A7 • Friday, February 22, 2019 | Cannon Beach Gazette | CannonBeachGazette.com
Writers to read essays and poems
about life on the North Coast
Life on the North Coast
will be the topic of essays
and poems read by local
writers during the Writers
Read Celebration March
1 in the Cannon Beach
Library. The event begins
at 7 p.m.
The 10 writers’ resi-
dences range from Gray’s
River on the Washington
coast to Nehalem in Ore-
gon. Their pieces were
selected from among
49 entries by a panel of
library volunteers, a book-
store representative and a
professional writer.
Many of the iconic
experiences special to
the North Coast are con-
tained in the selections to
be read.
From
November
through January, the Can-
non Beach Library asked
local residents and visitors
to submit entries about life
on the North Coast to be
read at the Writers Read
event. The pieces were
to be no longer than 600
words. The panel making
the selections read the sub-
missions without knowing
who the authors were.
Entries — both those
that will be read March
1 and others submitted –
will be compiled in a per-
manent collection at the
library.
Katherine Lacaze/For Cannon Beach Gazette
Jim Kingwell helps Suzanne Kindland form a piece of glass work at their studio at Icefi re Glassworks in Cannon Beach.
Glass: An elegant marriage of artistry and alchemy
Continued from Page A1
confi ned to a single civili-
zation. The technique was
invented by Syrian crafts-
men around the fi rst century,
B.C. The technique was fur-
ther developed during the
Roman Empire, with Phoe-
nicians setting up work-
shops in modern-day Leb-
anon, Israel and Palestine,
and throughout the Middle
Ages, the Renaissance, and
the Art Nouveau period.
During those eras, peo-
ple created work on a smaller
scale, with limited output.
The Industrial Revolution
changed that, Kingwell said.
While the revolution helped
increase productivity, it put
an economic strain on crafts-
men in all fi elds, includ-
ing glassworking, and much
individuality was lost in the
process.
“The start-to-fi nish work
of one pair of hands and
associated knowledge was
devalued by factory produc-
tion,” Kingwell said.
In a sort of empowering
deconstruction of the fac-
tory process, Kingwell and
the other artists whose work
is displayed at Icefi re cre-
ate their art from start to fi n-
ish. They design pieces that
are original and cannot be
duplicated, even by the art-
ist themselves. The alterna-
tive, Kingwell believes, is
accepting limitations and
accomplishing
something
that could have been done by
a machine.
“No two of our clients are
alike,” he said. “I see no rea-
son who two pieces of glass
should be.”
Kingwell himself has
created at least 150 differ-
ent formulas for clear glass,
each with a different advan-
tage to make it more suit-
able for a particular purpose.
In general, however, he said,
“there’s effectively an unlim-
ited number of potential
glasses.”
tate his work and, rather,
developing his “own rela-
tionship with the arts.”
Initially, he was enthralled
with pottery, an interest
sparked by an art historian
at Willamette University in
Salem. Kingwell then trans-
ferred to Portland State Uni-
versity to study ceramics.
Not wanting to contort his
pottery work by turning it
into his source of fi nancial
security, he devised a plan to
work instead with glass for
fi ve years. He then intended
to do steelwork for fi ve years
and woodworking after.
Now, a few decades later, he
said, “I just haven’t fi nished
that fi rst fi ve-year program.”
Self-identifi cation,
discovery
Icefi re Glassworks houses
the studio used primarily by
Kingwell and glass artist
Suzanne Kindland. However,
the establishment also dou-
bles as a gallery for exhibit-
ing and selling the creations
of serious artisans that work
with a demanding, even
risky, medium. The artists on
display, who have individ-
ual skill sets and techniques,
include Michelle Kaptur,
Mark Gordon, Pamela Juett,
One of Kingwell’s pri-
mary motivations as an art-
ist is self-identifying. He
believes all humans innately
possess artistic characteris-
tics: the drive to connect with
basic elements, to create an
item of worth, to express a
facet of oneself.
Kingwell himself knows
well the effort of not allow-
ing market pressures to dic-
Galleries and
their purpose
Robert Tamis, Steve Krig,
and Kathleen Sheard.
Kingwell believes the role
of galleries in the modern
marketplace is to provide an
“interface between an artist’s
individual expression and the
general public.”
“We become a catalyst for
building relationships,” he
said.
Many people surround
themselves with material
items that are there by default,
rather than being selective
and choosing only items that
give their life meaning and
joy. Art is an exception. Peo-
ple develop an intuitive con-
nection to a creation that has
meaning within the context
of their individual life and
hunt for self-worth, Kingwell
said. Galleries provide a con-
nection point for individuals
to fi nd artwork they respond
to and value.
Kingwell also feels gal-
lery owners have a respon-
sibility to help educate cus-
tomers, particularly about the
criteria for judging a piece
of glass work, as they often
feel insecure dealing with an
unfamiliar medium.
“They walk in here and
discover things they didn’t
know,” he said.
Council: City will no longer pay for visitor center
Continued from Page A1
But the new arrangement
comes with a degree of risk.
In a good year, the chamber
could possibly receive much
more money in lodging tax
than the city could provide
from the general fund to run
the visitor center. In a bad
year, there will be no gen-
eral fund money to help.
“It was a long process,
and like any negotiation,
nobody’s super thrilled
about the result … but every-
one’s reached the result that
works for both parties,” Jim
Paino, the chamber’s exec-
utive director, said at last
week’s City Council meet-
ing. “We’re happy with it,
the board’s happy with it,
and we’re excited to get to
work.”
The change, which came
after more than nine months
of negotiation, is driven in
part by the city’s desire to
minimize transfers out of
the general fund. Years of
heavily subsidizing other
city funds like public works,
which has projects that can’t
be covered by water rate rev-
enues, has caused concern
that the general fund balance
will continue to decrease
over time, City Manager
Bruce St. Denis has said.
But it also comes from
the city’s desire to have
The Daily Astorian
The visitor information center in Cannon Beach.
more oversight. Part of the
contract requires the cham-
ber to meet with the city
quarterly to explain what
has been done and what they
plan to do with the market-
ing program.
Some on the City Coun-
cil have taken issue with a
perceived lack of commu-
nication about certain proj-
ects — most notably the
branding guide released last
year, which included a city
logo that drew some local
criticism. If the council and
chamber can’t come to an
agreement, the council can
terminate the contract within
90 days.
“It puts council and city
in a better position to know-
ing what’s going on,” St.
Denis said.
Some on the council,
however, felt the contract
didn’t do enough to ensure a
reserve fund would be estab-
lished in the event the cham-
ber receives more in lodging
taxes than anticipated in a
given year.
“If the program gets
wildly successful and those
amounts get so large you
can’t utilize those funds for
promotion, I’d like to see
those funds go into a reserve
for a rainy day when we
don’t collect as much,” City
Councilor Mike Benefi eld
said.
Part of what prompted
the city to look at the cham-
ber’s contract was the
desire to fi nd ways to save
some lodging tax dollars
to be used during an eco-
nomic downturn or for
other tourism facility-re-
lated projects.
“So when we get pre-
sented with an opportunity,
like buying the elementary
school, we won’t have the
money to do that because
we won’t have that reserve
fund,”
City
Councilor
Nancy McCarthy said. “Yes,
we’ll have a little more in
our general fund … but we
still won’t have a reserve
fund for some other things
we’d like to do that has to do
with tourism.”
St. Denis said he believes
the quarterly meetings will
help resolve any issues the
council may have in the
future.
“I think there are bene-
fi ts to both sides,” he said.
“And even though it’s been
a long and spirited negoti-
ation, I think the contract
gets us into a better position
than what we’ve been in the
past.”
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