Behind the Sign

Northwest Art Beat (NW Art Beat) is a free, self-guided tour of Skagit Valley art studios that allows you to experience the works and creative […]

In a recent Tales of the Magic Skagit episode we introduced you to Morgan White, Meyer Sign’s very first intern in our “Skagit Valley Youth History Project.” For her first assignment, I asked Morgan to interview some of the artists who were part of this year’s Northwest Art Beat Studio Tour (NW Art Beat), and she came back with stories about five very talented Skagitonians whose work ranges from jewelry to painting, clay sculpture, and print making. Followers of Meyer Sign and Tales of the Magic Skagit, I give you Morgan White!

Every time I gaze upon a tulip, not to mention entire fields of them stretching to a horizon framed by the purple mountains majesty of the Cascades, it kind of takes my breath away. Having confessed this, you can appreciate why I look forward to the prospect of continuing to view tulips even as we approach Mother’s Day, 2023 — hopefully, with less tulip traffic, but at least with warmer temperatures than when the annual Tulip Festival began in what turned out to be the fourth month of winter in the Magic Skagit. To celebrate the floral event that makes the Skagit Valley an international destination venue each spring, I thought I’d go back to some tulip themed “Tales of the Magic Skagit” episodes from the past — a literary tip-toe through the tulips, if you will.

The current of the Skagit River has long carried a strong creative energy in its unending flow. In fact, I would argue that the Skagit Valley boasts an amazingly high per capita of artists. There's an event this weekend that strongly supports my case.

Jesus Guillén came to the Skagit Valley as many immigrants did, in the hope of a better life for himself and his family. He pursued that goal not only as an agricultural worker, but as an artist who celebrated his fellow farmworkers and the beauty of the fields and landscapes where they labored. Thanks to his artistic vision, us Skagitonians are able to see ourselves and the place we've chosen to live in a way no other artist has depicted. This is a brief overview of his life and legacy.

This is the story of how a cow’s butt prevented a priceless mural depicting life the Skagit Valley in 1941 from being destroyed in a barn fire. It’s also the story of the young man who created the mural (and went on to become one of Seattle’s most beloved artists) — which is where this tale begins.