More than a month ago, when my friend Mary Garrison invited me to meet artist Pat Anderson at Owl & Olive on the way to Pe Ell, I agreed to go for two reasons — I’d never been to Owl & Olive and I always enjoy meeting new people.
I’m definitely not an art connoisseur — anyone who has seen my childish attempts during paint ’n’ sips can attest to that fact — but I’m always in awe of those who can draw, paint, sculpt and create art. When we play Pictionary, all my animals look the same: stick figures with four legs, a belly and a head.
I enjoyed meeting Mary’s two sisters — Pat Anderson, of Winlock, and Norma Sadler-Hansen, of Salem, Oregon — and seeing their artwork while exploring the historic verdant property along the Chehalis River between Doty and Pe Ell. I even crept up the stairs of the 1936 barn to see the wedding reception venue beneath an arc of wooden rafters. Downstairs, inside what used to be the sheep barn of the Willapa Hills Family Farm and Creamery, I met Owl & Olive owners Stephen Hueffed and Amy Turnbull and sampled appetizers, iced tea and lemonade. They converted their property into a wedding and performance venue seven years ago. Many couples marry with the Chehalis River as a backdrop and enjoy the reception upstairs in the barn, he said.
As I visited with Anderson, she mentioned running the Winlock Flower Shop for 22 years inside the old Standard Hatchery. That took me back more than 30 years to playing pinochle with my husband’s uncle, Vern Zander, who ran the poultry chick hatchery for years. In fact, he purchased one of the huge fiberglass eggs for the Winlock Lions Club park that bears his name.
Anderson, who served more than a dozen years on the Winlock City Council, said she even kept a little painted fat chick as part of the décor when she remodeled in acknowledgment of the building’s history.
She displayed her knack for floral arrangements with blooms in a vase on a table near an easel with her photo and her framed “artist’s statement,” where she says she likes to draw people, whose beautiful faces reflect lives lived, including love and heartache, pain and peace; animals, who offer sweet purity and unselfish devotion as pets; and architecture, barns or bridges, cathedrals or castles built by people. “Humankind has never expressed itself more beautifully than in what it has built,” she says in her statement.
After closing the flower shop, Anderson worked for the Lewis County Department of Community Development for more than a dozen years, where she kept track of happenings during Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority meetings. When she retired two years ago, members of the authority sang her praises.
“Pat Anderson is one of the best things that has happened to Lewis County in the last decade,” attorney J. Vander Stoep wrote. “Pat, you are awesome, and it was an honor to be around and watch you work on the flood stuff.”
“Thank you for all you have done for the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority keeping a record of our history,” wrote Col. Ron Averill, a former Lewis County commissioner. “Your reports have always been unerringly accurate.”
“You are one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, always so gracious and kind,” wrote Vickie Raines, a Grays Harbor County member. “I will certainly miss you at our Flood Authority meetings, but I wish you a very long, happy and healthy retirement! Cheers to you and all the wonderful adventures that lie ahead.”
Those adventures focus on her art, drawing black-and-white animals, people, and buildings in pencil and experimenting more recently with color. After high school, she attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts but didn’t start drawing seriously until eight years ago. She lives in Winlock with her black lab, Fiona, and cat, Marty.
This year, for the first time, Anderson will take part in the 21st Annual ARTrails of Southwest Washington, which takes place September 15 through 24. ARTrails, which is free and open to the public, offers tours of many artist studios, although Anderson will be displaying her work at Steamboat Landing in Toledo. More than 30 artists are participating this year, often demonstrating how they create their art. Many display their work at the Historic Centralia Train Depot, site of the gala opening reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15. For more information, visit https://www.artrailsofsww.org/
At the showing last Thursday, I picked up cards depicting Anderson’s Goodyear Bunnies and a Siberian Iris.
I also enjoyed meeting Mellie Enos, a delightful octogenarian and talented artist herself who patiently spends hours crafting beautiful leis from ribbons and flowers.
Born in the Philippines, Enos lived in Alaska for 11 years and then in Hawaii for more than four decades before moving to Centralia.
“Do you know why I live in Washington?” she asked.
“No, why?”
“Because I read that people from Washington, when they die, they all go to heaven, because if they were going to hell, they’re rejected because they are too wet to burn,” she quipped.
I laughed a lot at her jokes while enjoying the evening.
For more information about Anderson’s art, contact her at danedogger@yahoo.com or 360-785-4222.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
