The Fall 2006 Art Source highlights this year's Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) recipients, as well as the following feature article, and much more!

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Feature Article:

Meet the Artist: Allen Moe
by Heather Joy Helbach-Olds, Artist Trust Director of Programs

Artist Trust's Meet the Artist program is an integral component of the annual Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship award. Every recipient of the Fellowship award is asked to create and present an event outside of their geographic area of residence or to a community that would not ordinarily have access to their work. These events must be presented within one year of receiving a Fellowship award and may include a public reading, lecture, workshop, demonstration or performance. Meet the Artist events bridge our artistic community with the diverse population of Washington State, increasing awareness about the vital roles art and artists play in our culture. This column describes recent Meet the Artist events that have occurred throughout Washington State.

Guemes Island ceramic artist Allen Moe presented his Meet the Artist event at the Anacortes Arts Festival, where he was the featured artist. The 45th annual Anacortes Arts Festival took place August 4-6, 2006, and this was the first year that the festival highlighted an outstanding Skagit County artist with an exhibit in the John L. Scott Focus Gallery. The festival featured a street block of “working artists” where Allen set up making his pots. He had his kiln (a 5-gallon can), a bag of tea-tanned chicken feet and fish skins, and photographs of him working in the field as well as of his past work. Down the block was the warehouse gallery where Allen had his work on display.

According to the local papers, Allen was the hit of the festival. Everyone was checking out his work and reading the labels which identified the materials he used and the sources. According to Allen, “The best part was that EVERYBODY was looking – older people in wheelchairs, teenage girls dressed like Britney Spears, biker guys with tattoos. I’m used to showing my work in museums and art galleries where the audience is pretty much limited to the ‘art crowd’ and this was something entirely different. It was amazing to witness the response.”

Allen is represented by the Lucia Douglas Gallery. See more of his work at www.allenmoe.com.

“…I couldn’t possibly have undertaken this without the Artist Trust Fellowship… I was able to focus-in and do the best work I’ve ever done and have it seen by hundreds of people…. It was an extraordinary experience from which I emerged energized to keep working. And maybe there are a few people who are now seeing the world around them a bit more fully, looking closer, inclined maybe to at least LOOK at tripe.” [Allen Moe]