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Artists open their doors during annual Whatcom Artist Studio Tour

Tour featured 37 stops full of local art and community

Artist Frank Frazee talks with Erik Eliason
Artist Frank Frazee talks with Erik Eliason (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)
By Jemma Alexander News Intern

During the two first weekends of October, more than 40 local artists had their work featured across 37 locations in the annual Whatcom Artist Studio Tour (WAST).

The countywide tour has helped put artists on the map while letting community members take an inside, personal look at their work. 

WAST has been operating since 1995 when it began with just 10 artists, said Chris Moench, the WAST president who has been with the event since the start. He said the 2022 tour drew folks in from as far away as Portland, Oregon. 

When forming WAST, Moench said he wanted “to try to establish a community of artists so that we could mentor one another.”  

He also believed it would help reduce the isolation artists may feel when alone in their studios.   

“I’m super happy to see where it has gone after all these years, it’s exciting,” Moench said.  

In downtown Bellingham on Central Avenue, artists Karen Theusen and Frank Frazee showed their work in the same space. Both artists work with paint and occasionally incorporate mixed media. Frazee also dabbles in sculpture work and uses found wood and fabric as canvases.  

Frazee has been participating in WAST for over four years and has previously shown work in ARTrails, another annual studio tour in Lewis County.  

Frazee noticed guests are usually drawn to one artist’s work or the other. 


“To have artists in the community creates artists in the community,” Frazee said. “Everybody has stuff they’re interested in and stuff they don’t know they’re interested in.” 

photo  With approval from artist Karen Thuesen, Norma Moss touches a painting to feel the texture of it during the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour on Oct. 8. The tour takes place the first two weekends in October throughout Bellingham and Whatcom County. (Andy Bronson/Cascadia Daily News)  

Andrea Smith, of Bellingham, said she resonated with one of Frazee’s pieces. Painted on a small door, the bottom panel depicts a woman looking up with a black background. The top panel is a square of blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. Smith interpreted the piece as representing hope for the many possibilities in life.  

“I didn’t realize that I needed that or I wanted that,” Smith said. “It helps remind me where I am and what I want.” 

Theusen, whose work preceded Frazee’s in the studio, has made art her profession for decades. In 1988, Theusen started her own mural company and spent 30 years creating them commercially. She’s also worked with local businesses like Luna’s Bistro and Pepper Sisters.  

Theusen served as WAST’s president for two years before stepping down in 2021. This year she organized four outside group shows for the event. 

“I love the process of creating the piece, whatever it is,” Theusen said. While she enjoys working in the abstract, Theusen also does many commissioned dog portraits.  

She believes it’s important to share artwork, especially since artists tend to be in their own world, focused on their own work.  

“You can always learn from each other,” she said. “That’s how you keep growing. If you don’t, your stuff gets stagnant.” 

Theusen said it is just as important for those who don’t consider themselves artists to spend time with art.  

“It brings people closer together at a different level,” she said. “Art is that one even line of communication that I think everyone can connect with.” 

Over on Potter Street, Chris Shreve had his studio doors open to the public. Shreve’s work comes in multiple forms. He works in whimsical illustrations, beginning with pencil and ending with digital coloring and abstract oil paintings on wood.  

Shreve finds joy in the process of creating, and his illustrations are more accessible, relatable and easier to sell, he explained. In the dark times of the pandemic, Shreve learned that his whimsical work also feeds the soul.  

“I realized the importance of seeing people smile,” he said.  

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