Voice Of Vashon

Lynann Politte is the Gallery Manager at Vashon Center for the Arts and a force often behind the scenes promoting, curating, or hanging art for the community to enjoy. She’s a jump-into-it creator who has been a director, producer, CoHousing community member, business coach, mother, grandmother, activist, feminist, actor, and marketing strategist. We talk about […]

Not every small town has a resident musicologist, but on Vashon, we do. Michael Tracy has been inspiring audiences at the Vashon Center for the Arts with his music history lectures — complimented by music from local performers. In this interview, we dive into his fascinating background. Prior to his move to Vashon in 2011, Michael […]

Rebecca Albiani knows how to make art history come alive. She has become Vashon’s favorite art historian, lecturing regularly at the Vashon Center for the Arts. In this interview, we turn the tables and ask Rebecca about her history and how she came to such an interesting career.Rebecca Albiani was en route to a doctorate in art history at Stanford University when her […]

Having created one of the best-selling hits of the 90’s, “How to Save a Life,” with the rock band The Fray, Isaac Slade left the band in 2022 to save, or at least change, his life. He’d been their lead singer for twenty years. He’s an American musician, community leader, proud dad, and owner of […]

Marcy Summers talks about how she brought her diverse background, together with her love of nature and concern for the environment, to her work with the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, (AlTo) an organization birthed with support from Vashon Islanders. Today AlTo helps the people and natural environment of  Sulawesi, Indonesia. How does one leave the security of working for an established organization to start and […]

How does one create and sustain a professional career as an artist, while maintaining a concern for social justice and the issues facing our world? Pam Ingalls has built her career doing both. In her beautiful portraits and interior scenes, Pam elevates the ordinary, whether it is school teachers in the Vashon system, tenement residents […]

In this interview, Brian Fisher, one of Vashon’s veteran artists, and I talk about the deeper dimensions of what art is or can be. He discusses his path from a kid interested in myth to an accomplished artist working as a printmaker, painter, assemblage and architectural illustrator. Brian has been a long time supporter of the arts on Vashon, through his […]

Iris DeMent’s inimitable voice was described by John Prine as “like you’ve heard, but not really,” and inspired Merle Haggard to call her “the best singer I’ve ever heard.”  Her unforgettable melodies rooted in hymns, gospel, and old country music have made her one of the finest singer-songwriters in America, but Iris also lends her voice as one of our country’s fiercest advocates for human […]

How does one cultivate creativity and become even more creative after 70? Richard Rogers has been a creator for many years since the first time he used a Kodak camera as a child. Always attracted to natural beauty, he took photos of pets, the World’s Fair, and subjects as diverse as President Richard Nixon, Abbie […]

How can assembling found objects from nature into beautiful creations help us to notice the natural world more? Renée Marceau is an assemblage artist who creates magic and small sculptures from found objects. Her art springs from her love of nature and ability to see natural objects in new ways. “Assemblage is a type of […]