The Skagit Valley is the last remaining center of agricultural production in the Puget Sound region. Yet, a Genuine Skagit Valley survey in 2017 found that less than 50% of Puget Sound area respondents could name even one crop from the Skagit Valley. There are over 80 commercial crops grown in Magic Skagit. As a statewide, nationwide, and yes, worldwide leader in production of crops such as potatoes, bulbs, and seed crops, GSV aims to heighten the visibility of, and consumer connection to the products and people of Skagit Valley’s agricultural community.
During the month of April, we have collaborated with the Mount Vernon Downtown Association (MVDA) and The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival to showcase some of these producers and crops along 1st Street in Mount Vernon, WA. Our window display stands as a testament to the diversity and rich heritage that is still visible here in the Skagit Valley.
Along with this display, we have partnered with a few local artists whose artwork reflects the heart and soul of the Skagit Valley, as seen through their lens. Please find some information about these artists below. We’re immensely grateful for their contribution to help us to understand and celebrate what makes our area so unique – a true sight for all seasons.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the local art seen in our window display in Downtown Mount Vernon, please contact Sarah at sarah@genuineskagitvalley.com who will kindly put you in contact with the artist(s).
Thank you for supporting local, Skagit Valley art!
“Trimming Rhubarb” – 28″ X 40″ framed print, archival pigment ink on rag paper by Craig J. Barber, Artist, La Conner, WA
Craig is a NW based photographer documenting farmers and their work — growing our food.
For over 30 years he has focused on the cultural landscape in rapid transition, some fading from memory. Barber works with both contemporary and antiquarian processes. His work has explored Viet Nam, Havana, Tuscany, farmers in the Finger Lakes and Catskill Mountain regions of New York and now Skagit Valley in Washington State.
Born in Upstate New York, Barber served in the US Marines for four years, lived in Vermont and Colorado as a ski bum and supported himself as a carpenter in Saskatchewan, Woodstock, and the Pacific Northwest while pursuing his career as a fine art photographer with an eye towards inhabited and ever changing landscapes. Growing up in small town America, surrounded by farms and rolling hills, then working amongst craftspeople influenced Barber’s love of the land, the importance of its care and his respect for the folks who do the hard work that sustains us all.
He has taught workshops and lectured throughout the United States, Ireland, Central Europe and Mexico using alternative cameras and antiquarian processes. In 2006 Umbrage Editions published “Ghosts in the Landscape, Viet Nam Revisited”.
Barber has been awarded grants and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Fellowship, Seattle Arts Commission, Polaroid Corporation, Glacier National Park Residency, Light Work, Syracuse, NY and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY.
His work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Chrysler Museum, Center for Photography Woodstock, George Eastman Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Museum of Art, Houston, Victoria & Albert Museum.
Barber’s photographs have been exhibited in over 70 solo Exhibitions including Working the Land (2013), Recontres D’Arles, Arles, France; Ghosts in the Landscape: Viet Nam Revisited (2007) at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY and (2006) Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA (traveling exhibition 9 years); Rural NY (2004), Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY. Barber’s insightful poetic images have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, South America and North America.
You can follow along on Craig’s photographic journey on his Instagram page or Website.
“April Pick” and “Evening Flight” Canvas Prints by Gary Brown, Artist, Mt. Vernon, WA
Gary and his wife Susan moved to the Skagit Valley in 1977. They live on the farmland and have grown their family watching friends, neighbors and workers on the land.
Gary’s photography journey started in high school in North Dakota. He grew up in an agricultural community. Here, he continues to enjoy watching the light, mist and rain.
Much of Gary’s photography centers around the beauty in the farming valley and those farmers and workers making it possible.
As Gary states, “The presence of farmland allows visual beauty of produce and flowers as well as our winter bird, raptor, swan and goose population. Without sensitivity to the changes coming here, we risk losing not only productive farmland but our interaction with the land itself.“
Gary contributes to various farming and land conservation organizations including Skagitonians To Preserve Farmland.
You can follow Gary’s photographic journey on Instagram and his Website. He may also be reached by email at: drdad1111@yahoo.com
“Crossroads Willow” acrylic print and “Top of the Morning” framed print by Nancy Crowell of Crowell Photography, La Conner, WA
Nancy of Crowell Photography has been taking photographs of plants and animals since she borrowed her grandmother’s old box camera to photograph her cats when she was just a child. Her aesthetic has evolved since then, but she still focuses her camera on mostly flora and fauna. From flower macro images to raptors in flight, she trains her lens on Nature to create inspiring and soothing images designed to take viewers out of their present and into a moment with Nature. She finds her inspiration all around the Skagit Valley, in the fields and in the skies, as well as beyond.
Nancy is currently working on conservation photography stories as she feels a strong urge to give back. Combining her photography skills with her writing skills seems a natural next step, and leveraging those skills to educate people about wildlife conservation is a challenge she embraces. Her first piece to feature her solely as a photographer was published this past January in bioGraphic.com.
You can find more of her work on display at The River Gallery, Mount Vernon WA Spring Show from April 1 – 30 as well as on her Instagram page and Website.
“Deere and Daffodils” 18 X 24″ Canvas Print by Sarah Walls,
Cedarbrook Studio, La Conner, WA
Sarah of Cedarbrook Studio is a proud Alaskan Native American artist, with Haida, Tlingit, and Lummi ancestors. She started taking photographs at age 9 with a 110 pocket camera that her grandmother gave her. Over the years she has patiently self-taught herself how to capture nature the way she sees it through her lens.
Sarah, a Washington native, resided in Vermont’s beautiful Northeast Kingdom for 15 years. It was there that she decided to pick up a camera again and express herself through art. She now resides in the beautiful Skagit Valley in La Conner. She is a regular contributor for the La Conner Weekly News and her work has been featured in several publications including The North Star Monthly, The Caledonian Record, Vermont Life Magazine, The Washington Wine Association newsletter, Visit Skagit Valley (online publication) Cabin Living Magazine, Northwest Travel & Life Magazine, Genuine Skagit Valley, Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland and yes, even Fox News (a photo she took of the Northern Lights in Vermont went viral!) Her humble, but beautiful work has been sold and loved worldwide.
Sarah is widely known for her ability to capture agricultural themed images which feature Skagit Valley’s amazing light, known as the #MagicSkagit . Her favorite things to photograph are tractors in the farm fields and her kids sporting events. You can see more images on Sarah’s Instagram page.