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Fishtown (art colony)

December 07, 2023

Fishtown was an informal artists' community housed in a cluster of old cabins and fishing shacks on the Skagit River delta in Skagit County, Washington, USA, from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. It was part of the larger Skagit Valley arts community, centered on the town of La Conner, but was rustic and isolated, without electricity or plumbing, and tended to attract younger and more eccentric artists. It was home to several noted painters, poets, and sculptors. Charles Krafft, who went on to international attention and controversy as a ceramicist, was for over ten years the "self-proclaimed Mayor of Fishtown";[1][2] another longtime resident was Robert Sund, who, along with several other poets, developed a recognizable Pacific Northwest style of poetry.[3] Scholar, painter, and poet Paul Hansen, who became a professor of Chinese languages and noted translator of early Chinese poetry lived in Fishtown for several years, and best-selling author Tom Robbins was a frequent visitor.

The Asparagus Moonlight Group, exhibition flyer, 1971. Photo: Mary Randlett. Source: Fishtown Collection, Western Libraries Heritage Resources, Western Washington University.

Billing themselves as The Asparagus Moonlight Group, the Fishtown artists held successful exhibitions of their work in Seattle in 1971 and 1974.[4] These helped establish the commune as a countercultural mecca of the Pacific Northwest.

With changing lifestyles and increasing pressure from the land's owners, the Fishtown artists' community gradually dispersed, beginning in the late 1970s. In 1988, most of the original fishing shacks and the boardwalks that connected them were demolished, amid protests by remaining residents and their supporters. A few "Fishtown artists", such as painter Maggie Wilder and sculptor Bo Miller, continue to live and work in the area.[5][6][7]

Boardwalk at Fishtown. Photo: Heidi Obzina / David King (1978-79)

Background edit

A desire to live a more natural and simple lifestyle was an important aspect of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s; this impulse lead to the creation of hundreds of new co-operative communities in the United States. These communes had a variety of different intents and structures, ranging from carefully organized religious or agricultural communes to more relaxed artists' colonies, of which there was already a long history in the U.S.[8]

In the Pacific Northwest there were a number of established artists living or working regularly in Washington's Skagit Valley (about 60 mi. north of Seattle), an area where mist-filtered sunlight brought soft illumination to river-crossed farmland ringed by forested mountains, marshes, coastal tidelands, and the expanse of Puget Sound. This landscape had been an inspiration to artists of the internationally renowned 'Northwest School', particularly Guy Anderson and Morris Graves. Both had grown up nearby, and lived in or near Skagit Valley at various times. Anderson had permanently moved to the town of La Conner, on the Swinomish Channel, in 1959.[9]

Beginnings edit

Charles Krafft (b. 1948) was a young writer and artist from Seattle inspired by the poets Li Po and Gary Snyder, and by the 'mystic' artists of the Northwest School, with whom he shared an interest in Buddhism and Asian art. After travels in India and Europe and time amid San Francisco's counterculture, Krafft returned to the Northwest. He had earlier befriended Morris Graves and Guy Anderson, and while visiting Anderson in La Conner became enamored of the Skagit Valley.[10] In 1968 he joined sculptor Art Jorgenson as a settler of "Fishtown", the local name given to a group of fishing shacks connected by an elevated boardwalk, near where the North Fork of the Skagit River empties into Puget Sound. The shacks had fallen into disuse after declining salmon runs led to a ban on gill-netting.[11] The property's owner charged $10 a month in rent for each shack.

Soon other artists, philosophers, and eccentrics arrived. Woodcarver and architect Bo Miller built a new shack and helped improve others, as did brothers Hans and Eric Nelsen. Krafft and poet/scholar Paul Hansen decorated buildings with Buddhist script. Recalled Hans Nelsen: "There were poets and sculptors and some truly great painters working mostly in ink and water based medium. They were very influenced by Chinese and Japanese art, and were studying Chinese poetry, philosophy, Buddhism. People were meditating. The setting looked like a Chinese landscape and it inspired people."[6]

1970s heyday edit

By the early 1970s Fishtown had a steady flow of visitors and several year-round residents, with Krafft serving as the commune's "self-proclaimed mayor", organizing basic logistics - although, as Bo Miller would later point out, "There was no control over anybody else's life out there. We weren't looking for a father figure. We weren't looking for someone to tell us what to do. We knew, each, bloody well what we wanted to do. We were strong personalities."[1]

A large storage shed/boathouse with double doors was renamed "the Temple" and used for meetings, meditation classes, musical sessions, and beer parties. A group of abandoned cabins a short distance upriver gradually became part of the community,[12] while further downriver poet Robert Sund built up his own shack, which became a meeting place for the group of poets known as The Great Blue Heron Society - at various times including Paul Hansen, Glenn Turner, Clifford Burke, Tim McNulty, Sam Hamill, Finn Wilcox, Steve Herold, and others. Though never more than a loose affiliation, they developed a distinctively spare, earthy style of Northwest poetry.[13]

In February 1971 a group show of works by Fishtown artists Alan Benditt, F. L. Decker, Arthur Jorgenson, Charles Krafft, Aurora Jellybean (Virginia Shaw), Eric and Hans Nelsen, Tom Skinner, and Robert Sund - collectively known as The Asparagus Moonlight Group - opened at the Second Storey Gallery in Seattle's Pioneer Square.[14] In 1974 the Seattle Art Museum sponsored Skagit Valley Artists, an exhibition featuring several Fishtown artists held at the Seattle Center.[15] The success of these shows brought considerable attention to the artists of the Skagit River and nearby La Conner, as did the surprise success in 1971 of the novel Another Roadside Attraction by local writer Tom Robbins.[13]

Wrote Charles Krafft in 1992: "My memories of the period are ones of an extended celebration set against a backdrop of rustic simplicity and awesome natural beauty. Weather permitting, artists picnicked together, explored the sloughs in leaky scows, danced all night and even roller skated en masse regularly. We recklessly traded beers and blatherskite, books, tools, sweethearts, and insults in the town taverns[.]"[4]

Later years edit

In the late 1970s changing lifestyles led to many Fishtown residents moving on - some to new careers in other states, some, such as Bo Miller and Jo Jeffrey, simply moving into homes with electricity and running water nearby.[1] Art Jorgenson and a few others remained, and several new residents arrived. Charles Krafft was key in organizing Skagit Valley artists' participation in the Northwest/New York exhibitions at the Bayard Gallery in Soho in 1980 - 81, although he himself had moved back to Seattle in 1980.[4]

In the mid-1980s the owners of the property, the Chamberlain family, began clear-cutting the land around Fishtown with an eye toward development. Residents and supporters used protest and legal action to try and stave off the logging trucks, culminating in a clash in which renowned artist Richard Gilkey and several others, including Shuksan Earth First!ers, were arrested by Skagit County sheriff's deputies. After this, in 1988, the area was extensively logged and most of the shacks, boardwalks, and cabins demolished.[16]

Legacy edit

The cabin built by Marty Chamberlain and John Bisbee still stands. It is occupied year round by a forest caretaker.

Retrospective exhibitions that have featured work by Fishtown artists include:

  • Skagit Valley Artists, 1974 - 1992 (Valley Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, 1992)[4]
  • You Can't Get There from Here, Art and Life on the Lower Skagit (KOBO Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2007)[17]
  • Fishtown and the Skagit River (Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, 2010)[6]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c 'Forty Years in Fishtown' Documentary Preview: version March 7, 2015; dir. Pat Ford; https://vimeo.com/121562250
  2. ^ Clemans, Gayle-"Review: the community of Fishtown is gone, but museum in La Conner conjures up its spirit", The Seattle Times, Sept. 9, 2010
  3. ^ Farr, Sheila: "Rekindling the spirit of Fishtown", The Seattle Times, Sept. 21,2007
  4. ^ a b c d Skagit Valley Artists, 1974-1992-exhibition guide; pub. Valley Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Washington, 1992
  5. ^ Skagit River Poetry Foundation; Meet Our Poster Artist: Maggie Wilder; http://www.skagitriverpoetry.org/2012-poster-artist/ 2016-02-22 at the Wayback Machine retvd 2 11 16
  6. ^ a b c Gurldoggie; Fishtown: interview w/ Hans Nelson,8 13 10; http://gurldogg.blogspot.com/2010/08/fishtown.html retvd 2 12 16
  7. ^ North Cascades Institute: Bo Miller; http://ncascades.org/discover/north-cascades-institute/instructors/bo-miller 2016-02-23 at the Wayback Machine retvd 2 12 16
  8. ^ Issitt, Micah L.- Hippies: A Guide to an American Subculture, Greenwood, 2009. ISBN 978-0313365720
  9. ^ HistoryLink.org Essay 5157; Ament, Deloris Tarzan-Anderson, Guy Anderson (1906-1998), Painter; http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5157 retvd 2 12 16
  10. ^ McGee, Mike, & Reid, Larry - Villa Delirium: The Art of Charles Krafft, Last Gasp, 2002. ISBN 978-0867195743
  11. ^ Long, Priscilla-"What Can Humans Do to Save the Pacific Northwest's Iconic Salmon? Smithsonian.com, Oct 2014; http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-can-humans-do-save-pacific-northwests-iconic-salmon-180952769/?no-ist retvd 2 15 16
  12. ^ Brown, Bruce: "North Fork Skagit River Reverie"; http://www.astonisher.com/archives/skagit_fishtown.html; retvd 3 2 16
  13. ^ a b Owens, Fred -Frog Hospital: A bit of Fishtown History, Jan.19, 2010; http://froghospital911.blogspot.com/2010/01/bit-of-fishtown-history.html retvd 2 14 16
  14. ^ Western Libraries Digital Collections: A broadside invitation to show of The Asparagus Moonlight Group; http://content.wwu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/fishtown/id/321 retvd 2 12 16
  15. ^ Macapia, Paul, & Woods, Willis F.: Skagit Valley artists-exhibition catalog, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Seattle Center, March 1-April 14, 1974; pub. Seattle Art Museum, 1974; ASIN B0006WUCMI
  16. ^ Owens, Fred -Frog Hospital: Everybody Liked the Fishtown Art Show Except Me;July 14, 2010; http://froghospital911.blogspot.com/2010/07/everybody-liked-fishtown-art-show.html retvd 2 15 16
  17. ^ You Can't Get There from Here: An Exhibition of the Art & Poetry of Fishtown & the Lower Skagit : Kobo at Higo, Seattle, Washington, September 2007-exhibition guide; Serif & Pixel Press, 2008

December 07, 2023
fishtown, colony, fishtown, informal, artists, community, housed, cluster, cabins, fishing, shacks, skagit, river, delta, skagit, county, washington, from, late, 1960s, 1980s, part, larger, skagit, valley, arts, community, centered, town, conner, rustic, isola. Fishtown was an informal artists community housed in a cluster of old cabins and fishing shacks on the Skagit River delta in Skagit County Washington USA from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s It was part of the larger Skagit Valley arts community centered on the town of La Conner but was rustic and isolated without electricity or plumbing and tended to attract younger and more eccentric artists It was home to several noted painters poets and sculptors Charles Krafft who went on to international attention and controversy as a ceramicist was for over ten years the self proclaimed Mayor of Fishtown 1 2 another longtime resident was Robert Sund who along with several other poets developed a recognizable Pacific Northwest style of poetry 3 Scholar painter and poet Paul Hansen who became a professor of Chinese languages and noted translator of early Chinese poetry lived in Fishtown for several years and best selling author Tom Robbins was a frequent visitor The Asparagus Moonlight Group exhibition flyer 1971 Photo Mary Randlett Source Fishtown Collection Western Libraries Heritage Resources Western Washington University Billing themselves as The Asparagus Moonlight Group the Fishtown artists held successful exhibitions of their work in Seattle in 1971 and 1974 4 These helped establish the commune as a countercultural mecca of the Pacific Northwest With changing lifestyles and increasing pressure from the land s owners the Fishtown artists community gradually dispersed beginning in the late 1970s In 1988 most of the original fishing shacks and the boardwalks that connected them were demolished amid protests by remaining residents and their supporters A few Fishtown artists such as painter Maggie Wilder and sculptor Bo Miller continue to live and work in the area 5 6 7 Boardwalk at Fishtown Photo Heidi Obzina David King 1978 79 Contents 1 Background 2 Beginnings 3 1970s heyday 4 Later years 5 Legacy 6 ReferencesBackground editA desire to live a more natural and simple lifestyle was an important aspect of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s this impulse lead to the creation of hundreds of new co operative communities in the United States These communes had a variety of different intents and structures ranging from carefully organized religious or agricultural communes to more relaxed artists colonies of which there was already a long history in the U S 8 In the Pacific Northwest there were a number of established artists living or working regularly in Washington s Skagit Valley about 60 mi north of Seattle an area where mist filtered sunlight brought soft illumination to river crossed farmland ringed by forested mountains marshes coastal tidelands and the expanse of Puget Sound This landscape had been an inspiration to artists of the internationally renowned Northwest School particularly Guy Anderson and Morris Graves Both had grown up nearby and lived in or near Skagit Valley at various times Anderson had permanently moved to the town of La Conner on the Swinomish Channel in 1959 9 Beginnings editCharles Krafft b 1948 was a young writer and artist from Seattle inspired by the poets Li Po and Gary Snyder and by the mystic artists of the Northwest School with whom he shared an interest in Buddhism and Asian art After travels in India and Europe and time amid San Francisco s counterculture Krafft returned to the Northwest He had earlier befriended Morris Graves and Guy Anderson and while visiting Anderson in La Conner became enamored of the Skagit Valley 10 In 1968 he joined sculptor Art Jorgenson as a settler of Fishtown the local name given to a group of fishing shacks connected by an elevated boardwalk near where the North Fork of the Skagit River empties into Puget Sound The shacks had fallen into disuse after declining salmon runs led to a ban on gill netting 11 The property s owner charged 10 a month in rent for each shack Soon other artists philosophers and eccentrics arrived Woodcarver and architect Bo Miller built a new shack and helped improve others as did brothers Hans and Eric Nelsen Krafft and poet scholar Paul Hansen decorated buildings with Buddhist script Recalled Hans Nelsen There were poets and sculptors and some truly great painters working mostly in ink and water based medium They were very influenced by Chinese and Japanese art and were studying Chinese poetry philosophy Buddhism People were meditating The setting looked like a Chinese landscape and it inspired people 6 1970s heyday editBy the early 1970s Fishtown had a steady flow of visitors and several year round residents with Krafft serving as the commune s self proclaimed mayor organizing basic logistics although as Bo Miller would later point out There was no control over anybody else s life out there We weren t looking for a father figure We weren t looking for someone to tell us what to do We knew each bloody well what we wanted to do We were strong personalities 1 A large storage shed boathouse with double doors was renamed the Temple and used for meetings meditation classes musical sessions and beer parties A group of abandoned cabins a short distance upriver gradually became part of the community 12 while further downriver poet Robert Sund built up his own shack which became a meeting place for the group of poets known as The Great Blue Heron Society at various times including Paul Hansen Glenn Turner Clifford Burke Tim McNulty Sam Hamill Finn Wilcox Steve Herold and others Though never more than a loose affiliation they developed a distinctively spare earthy style of Northwest poetry 13 In February 1971 a group show of works by Fishtown artists Alan Benditt F L Decker Arthur Jorgenson Charles Krafft Aurora Jellybean Virginia Shaw Eric and Hans Nelsen Tom Skinner and Robert Sund collectively known as The Asparagus Moonlight Group opened at the Second Storey Gallery in Seattle s Pioneer Square 14 In 1974 the Seattle Art Museum sponsored Skagit Valley Artists an exhibition featuring several Fishtown artists held at the Seattle Center 15 The success of these shows brought considerable attention to the artists of the Skagit River and nearby La Conner as did the surprise success in 1971 of the novel Another Roadside Attraction by local writer Tom Robbins 13 Wrote Charles Krafft in 1992 My memories of the period are ones of an extended celebration set against a backdrop of rustic simplicity and awesome natural beauty Weather permitting artists picnicked together explored the sloughs in leaky scows danced all night and even roller skated en masse regularly We recklessly traded beers and blatherskite books tools sweethearts and insults in the town taverns 4 Later years editIn the late 1970s changing lifestyles led to many Fishtown residents moving on some to new careers in other states some such as Bo Miller and Jo Jeffrey simply moving into homes with electricity and running water nearby 1 Art Jorgenson and a few others remained and several new residents arrived Charles Krafft was key in organizing Skagit Valley artists participation in the Northwest New York exhibitions at the Bayard Gallery in Soho in 1980 81 although he himself had moved back to Seattle in 1980 4 In the mid 1980s the owners of the property the Chamberlain family began clear cutting the land around Fishtown with an eye toward development Residents and supporters used protest and legal action to try and stave off the logging trucks culminating in a clash in which renowned artist Richard Gilkey and several others including Shuksan Earth First ers were arrested by Skagit County sheriff s deputies After this in 1988 the area was extensively logged and most of the shacks boardwalks and cabins demolished 16 Legacy editThe cabin built by Marty Chamberlain and John Bisbee still stands It is occupied year round by a forest caretaker Retrospective exhibitions that have featured work by Fishtown artists include Skagit Valley Artists 1974 1992 Valley Museum of Northwest Art La Conner WA 1992 4 You Can t Get There from Here Art and Life on the Lower Skagit KOBO Gallery Seattle WA 2007 17 Fishtown and the Skagit River Museum of Northwest Art La Conner WA 2010 6 References edit a b c Forty Years in Fishtown Documentary Preview version March 7 2015 dir Pat Ford https vimeo com 121562250 Clemans Gayle Review the community of Fishtown is gone but museum in La Conner conjures up its spirit The Seattle Times Sept 9 2010 Farr Sheila Rekindling the spirit of Fishtown The Seattle Times Sept 21 2007 a b c d Skagit Valley Artists 1974 1992 exhibition guide pub Valley Museum of Northwest Art La Conner Washington 1992 Skagit River Poetry Foundation Meet Our Poster Artist Maggie Wilder http www skagitriverpoetry org 2012 poster artist Archived 2016 02 22 at the Wayback Machine retvd 2 11 16 a b c Gurldoggie Fishtown interview w Hans Nelson 8 13 10 http gurldogg blogspot com 2010 08 fishtown html retvd 2 12 16 North Cascades Institute Bo Miller http ncascades org discover north cascades institute instructors bo miller Archived 2016 02 23 at the Wayback Machine retvd 2 12 16 Issitt Micah L Hippies A Guide to an American Subculture Greenwood 2009 ISBN 978 0313365720 HistoryLink org Essay 5157 Ament Deloris Tarzan Anderson Guy Anderson 1906 1998 Painter http www historylink org index cfm DisplayPage output cfm amp file id 5157 retvd 2 12 16 McGee Mike amp Reid Larry Villa Delirium The Art of Charles Krafft Last Gasp 2002 ISBN 978 0867195743 Long Priscilla What Can Humans Do to Save the Pacific Northwest s Iconic Salmon Smithsonian com Oct 2014 http www smithsonianmag com science nature what can humans do save pacific northwests iconic salmon 180952769 no ist retvd 2 15 16 Brown Bruce North Fork Skagit River Reverie http www astonisher com archives skagit fishtown html retvd 3 2 16 a b Owens Fred Frog Hospital A bit of Fishtown History Jan 19 2010 http froghospital911 blogspot com 2010 01 bit of fishtown history html retvd 2 14 16 Western Libraries Digital Collections A broadside invitation to show of The Asparagus Moonlight Group http content wwu edu cdm ref collection fishtown id 321 retvd 2 12 16 Macapia Paul amp Woods Willis F Skagit Valley artists exhibition catalog Seattle Art Museum Pavilion Seattle Center March 1 April 14 1974 pub Seattle Art Museum 1974 ASIN B0006WUCMI Owens Fred Frog Hospital Everybody Liked the Fishtown Art Show Except Me July 14 2010 http froghospital911 blogspot com 2010 07 everybody liked fishtown art show html retvd 2 15 16 You Can t Get There from Here An Exhibition of the Art amp Poetry of Fishtown amp the Lower Skagit Kobo at Higo Seattle Washington September 2007 exhibition guide Serif amp Pixel Press 2008 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Fishtown art colony amp oldid 1123376446, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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