Gallery walk is this week

    The Washington Chamber of Commerce has put together an art gallery walk which runs all this week. A number of businesses around the square are displaying artwork in their storefront windows that is from a local artist or photographer. Char Andersen is a former junior high school art teacher who is putting her painted clothing out for display at The Village on the west side of the square.

    Andersen paints T-shirts, sweatshirts and jackets with a recognizable object like a flower, and often she paints ?abstract? pictures on them.

    ?About 50 percent of what I do is abstract,? said Andersen. ?I also do some animals, flowers and whatever else anyone asks for. I do jewelry, too, but that?s about it.?

    She said she became interested in the activity during her career as an art teacher.

    ?I did some after-school programs with kids,? she said. ?We got into painted clothes and jewelry making. That?s how I got started in it. I showed them how to do it, so I thought that I better learn how to do it myself. It grew from there, and later I went to a few craft shows.?

    Andersen said that creating a design on an article of clothing is much more difficult than painting on a flat piece of paper.

    ?Painting on clothing is a whole new kind of thing to learn,? said Andersen. ?Over the last 20 years I?ve experimented with various kinds of paint to get the best quality that won?t wash off. Paint quality has improved immensely in the last 10 years. When I embellish something, I can be assured that it will last them a long time. Each painting is done by hand, so they are all a little different. No two are exactly alike.?

    Some of the other artists who will have their work on display around the square are Pam Bergo-Coffey, Donna Guy, Jackie Wells, Mike York, Tori Sueppel, Batterson Photography and the Washington Junior High students.

    Chamber of Commerce Assistant Director Ann Moore said this is by no means the first year the city has seen a gallery walk.

    ?It has been done every year for over 20 years,? said Moore. ?In the early 1980s, they started what was called ?Arts Fest.? The arts festival was a three- or four-day event at that time.?

For more, see our May 24 print edition.