The other night, I received a message from a friend in India passing on a screen shot from someone in Olympia with a section of the Best of Olympia list in the Weekly Volcano special issue, and there was MY NAME! At first I had a hard time even registering what it was, and then my heart exploded all over and it was just a huge bloody mess.
Soon after graduating high school in central Michigan, I fled for Olympia, WA which I had visited as a kid. I had fallen in love with the whole West Coast, but I had family in Olympia and decided that I wanted to attend The Evergreen State College, which I came to refer to as “the land of the misfits” and the place I finally fit in. That was 30 years ago. I’ve been displaying my work at the bi-annual Arts Walk festival since the mid-90s, and I have quite a lot of small projects throughout the town by now. We bought land about 30 minutes from the edge of Olympia in 2002 because it was affordable for us, but my community is there. Olympia is the State capital and has many, many prominent artists, so I was shocked to the point of disbelief to see this list. This morning, a friend confirmed that she has a hard copy of the guide and I really am there in the list, and I finally feel confident posting this.
I am SO HONORED! Seriously: Gobsmacked.
Thank you, Olympia! You gave me a huge boost!
