. in Port Townsend. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Masks are required.
Rody has been making glass art for 25 years. She combines glass with metal and crystals, using a variety of techniques and materials including stained glass, fused glass, sterling silver, metal leaf, copper, crystals and beach glass.
Her display is full of earrings and pendant necklaces. There are illuminated night lights and stained glass wall or window hangings, mosaic tabletops and whimsical glass sculptures.
She said she focuses on nature, fantasy and abstract art.
“I explore new directions in art glass, working and combining glass with different materials in unique ways which I have developed myself,” Rody said.
“Experimenting becomes play. Pieces do not always reflect my original concepts but may take a different direction as I work with them.
Lately, she has combined stained glass with Swarovski crystals and metal foil.
“I began as a traditional stained glass artist 25 years ago and gradually developed and learned new ways of working with glass,” she said. “I have been inspired by training at Pilchuck Glass School and Bullseye Glass, where I learned glass engraving and fusing design from well-known guest Italian glass masters.”
Since youth
Eaton of KLAE Photographic Arts has been taking pictures since she was 7, when she came upon her dad’s old 35mm Pentax SLR and implored him to teach her how to use it.
After many years of photographing with film, she moved into digital photography. In 2017, she completed the University of Washington’s certificate in photography program. Here her world was opened to two new styles of photography, she said: celestial and night sky photography and a developing process of some landscape images she calls “serigraph photography style.”
This work was influenced by Northwest serigraph artist Elton Bennett, she said.
A Port Townsend native, Eaton said she feels deeply connected to the land, the sea, the sky and the creatures of the Earth, especially hummingbirds.
For her featured artist’s show in June, she is sharing new star and night sky images, as well as views of familiar Port Townsend landmarks and scenery.
Her website is at karenleephotog.com.
For more information, see gallery-9.com.