Webster’s Woods at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

On the slope rising from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic Mountains there is a circular home called the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. I use the word “home” advisedly because it is the place where once lived Esther and Charles Webster. Now, thanks to Esther, it is the home for much beautiful art.

Surrounding the Art Center is Webster’s Woods, a special place to mosey and reflect.

Oola and I visited on a winter afternoon, and she really liked the address. This has become one of our new favorite places. (Please click on any image to enlarge; they are well worth it.)

One of the reasons I like this place is that, with few exceptions, I could not find the names of the artists. The whole area seems more an expression of a community than of any single person. It seems that each year, artists add new work, much of which returns to the environment over time.

There is a foot path — kinda — and you can roam it from any direction.

Webster’s Woods

Questions of monumentality and ego are absent — except by their absence. This is about the earth, the people, and time.

You might meet others like yourself on the path.

Always there is a straggler, or maybe the rear guard, or maybe just a dreamer — about to be swallowed up.

You will find wonderful work disintegrating into time and the earth.

detail in Webster's Woods — detail in Webster’s Woods

I have seen blue ball sculpture before, but THESE blue balls are talking about a relationship with the trees — over time and through growth; and through stress when the wind blows from the Strait to the Mountains.

You may pass something by — Oola found these — only to discover later that they are beads hammered into the fallen tree. This is my favorite of all that I saw in the woods that day.