A house of young women artists in the York
neighborhood has opened its doors to the Bellingham art community.
Jess King and her three roommates have
turned their house into an art gallery/ studio space for local artists use. King
and her roommates spend a lot of time in their living room doing art. “Me and
my friends get more inspired when more artists are around,” King said. “We
always are doing art, and we thought, let’s do something.”
The last Friday of every month, King’s
house throws an art exhibit in their house. The exhibit is a mix between an art
gallery showing and a low-key party. Along with their artwork, friends and
local artist’s work is on display in their living room and basement. The art is
for sale. “I want to help local Bellingham artists grow and connect with other
creative people.” King must first see a sample of an artists work for them to potentially
have a piece in the exhibit.
Twenty three-year-old King and her
roommates are committed artists, each paints at least a couple hours every day.
Each has their own area of expertise, but all experiment with different types
of art. The young women’s lives are as different as their painting styles, an
art student, a nanny, a body piercer and a waitress. Although each leads
different lives in the day, the women are strongly connected through art during
their free time. They all have decorated their skin with vividly colorful
tattoos and each work to support their artistic endeavors. Jax Schwartz and
King aspire to be traveling artists one day.
The house is dedicated to helping women
around the world. Donation jars are put out at each exhibit with the proceeds going
to help women in Africa get small business loans and also to local women’s
shelters. They call their house “The Womb.”
“I
want our house to be a comfortable place where people can get away from their
normal world and join ours,” Jax Schwartz said. Walk into “The Womb” on an
average weekday night and you will find two or three people listening to loud
classic rock, painting on the living room carpet. So far, word of mouth and social
networking has been the houses sole way of recruiting interested artists. “ I
am sort of an artist but (it’s) more like a hobby,” Cailen McDevitt Said. “ I
saw Jess painting at the farmers market and she gave me an open invitation to
her house to paint or do whatever I wanted.” McDevitt took King up on her offer
and paints at the Womb often. The next step for King is to create a website for
the house, but she is quick to admit her computer skills are not up to par.
Although King wants the house’s art
community to grow, she and her roommates have learned that giving out an
address to a house full of women creates unwanted attention. So while King is
working on spreading the word of mouth about her house, she does not want just
anybody to stop in whenever they feel like it. This means King and her
roommates want to have some sort of networking connection to whoever comes to
the house.
The Womb joins the ranks of similar
public art houses like it in Bellingham. Downtown studios like Jinx Art Space
and Bellingham Art Tank are also studios available to local artists for free.
Galleries, restaurants and boutiques also feature local artwork every month
during the Bellingham Art Walk.
Among
other local jobs, King puts on a gallery show at the downtown club, Glow, every
last Tuesday of the month. King was offered the job after a friend of hers who is
a D.J. at the club recommended her to the manager.
Future plans for the house includes transforming
their basement into a spray paint studio and building a community garden. King
and Schwartz also have hopes of travelling to New Orleans to soak up some
culture someday soon.
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