Northwest Art Alliance Partnership with PCC Community Markets
Our partnership between Northwest Art Alliance (NWAA) and PCC Community Markets gives artists an opportunity to display and sell their artwork at several local PCC locations. This is another way NWAA works to connect the power of art to the community. We invite you to visit these exhibits at participating PCC Community markets.
ONLY Artists that have been accepted to NWAA (Best of the Northwest) Shows in the past can apply to display at the PCC Community Markets. If you are interested in exhibiting in the PCC Market, contact us.
The display typically hangs approximately 6 months in the assigned store. No rental fee or commission will be charged to the artist. Artists are responsible for their own sales.
PCC Community Markets is a triple-bottom-line food cooperative with over 118,000 active member-owners. Founded in the Seattle region 1953, PCC now operates 15 stores in the Puget Sound area, including the cities of Bellevue, Bothell, Burien, Edmonds, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond and Seattle. The Seattle stores are in the neighborhoods of Ballard, Central District, Columbia City, Fremont, Greenlake, View Ridge and West Seattle. The co-op also plans to open a new store in Madison Valley. Find the store near you HERE
Alyson Storms, a contemporary abstract mixed media artist residing and practicing in Seattle, WA, draws inspiration from her West Coast roots to create vibrant depictions of nature. Her unique artistic style captivates viewers with its distinctiveness, offering interpretations ranging from topographical representations of the Earth to underwater perspectives and landscapes of distant horizons. Infused with contrasting and harmonious colors, as well as bold compositions, her artworks come alive.
Explaining her creative process, Alyson expresses her intention to draw attention to aspects of the natural world while inviting viewers to embark on a visual journey with each piece. Her artistic journey began in childhood, where she seized any available object or surface for coloring or painting. From a young age, she embraced the belief that one can shape the world they envision in their mind through art to inspire others towards positive change.
Alyson's work is deeply influenced by humanity's impact on ecosystems, particularly focusing on the profound effects of climate change in the Pacific Northwest. Each artwork tells a unique story, employing a diverse range of mediums and incorporating materials sourced from nature. Notably, she has utilized tree ash from wildfires like the Bolt Creek Fire (2022) and the August Complex Fire (2020), along with water from the Puget Sound during the 2021 heatwave. Nature remains a central theme in her art, aiming to foster positive engagement and encourage awareness to translate into action.
The prevailing theme in her current collection revolves around the response to rising temperatures and extreme weather, highlighting the profound impacts on ecosystems and communities in the Pacific Northwest. Alyson sees climate change as an uncharted journey necessitating adaptation and resilience. Amidst upheaval, she explores how individuals, plants, and animals navigate unfamiliar territories, emphasizing the need to learn from global changes to restore and move forward. Her artwork poses the question: How can society cultivate resilience and agency in response to the climate crisis?
Alyson Storms earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boise State University in 2010 and has actively showcased her art in galleries, fine art festivals, and public spaces. Her works have been exhibited in various locations, including Washington, California, Idaho, Ohio, and Oregon. Some of her pieces have found a permanent home in places such as the Marriott in Agoura, CA, The City Of Seattle’s collection, the Swedish Women’s Wellness Services Center in Seattle, Auburn City Hall, Seattle Neuropsychiatric Treatment Center, University Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Center, and Private Companies in Denver, CO. Visit Alyson’s website
For my paintings I use acrylic paint, modeling paste, and a few different brushes sizes. I usually draw the lines with a pencil on the canvas first. The choice of colors is a very thoughtful process in my compositions, I might change one or two while I am working but they are previously planned and tested. With a dry brush I apply the paint, two or three layers for each color of my composition to make it strong and bold. The curves and edges are meticulously painted to achieve a perfect line where the colors meet each other. For its final effect, I use a special splattering technique I developed to apply the dots uniformly, creating a subtle “terrazzo” look.
My colors are bold and strong. Besides being influenced by music, I also find inspiration in the shapes I see in nature, animals, and architecture. Where I think my work stands out is in my unique way to play with the lines where they dance with freedom and infinity creating sounds and rhythms through my paint brushes. A very interesting detail about my creations is that I have the ability to hide figures, whether they are related to music or animals in a more abstract and geometric way. More art by Diego here
As a young child, I learned to draw from my mother who was an artist and teacher of Sumi painting. Like my mother, I would carry my sketchbook everywhere I went. I decided to pursue the arts and earned degrees in both Fine Art and Graphic Design.
After college, I spent summers as a back country ranger at Mount Rainier National Park where I created botanical illustrations for brochures. My next adventure led me to spend a year living in Paris where I discovered the technique of painting on silk. Along with Art, I became interested in health and well-being. This led me to become certified as both a Counselor and Wellness Coach. In my business, Becoming Lighter, I use mindfulness and hypnotherapy to guide women to release the burden of heavy emotions and develop a friendly partnership with their bodies.This encourages the process of “becoming lighter” on all levels; mind, spirit and body. Currently, my new artwork combines my love for painting with silk dyes with my passion to inspire healthy eating. My mission is to open up a joyful relationship to both food and our bodies. Shop from Robin here
Over the years, I have produced award-winning images for many commercial industries worldwide. Through my commercially driven artwork, I’ve come to recognize that each of us needs to rediscover that all-important sense of our lighter side.
Today, choosing to move beyond my successful commercial career, I work for the joy it brings to both me and others. Working with traditional watercolor painting and contemporary media, my goal is to produce works of art described as fearlessly authentic, whimsical, and sophisticated. As a Northwest-based artist, I use my skills to reignite a joyful spark in each of us.
I have always been inspired by mid-century commercial illustrators. Today it’s hard to discover any commercial illustration done entirely by hand and I am bored by “contemporary” computer generated artwork. So you can call my work an amalgam of mid-century hand produced artwork and ideas with the aid of modern computers. Working with traditional watercolor painting and contemporary media it is my goal to produce works of art described as fearlessly authentic, whimsical, and sophisticated. Shop from Apple Cox Design
My work explores the quiet, complex, and often conflicting realities of motherhood—its beauty and intensity, its joy and isolation, its capacity to both ground and unravel us. As an artist, mother, and former engineer, I’m constantly seeking balance between these roles, and painting has become both a refuge and a means of reflection. Through layered oil glazes, I create luminous portraits and soft landscapes that feel like memories—tender, imperfect, and true.
At its core, my practice is an attempt to make visible what is often left unsaid. I hope my work offers others a moment of pause, recognition, and light in the messy, miraculous experience of becoming and being a parent.
I am fascinated by the grand works of art created by “Mother Nature” and enjoy turning nature’s art to a human purpose. I delight in the beauty revealed as an apparently non-descript piece of wood becomes a polished, functional art-piece.
An engineer by training, I’m drawn to forms that are functional and elegant. As an outdoorsman, I enjoy the intricate and natural. As an artisan, I strive to combine these features into something purposeful and attractive.
I have been turning for about 18 years and have had pieces on display in dozens of exhibitions in Western Washington and nationally. I make functional works, hand-crafted from nature's treasures. Specializing in exotic, burl, and embellished wood turnings of bowls, peppermills, pens, and other goods.
Embracing Nature's Tapestry
In a world that often rushes past the delicate wonders of our planet, my exhibit seeks to offer a moment of pause, reflection, and profound appreciation for the beauty that surrounds us on our spectacular planet. I love to use my art to support causes I believe in. In this case the proceeds of the exhibit sales will go to fund the great work of Northwest Art Alliance and Island Conservation NPO’s.
Through the lens of photography and the creative expression of my mixed media encaustic paintings, this body of work draws upon the profound and intricate relationship we share with the natural world.
The photographs capture fleeting moments of awe-inspiring landscapes, from the grandeur of towering mountain ranges to the intricate beauty of a butterfly. In each image, I seek to capture the profound and often hidden connections that exist within nature. The harmonious coexistence of land, sea, and wildlife are the pearls of nature. Through my encaustic paintings, I aim to evoke calm and a serene mood, often shrouding subjects in various degrees of gauzy reveal- created by the bee’s wax medium.
Ultimately, "Embracing Nature's Tapestry" is an ode to the wonder that surrounds us, a reminder of our responsibility to safeguard it, and an invitation to join in the journey of giving back to our planet and our community. Together, we can weave a brighter future, where the love of nature and the spirit of collaboration lead us toward a more harmonious coexistence on our spectacular planet!
With Gratitude, Gregg Goolsby - Artist and Photographer, OSP Images