Category: Port Angeles

Sculptors at work

Sand sculptors are interesting to watch since they work fairly quickly in a medium that works fast and shows fine detail. Sue McGraw, shown here at the Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic contest last Friday, sculpted a piece she entitled “Momma’s Baby.” She placed second with this entry in the “Going to the Zoo” theme. Adding texture to the giraffe necks, her tool of choice here was a table fork.

Third place winner Brent Terry is working here on his entry, “Have an Ice Stay,” complete with a hollowed out igloo that wowed everyone. Cleaning up his work here he used a tool that was slightly more robust than a drinking straw.

I’d only seen sand sculptures on the Internet before I moved to the Olympic Peninsula. The Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic each year allows a real time, closer look at this amazing art form.

Today is Theme Day with City Daily Photo. If you’d like to see what participating photographers have made of today’s theme, street lamps, click here.

It’s all happening at the zoo

Last weekend was the annual Arts in Action Festival which showcases sand sculptors in the Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic contest. “Do Not Feed the Bears,” above, by Damon Farmer was the contest winner. It’s amazing what warmth and detail he coaxes out of sand.

This year’s theme was “Going to the Zoo.” Friday evening, at the beginning of the festival, is interesting because the sculptors are often still at work on their creations. Check in tomorrow to see more “artist at work” shots.

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, 2

Here are more shots from the Juan de Fuca Festival. Here’s the fiddler from The Burren Boys, left, the group that kicked off our day yesterday.

I loved the music. If you want to hear audio clips, check out the Juan de Fuca website for links that will lead you to performer music. But I also loved the visuals. This was a play of light against Anna Tivel, a gifted musician, singer and songwriter.

Here’s Anna in the flesh.

There used to be a bumper sticker that read, “Use an accordian, go to jail.” Music snobbery, now dated. This woman from The Barbary Ghosts from San Francisco rocked it with sea chanteys, ballads, and drinking songs. I was completely taken with the beautiful detail of this accordian. It wasn’t your father’s accordian, that’s for sure.

Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, 1


It’s Memorial Day weekend, time for the annual Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, four days of live music, dance, and art. It kicked off yesterday. We love that you can get front row seats if you arrive early and hear music until your ears get full. We’ve heard great local and regional groups in addition to bigger names from further afield. Four days of virtually nonstop entertainment.

The Shook Twins from Portland, a terrific act with great music.

The stubborn stack

This is a chimney stack at the former PenPly facility in Port Angeles. It was part of a plywood-making operation that went out of business after a 70-year presence on the Olympic Peninsula. Multiple generations of some families worked there. The mill was closed in late 2011 and the site was cleared. . .except for the stack. The stack met its end yesterday, but not without a fight.

Business took us to Port Angeles yesterday and afterwards we decided we’d go take a look. We got to a good vantage point an hour and a quarter early. After all, how often do you get to see a 175-foot chimney stack taken down? Turns out, for us, never so far. As the 3:30 appointed hour approached, the crowd around us grew. This was a big deal in the community and lots of people wanted to see it.

If you look at the bottom of the stack there’s a cloud of dust billowing out from 20 holes filled with explosives. As the explosives detonated, a cable pulled the stack to the left, in the direction it was intended to fall. It seemed to lean ever so slightly left but it didn’t fall. The cable either broke or released and the resilient stack returned to its locked and upright position. The dust cleared. A group of men in hard hats approached carefully, gingerly, then began to work around it with increasing resolution.

By the time we left, an hour later, it was still standing. The local paper reported yesterday evening that workers pulled out a big electrical saw and torches to sever stuborn steel rebar that insisted on doing its job of keeping the stack standing. It finally tilted and fell around 6:15, after most of us had give up and gone home.

Glancing back at 2012: The rodeo

Happy new year! Here we are in 2013 and 2012 is now a memory. That was quick!

I’m going to take a look back at 2012 for a few days and post some of my favorites in no particular order.

This is a shot from the Clallam County Rodeo last summer. The fellow in the middle was finishing his ride on the bucking bronco and looked like he was sharing a laugh with the two cowboys who were helping him off his mount. I love the lines and power of the horses and the action of the shot.