{"id":5100,"date":"2022-02-07T10:26:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T18:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/?p=5100"},"modified":"2022-02-08T12:14:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:14:01","slug":"a-convergence-of-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/a-convergence-of-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"A Convergence of Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Kate Poss
\nPhotos by David Welton<\/h6>\n

Note:\u00a0 This story first appeared in \"This is Whidbey\" and is reproduced with permission.\u00a0 You can read the original story on that website here...<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Among Langley\u2019s most creative approaches to down time during the pandemic is the transformed vibrant wall of the former middle school wood shop.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201dWe thought it would be fun to brighten up the wall, which like many at the old school, was peeling paint and sort of a Soviet-era brown,\u201d said Joe Whisenand, who, with his wife Mary Lou Whisenand, run the Learning Lab at Langley under the umbrella of the\u00a0<\/span>Living Design Foundation.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Non-profit staff, guests and volunteers taught skills in woodcraft, gardening and cooking until the pandemic shut the classes down. The couple plans to re-open to the public in January 2022, subject to state Covid regulations.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Image\"<\/span>
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Sharing a moment out by the diver, Joe and Mary Lou Whisenand and their dog Lily.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>

Meanwhile, with the help of volunteers, the shop and kitchen re-opened for middle school students this autumn, who are augmenting their industrial arts skills in cooking and wood shop.<\/span>The couple imagined refreshing the look of the campus\u2019 old buildings and neglected grounds would improve visitors\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parking lot gets full of parents parking for the children\u2019s and dance theaters,\u201d Joe added. \u201cIn lieu of giving public classes, we began making improvements to the area. We built picnic tables, installed planters, added (whimsical wooden) flowers to the garden shed. We pruned the old elm tree and shrubs, and took out trailers full of limbs and bushes. We thought the wall was a good place to add art.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

<\/hr>
\"Don is Mister Volunteer\"<\/em><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>
<\/hr>

The community center, facilitated by\u00a0<\/span>Gail LaVassar,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/a>executive director of Readiness to Learn, is a re-imagined use of the Langley Middle School, sections of which are nearly a hundred years\u2019 old. The center hosts non-profits and businesses which promote education and well-being, including the\u00a0<\/span>Whidbey Children\u2019s Theatre,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Whidbey Island Dance Theatre.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Taking a look at the blank canvas of the shop building, Joe brainstormed with endearing veteran wood crafter Don Bundy, who taught carving classes to adults and students at the Learning Lab\u2019s wood shop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon is Mister Volunteer,\u201d Joe added. \u201cNever asked for a penny. Happily retired. He taught two to three times a week.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Image\"<\/span>
\n
Jill Clark, a friend of the Joe and Mary Lou Whisenand, donated this fanciful ceramic fish. Siobhan Wright painted the sea anemone and bubbles.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"Image\"<\/span>
\n
Artist Siobhan Wright imagined this mural and directed Joe Whisenand to paint the background color in gradients while Siobhan added the painted details and the community decorated pre-cut fish<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The friends imagined painting the wall beneath a bank of windows and decorating it with fanciful fish.<\/p>\n

Precutting wooden blank fish forms, the men invited family and friends to decorate them. Joe then sealed them with weatherproof resin and fixed them to hog wire fencing along the wall.<\/p>\n

What happened next was a convergence of talent that took a flaking, boring, beige facade at the South Whidbey Community Center<\/span><\/a> to a vibrant gallery wall of color featuring more than six dozen whimsical fish.The Learning Lab wall now brings a sense of joie de vivres <\/i>to visitors. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We approached this project knowing Langley has a lot of talent,” Joe added. “As the fish started going up, people noticed. Soon word got around. Artists like Kéké Cribbs,<\/span><\/a> Ron Adams,<\/span><\/a> and his wife Nancy Loorem Adams<\/span><\/a> added fish. Nancy took one of the blanks, an angelfish, to Siobhan Wright.”<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Image\"<\/span>
\n
Wood crafters Joe Whisenand and his friend Don Bundy precut fish and asked their friends to decorate them. They art adorns the shop wall of the Learning Lab, part of the Living Design Foundation at the South Whidbey Community Center<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"Image\"<\/span>
\n
Joe and Mary Lou Whisenand, and their dog Lily, in front of a seascape mural designed and painted by Siobhan Wright on a classroom run by the couples’ non-profit, Living Design Foundation. The couple run the Learning Lab, which include teaching everyday living skills to high school and middle school students.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

With the arrival of Siobhan\u2019s art, the wall took on a new perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiobhan shows up and imagines a moon on one side and sun on other,\u201d Joe added. \u201cStars to come. She had the vision, which exploded the limited idea to be the entire wall. Gradations of color were her direction. Siobhan gets the credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the wall merges from a deep blue to lighter blue to yellow-pink and light blue along the overhang. Siobhan, who painted the popular butterfly wings photo op board nearby the former Dog House on First Street, let her imagination for the shop wall flow into a full-on mural with a smiling sun on one end of the building and a whimsical half moon on the other.<\/p><\/div>

<\/hr>
\"[Nancy] gave me a blank fish\"<\/em><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>
<\/hr>

They are joined by an octopus, sea anemones, a Great White shark, and a perplexed mustachioed man in an old-timey diver\u2019s suit.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Nancy] gave me a blank fish,\u201d Siobhan wrote in an email. \u201cI painted it and Joe and Mary Lou liked the whimsical style. They asked if I would paint the background for the fish.\u00a0It blew up from there. It gave me a nice art project to do for summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community development in partnership with their realtor\/development business formed the foundation of Whisenands\u2019 professional experience for 30 years when they lived in Greeley, Colorado.They founded the Living Design Foundation there, teaching real life skills to at-risk youth.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

\"Image\"<\/span>
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A whimsical sun shines down on a giant octopus, created by artist Siobhan Wright for the classroom wall belonging to the Learning Lab, part of the Living Design Foundation at the South Whidbey Community Center.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Image\"<\/span>
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Artist Siobhan Wright, painted this fanciful octopus which adorns the wall
of a wood working studio at the Learning Lab at the South Whidbey Community Center<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

When it was too hot during Greeley summers, they traveled to the San Juan Islands and the Olympic Peninsula to cool off. Seattle friends suggested they visit Whidbey Island for a romantic get away at the\u00a0<\/span>Inn at Langley.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/a>They fell for the place. Fate would later lead the couple to move to our village by the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in land development, and read\u00a0<\/span>The Not So Big House,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Joe added. \u201cWe learned about\u00a0<\/span>Ross Chapin\u2019s Third Place Cottages<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and thought this is a wonderful place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple bought a home in Langley and continued traveling back and forth for work in Colorado. They were in the midst of working with the Living Design Foundation in Colorado when they learned of the middle school\u2019s conversion to a community center during the summer of 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said this has everything we want to teach,\u201d Joe said. \u201cIt was serendipitous. Once you have the facility and plant, it serves as a platform for anyone who wants to teach.The Learning Lab is a platform for the community to transfer knowledge from the older experienced people, to the younger ones. That\u2019s the first part of it.\u00a0 The other part is\u00a0 \u2018programming\u2019 utilizing that platform, one of which is \u201cLiving by Design\u201d for High School and Middle School students developed by Joe and Mary Lou.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe Learning Lab also serves to help connect downtown Langley, the Community Center, and the\u00a0<\/span>fairgrounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/a>The idea of connecting those with a public through way invites people to visit all three and enjoy art while they do that. I think we\u2019ve helped with that.\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Image\"<\/span>
Artist Nancy Looram used Starbucks Coffee gift cards to make scales for this decorative fish<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Now the wall is home to fish made by a spectrum of artists aged 8 to 88. The community is invited to create a fish to add to the school. Donations to the Living Design Foundation are appreciated. Joe envisions the art to be rotating; perhaps senior high school students could create fish for a future \u2018gallery\u2019 that would fund an end-of-year-trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this place is ripe for ideas,\u201d Joe said. \u201cAll will be welcome.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Image\"<\/span>
\n
\n
\n
A so-called Manfish, a carving by Don Bundy<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Poss Photos by David Welton Note:\u00a0 This story first appeared in “This is Whidbey” and is reproduced with permission.\u00a0 You can read the original story on that website here…Among Langley\u2019s most creative approaches to down time during the pandemic is the transformed vibrant wall of the former middle school wood shop. \u201c\u201dWe thought it would be fun to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5100"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5129,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions\/5129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}