Submitted By: Occasions Catering
Occasions Catering is fortunate to have several very artistic people working for us, not only in the kitchen, but in other departments. At this spring’s Olympia Arts Walk we are sharing two of them with all of Olympia. They will be at the Heritage Room, located at 604 Water Street, at the corner of Legion and Water Street.
Rachel Pavek has been with Occasions for a few years, starting as a server and working her way up to Facilities Manager. While she says she has never made a conscious decision to make art. Her journey began in high school where she competed through several exhibitions. In college her major was photography and her best experience in art exhibition came through her thesis show. Featuring a pinhole camera she made and eventually produced 30 by 40 inch color prints.
Pavek’s piece for Arts Walk is a walk through the history of Earth. She typically works with acrylic paints which she has done with this piece. The inspiration for this piece came after a trip to the Natural History Museum. She was intrigued by the relative infancy of written history and evolution in general. While humans have been the dominant species for nearly 2 million years in relations to earth’s history of 4.6 billion years, we humans are in our primordial stage. Her favorite part of this very large piece is the final panel, in her words, “it illustrates many cataclysmic events that occurred within the last 800 million years.” It sounds intriguing, and definitely a piece not to be missed.
Rachi Hartman is new to Occasions this year, also working in facilities. Her art takes on a completely different genre. It took her several years to finally think of herself as an artist and didn’t happen until about four years ago. Hartman believes that a true artist uses their medium to challenge the public’s opinion regarding commonly accepted boundaries.
Hartman finds her inspiration in “everything”; textures, light, line, shapes, and color combinations She is also passionate about global Political issues; Human and Women’s Rights, LGBTQ issues, racial inequality, and the negative impact that large-scale industry has on the environment and that passion comes out in her art.
Hartman is technically a Fiber Artist but with a broad definition of what fiber is. She incorporates found or upcycled/repurposed materials of aluminum cans, wool, leather, polyethylene, upholstery, wire acrylic paint, etc. into her pieces. You will be surprised at the objects used in some of her pieces.
Josh’s Junction will be the audio feature of the night. It is a band featuring acoustic musicians from the Olympia area. Jim Miernyk, who organizes shows and jam sessions in town, gathers friends to play together and thus, Josh’s Junction is a different group each time they play. The name is a tribute to dobro pioneer Josh Graves who helped to popularize that instrument. For the Heritage Room performance the groups will consist of Lob Strilla on banjo, Jesse Partridge on fiddle, Miles Nowlin on guitar, Miernyk on dobro and Joan Smith on bass.
So head down to the Heritage Room and enjoy Art for both the eyes and ears. Spend a little time taking in the talents of Pavick and Hartman then sit and listen to Josh’s Junction while you enjoy a cup of coffee.
