AOT Testimonials

TESTIMONIALS AND ARTICLES

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Subject: Art on the Town

My name is Dan Klennert, I am the artist who created the "Seahorse" that is in the Art On The Town permanent collection. I have a sculpture park up here just before the west entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. I get thousands of visitors throughout the summer and every summer I have visitors who mention that they enjoyed my seahorse and Art on the Town of Port Angeles.

In September of this year, I was invited to participate in an art program designed after yours in the town of Longview WA. I was invited because they saw my seahorse in your program. I would hate to see a great program such as Art on the Town disappear because it is a great venue for artist such as myself. I would also like to take this oportunity to thank Art on the Town for their support in my art career and for giving me a place to showcase and share my art.

Dan Klennert
Recycled Spirits of Iron
www.danielklennert.com
youtube video, Recycled Spirits of Iron

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I believe an outdoor art gallery, be it statues on streets or murals on building walls, it provides an ambience and insight of the community and dispels any notion that PA is just another hayseed town at the end of an abandoned rail route. In my opinion Port Angeles is reinventing itself as the once abundant resources dwindle and what a way to do it! The sense of community involvement is very strong as Richard's "colour commentary" amply displays.

The Art Tour is far more than an art tour. It is also steeped in the history of the City and I came to see more than "what was but what is." The murals transport the observer from the past to the present and perhaps, too, a glimpse of the what may be. We were brought into shops where we saw the beautiful creations that "locals" are doing. We saw the end results of craftspeople creating intricate things. It is refreshing to buy something not stamped "made in China." We left with the fact that the city is well represented with creative people whose craft is often "cutting edge."

We also went into shops where we were welcomed and given a sense of the warmth of the people of Port Angeles.

So the Art Tour gave us a snapshot of the drive, durability and devotion of the people to the town in which they live and love. It was a snippet of a love story that warmed my heart.

I have done the tour several times and I often retrace part of the tour on my own and go back to view some of the work again. {My favourite was the "Gandy Dancer.") Every time I do the tour I come away with a greater knowledge of the community as well as a greater sense of the character of the area.

It's a wonderful accomplishment.

Carma

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September, 2009

To Bob Stokes and the Art on the town Committee,

It was my pleasure on Sept. 1st. of this year to find, during our brief visit in Port Angeles, your wonderful program to enrich the community and visitor alike with art that speaks directly to the human experience. I was very impressed with the high quality of these works as well as how well they were presented so as to interact with the passerby.

I am a retired psychologist who specialized in our interaction with the physical environment. Public art has a long history and often becomes one of the defining elements of civilization and how we identify a place. You have my congratulations in having the wisdom and means to carry out your program. Your collaboration with the community of artist, as represented here by Bob Stokes' thoughtful and beautifully designed sculptures, certainly enriches the town and recognizes the value of artist as major contributors to the quality of life in Port Angeles.

I am an amateur photographer. These photos are a result of being in Port Angeles only for a couple of hours before traveling on the Olympic National Park. Driving by my eye caught sight of the sculptures and I had to stop and take some pictures. Their impact has stayed with me and enhanced my time in Port Angeles. Having you, Bob, engage me in conversation about the your art and the town's program made my experience even more special.

Sincerely,

Ron P., Ph.D.

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Congratulations to Us!

This excerpt appears in the August, 2006, issue of Sea magazine. It tells us that our hard work is paying off!

“Downtown Port Angeles is within walking distance from either marina…. In town, you’ll find interesting clothing, outdoors and sporting goods shops, bookstores, boutiques and art galleries. We enjoy exploring “PA’s” downtown streets, with their hanging baskets and boxes overflowing with flowers. Some of the town’s vintage buildings have been restored and painted with colorful murals depicting Port Angeles’ history. Sculptures, some with a nautical theme, can be found here and there. When you get hungry, you won’t have any trouble finding a restaurant to suite your taste—” AND

These are excerpts from the 6-page center section of the July, 2007 issue of the magazine Nor’westing. “Shopping is a memorable experience in old town Port Angeles. We found tattoo parlors, bookstores, artist supply shops, a movie theater, a shop selling fly tying materials, second-hand stores, a community department store, and a host of other unique shopping experiences. Anybody willing to admit to being as old as I am will remember a TV commercial from the 1950s, and know that “half the fun of having feet is Red Goose Shoes!”… I wasn’t aware that Red Goose shoes were still in production, until I noticed the freshly painted or restored Red Goose on the wall of a shoe store in downtown Port Angeles… Public art is absolutely everywhere. It’s nearly impossible to walk half a block through the old town district without encountering sculptures and murals depicting the natural environment of history of Port Angeles. Perhaps at the end of an afternoon in Port Angeles, climb the steep stairway between First and Second streets, just above the mural depicting the Olympic Mountains. You will find yourself atop a cliff, and standing where generations of settlers and Natives have undoubtedly stood in the past to behold Port Angeles Harbor. The sun may pry the clouds apart long enough to slant in over your shoulder and energize the stars and stripes of Old Glory, snapping at the town flagpole below. You will see spread out before you a rare sight in this day and age: a genuine place with an independent identity. Established by hardscrabble loggers, expanded by idealistic socialists, and populated today by industrious people who may not bother to precisely define where the sea ends and the town begins, or the exact margin of the forests beyond. You will need to puzzle for yourself whether the utopian dream died out entirely here, or whether there are vestiges remnant in the pragmatism, the optimism, and the cheerful adaptability of her residents.”