FEATURED ARTIST

Sandy Rubini-Rochon

(Local textile sculptor)

Sandy Rubini-Rochon with her art piece Balletto

Sandy Rubini-Rochon, a Clinton-based textile sculpture artist, is currently being featured in the Lasher Gallery.

It was an experience at the Bellevue Art Museum that set textile sculptor Sandy Rubini-Rochon on her current artistic path. The free-style weaving exhibit that had “charmed” her in 2017 was the inspiration for her own pursuit—nature-based pieces made from driftwood, jute, and repurposed textiles. Today, these one-of-a-kind sculptures grace the walls of the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) Lasher Gallery, on display throughout the months of March and April and open to the public during WICA’s regular business hours or by appointment.

“Each sculpture begins with the driftwood. It’s difficult to find pieces that aren’t your ‘run-of-the-mill’ logs,” says Rubini-Rochon. “The hunt for unique wood is part of the fun. They need to have character. As far as the textiles are concerned, they’re all repurposed…I love the colors and textures, especially earth tones. I love matching fabrics that may be diabolically opposite but somehow meld together beautifully as I create a sculpture.”

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts would like to begin by acknowledging that we gather on the ancestral homelands, originally known as Tscha-kole-chy (SHA-KOL-CHI) in Lushootseed (LU-SHOOT-SEED), of the Coastal Salish Peoples, on the lands of the lower Skagit, Tulalip (tuh·lay·luhp), Swinomish (SWIN-ə-mish), Snohomish (snō-hō-mish), Stillaguamish (still-uh-GWAH-mish), and Suquamish (soo-kwah-mish), who have lived in the Salish Sea basin since time immemorial and have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands.

We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water.

Please join us in expressing our deepest respect and gratitude to the indigenous people of this territory and for their enduring care and protection of the land in which we currently occupy and share through the Treaty of Point Elliott signed by 82 tribes in Múckl-te-óh (Mukilteo) on January 22, 1855.