Carrie Rodlened’s Art show, open house
Who: Sequim artist Carrie Rodlend
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 4
Where: 562 Holgerson Road, off Lotzgesell Road
Also: Art for sale of all prices, ample parking, light refreshments, close to Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge
After years of instructing art, Carrie Rodlend, 62, says her classes are much more than strictly about art.
“I sometimes call it spatial relationship class. You can’t see anything without the space around it,” she said.
Her students begin observing their environment, translating it and finally expressing it, she says.
“It’s about using (art) it in a slightly different way,” she said.
“(I want students) to know they can change things and own what they see instead of going verbatim with what they see.”
Rodlend practices what she preaches as she instructs each student or class attempting the same piece from realism to expressionism to an abstract work as they progress together.
Some of these works along with more professional pieces are available at her fifth annual studio show on Saturday, June 4, in her home studio, 562 Holgerson Road, off Lotzgesell Road.
Rodlend said she started the show to pay for a trip to study art in Paris, and then Amsterdam the next year, and London before practical things took precedence.
Her calendar is full through the school year as she teaches art lessons in Sequim’s Greywolf and Helen Haller Elementary schools, and Olympic Peninsula Academy.
Private funding from various sources such as parent groups help pay for her “Carrie Art” instruction so that each grade school classroom receives three classes a year. Lessons can be based on existing curriculum or classroom discussions of what interests the students.
She also has a large repertoire of instructions she pulls from.
“With fifth grade, I want to give them a nice rounded basket of tools (before middle school),” she said.
Rodlend began teaching in the schools after moving to the area in 1982.
Well-rounded
Rodlend, born and raised in England, recalls discovering her love for art with help from her great-uncle Dennis Proctor, former curator of the Tate Gallery.
“He encouraged me to go to London and see the galleries,” she said.
“I’d spend hours at the galleries studying. That’s what I do in Europe, visit archival libraries, so you can look up any drawing you want. It was like a kid in a candy store for me.”
In Sequim, she found her livelihood on the Olympic Peninsula in private lessons with children and adults along with the public school instruction. Some of her students have been with her for years working, as mentioned, in different styles and mediums.
While Rodlend says art is a big part of her life, it’s only a part of what defines her.
“My life is so much more,” she said. “I am a painter, but I also love to ride my horse, hiking in the mountains, I love to go camping in the desert and I love playing music.”
Rodlend is one of the founders of Sequimarimba, which practices every Friday at her place.
Her rigorous schedule of 12-plus hour days in the school year and hosting this show gives her the luxury of exploring her other interests more in the summer and reset her palette.
With so much time devoted to instruction, Rodlend says she hasn’t spread the word about her work much. She’s appeared in multiple galleries in the Northwest but not for several years.
“To me this (home studio show) is much more joyful, much more casual,” Rodlend said. “I don’t feel the pressure.”
Rodlend says she tries to make her show affordable and accessible for all kinds of people even though she finds there are quite a few diehards who come annually.
She also moved the show to a Saturday so people of all ages could come. Some of the pieces include her once-a-week paintings, art working with students, cards, sketches and more.
Her landscape-work is all local, she says, such as walking by Jamestown Beach or Nash’s orchards.
“Open House” by Carrie Rodlend
