For immediate release 5/7/19

North Bend, WA – The Encompass Take a Seat for Kids Project is back for a third year in a row. Beginning May 11, seven pairs of chairs will be on display at local businesses in the Snoqualmie Valley: Birches Habitat, Carnation Café, Duvall Visitor Center, Heirloom Cookshop, Rio Bravo, Safeway on the Ridge, and Salish Lodge & Spa. All the chairs are for sale through May 31 via online bidding as a fundraiser for Encompass programs.

Artists Ricardo Espinoza, Mary Grigg-Colter, Carly Koczarski, Lady Kagura, Maddy Mangra, Rileigh Shelton, and Candice Slabbert each donated their time and materials to transforming plain Adirondack chairs, generously donated by Ace Hardware of North Bend, into functional pieces of art. All the chairs have been weatherproofed and would make one-of-a-kind additions to a porch or backyard.

Espinoza’s chairs sparkle with iridescent paint atop a vivid blue background, evoking the milky way with splotches and clusters. Grigg-Colter transports the viewer to a northern land with her vision of the aurora borealis over a snowy arctic scene. Koczarski’s chairs have a playful bee theme, using the geometric beauty of the honeycomb in combination with detailed figurative depictions of bees and the flowers that they seek. Lady Kagura’s chairs are striking in their simplicity, drawing out the natural beauty of the wood through creative use of stain. The bright colors and bold design of Mangra’s chairs evoke Native American visual themes with a sun rising and setting over the mountains. Shelton uses wood of the chairs as a canvas for her exquisitely detailed portraits of an elk and a bear and vegetation native to the Pacific Northwest. Slabbert flawlessly executes pointillistic mandala designs in dazzling color palettes, accenting the natural wood with an overall burned texture.

Visit the Take a Seat for Kids Project page on our website to learn more about the project and to bid on these chairs May 11-May 31, 2019!

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