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  "description": "A gallery is a living organism, made brighter by the art, artists and viewers who enter.",
  "path": "/art-and-life-at-northwind-art-beyond-the-imagination/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-11T04:12:37.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.jeffcobeacon.com",
  "textContent": "A Northwind Art Column by Diane Urbani de la Paz\n\n _In this world with a lot of problems_\n\n _All we need is a little loving_\n\n _Thank you, thank you, oh, you make me_\n\n _Thank you, thank you for your love_\n\n— Jon Batiste, “I Need You”\n\nIn my imagination there lives a welcoming space, where people blow in on the cold wind to find a warm, well-lighted haven. There’s color splashed on the walls, sculptures floating in the air, and mysterious mixed media things that sparkle and gleam.\n\nI envisioned that the folks who enter find art that moves them—and that stops them in their tracks with its beauty.\n\nIn a twist of fate, my vision came true. I work in this place: Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery.\n\nLast Saturday night, the story unfolded during Art Walk, the monthly self-guided tour of art spaces around Port Townsend. Hundreds of people flowed in and out of Northwind’s gallery, along with the other venues filled with fresh art.\n\nThey came, they gazed, they walked up close at the work that called to them. They lingered in the hallway, alcoves and corners lined with art.\n\nThen the visitors and the artists met one another. They hugged friends they hadn’t seen in way too long. Everybody talked. Laughed!\n\nAnd that was just in the first half-hour.\n\nAround 5:30 p.m., music burst out, four women stepped forward, and a flash mini-mob swung into play. Mary Purdy, who teaches a twice-weekly dance-fitness class in Port Townsend, orchestrated this unleashing of joy and motion, to the song “I Need You” by Jon Batiste.\n\n“I need you! You! You! Come on now,” he sang out, as the women pointed at one another and sashayed across the floor.\n\nThe dance lasted just two minutes and sparked a big ovation inside the gallery’s Showcase space. It had just been reconfigured to bring together 11 artists from around Western Washington, with about 50 paintings, photographs and sculptures. As it turned out, there was plenty of room in the center for a dance performance.\n\nBottom line: You never know what might happen during Art Walk in a Port Townsend art gallery. People are free to express themselves and appreciate one another. And that, friends, is an awe-inspiring thing.\n\n __“Plum,” a sculpture Kristin Tollefson made with sunglasses, is part of the “Confluence” exhibit at Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery. Behind it are Tollefson’s “Selvedge,” at right, along with mixed-media paintings by Darwin Nordin.__\n\nThe next first-Saturday Art Walk will happen March 7, and Northwind has weekend-spanning plans this time around. The two artists in _Confluence_ , the vivid show on view in Jeanette Best Gallery’s streetside space, will give talks.\n\nKristin L. Tollefson will share stories behind her sculptures and wearable art at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 7. Everyone is invited to bring questions, and to stick around for Art Walk, which starts that evening at 5 p.m.\n\nAnd Darwin Nordin, an artist and naturalist with a magic-realist touch, will offer a kind of walkabout among his works in _Confluence,_ at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8.\n\nThe art-curious can also explore the gallery during regular hours from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.\n\nAnd if you’re inspired, dancing is perfectly appropriate.\n\n _Northwind Art Jeanette Best Gallery is at 701 Water St. in Port Townsend; information about shows, as well as Northwind’s art classes at Fort Worden State Park, is found at https://northwindart.org._",
  "title": "Art and Life at Northwind: Art Beyond the Imagination",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-11T04:12:37.000Z"
}