SOLA Seattle

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SOLA Seattle SOLA is a certified non-profit organization, striving to support under-recognized artists through modest annual cash grants.

SOLA encourages mature (over 60), female (self-identified), Washington state artists with 25 years of art making, through recognition, professional development, & awards. Established by Artist, Ginny Ruffner in fall 2016, the mission of SOLA is to give modest cash awards to recognize and encourage mature (over 60), female (self-identified), Washington state visual artists who have an identifiable record of 25 years of art making. Donations provide SOLA the ability to create sustainable funding for future years, and directly benefit under-recognized artists throughout Washington State. We welcome your tax deductible support at any level.

Decades in the Making: 10 Years of SOLA Awardees is now open at Tacoma Art Museum! Each week, we're celebrating one of...
09/17/2026



Decades in the Making: 10 Years of SOLA Awardees is now open at Tacoma Art Museum! Each week, we're celebrating one of the extraordinary artists featured in the exhibition.

This week: Ellen George (2024 SOLA Awardee)

Ellen George’s luminous, organic works are rooted in a lifelong fascination with the natural world. Some of her earliest memories are of looking through a microscope at tiny aquatic organisms collected from the Gulf of Mexico—experiences that continue to inspire the movement, translucency, clustering, and shifting sense of scale in her work today.

Her studio practice is also deeply connected to Taiji. Through patient layers of paint and delicate silverpoint lines, Ellen works intuitively, allowing forms to slowly emerge through concentration, breath, and careful observation.

Over her career, Ellen’s work has been exhibited at museums throughout the Pacific Northwest and is held in numerous public and private collections.

Learn more about Ellen:
https://www.solaseattle.org/awardees/ellen-georgeellengeorge

Image: "Sensing (2), 2023," Gouache, egg tempera, casein, silverpoint, gold metalpoint, birch panel, 8.5" x 6"

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 7In the early 2000’s, my practice shifted when I began collaborating with the p...
09/13/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 7

In the early 2000’s, my practice shifted when I began collaborating with the prosthetic clinic at the University of Washington. Photographing inside the lab reshaped how I understood disability and its connection to all bodies. Working alongside prosthetists, patients, and medical anthropologists, I traveled to Baltimore and Southeast Asia to document the enduring global need for prosthetics in post-war regions. Publications about it are on my website. http://www.ellengarvens.com/about

Wrapping up a week of sharing past and present studio work, a huge thanks to the amazing SOLA team, especially Robin Arnitz and Nicole DeMent, for their tireless support, advocacy, and community. Grateful to be part of it!
https://www.ellengarvens.com/ambivalence

Images:
1. Index, 2003
2. Bent, 2003
3. Ball, 2009, graphite drawing on mylar
4. Mud, 2008, graphite drawing on mylar
5. Scissors, Handicap International Belgium, Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap, Cambodia. 2007
6. Prosthesis Foundation of HRH the Princess Mother, Chiang Mai, Thailand 2007

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 6I applied to SOLA with work that spanned 50 years. My application included ear...
09/12/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 6

I applied to SOLA with work that spanned 50 years. My application included earlier large scale work combining analog photography and metal, glass, or stone. After having children, it was more manageable to reduce the scale of the work. I transitioned into much smaller 3D pieces arranging tools and small photos on armatures. In spite of how different my current work is, I see a shared tension, fragility and physicality with this older sculptural work.

https://www.ellengarvens.com/mixed

Images:
1. Hourglass, 1991. 3x6 feet
2. Green Heart 1993, 4x5 feet
3. Exotic Moth 2000, 15x7x3 in.
4. Plums 2003, 21x6x6 in.

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 5I’ve worked in many different places, including AIR’s in different countries. ...
09/11/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 5

I’ve worked in many different places, including AIR’s in different countries. I love to figure out how to work in different situations. The tension of not knowing and having to improvise is part of the work. The SOLA award will make it possible to rent a studio and work in a new interesting location ……maybe outdoors?……still brainstorming on where! The work posted is from studios in Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Florence, and a video created in the Villa ITatti gardens in Italy in 2021.

.
https://hangar.com.pt/en/about/

Media:
1. Blindness, Lisbon Portugal, 2023
2. 22 Del Este installation, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2024.
3. BW Horse, ITatti, Florence IT, 2025
4. Escape, ITatti garden,Florence IT, 2021 (Video 50sec.)

Decades in the Making: 10 Years of SOLA Awardees is now open at Tacoma Art Museum! Each week, we're celebrating one of...
09/10/2026



Decades in the Making: 10 Years of SOLA Awardees is now open at Tacoma Art Museum! Each week, we're celebrating one of the extraordinary artists featured in the exhibition.

This week: Ann Chadwick Reid (2023 SOLA Awardee)

From her home on Samish Island, Ann Chadwick Reid draws inspiration from the landscape where the Cascade Mountains meet the Salish Sea. Her intricate hand-cut paper works explore the beauty and fragility of the natural world, bringing attention to environmental challenges facing native habitats throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Ann’s connection to the environment extends beyond the studio. An artist and longtime educator, she also participates in citizen science projects monitoring beach debris and Great Blue Herons—bringing observation, curiosity, and care for the natural world into both her art and her community.

Learn more about Ann:
https://www.solaseattle.org/awardees/ann-chadwick-reid


Image:
"Blizzard," 2022, Hand cut paper and mixed media, 20" x 24" x 4"

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 4Muscle Table from 2021, is included in the current exhibition of New Acquisiti...
09/10/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 4

Muscle Table from 2021, is included in the current exhibition of New Acquisitions for the King County Public Art Collection called "Here and Now." It just opened September 3 at 4Culture Gallery and continues through October 16. I am in great company.

My photograph features a table found at St. Vinnie's, whose unusual proportions and strange blend of pretentiousness and humility inspired this playful setup.

I include two more works of other artists collected by King County this year. They collected a lot of great work.

https://www.4culture.org

Images:
1. Muscle Table, 2021
2. Barbara Robertson’s Industrial.
3. Sue Danielson’s Landwise.

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 3I’m incredibly honored to be part of Day by Day: Rhythm, Routine, and Resistan...
09/09/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 3

I’m incredibly honored to be part of Day by Day: Rhythm, Routine, and Resistance, a current exhibition at The Henry Art Gallery open through January 3, 2027.

It is a joy to share this space with admired peers like Isaac Layman and Dan Webb (whose works “Ice Cube Tray” and “Woodylion” are pictured in the video).

My featured photograph, Super Tulip (Day), was made during a 2021 residency at I Tatti in Florence, Italy. Improvisational in approach, I turned our apartment kitchen into a studio and composed the shot using a four-foot-tall tulip sourced from the Villa’s formal garden.

Check out some of the interviews for the Henry show on Bloomberg connects. i https://www.henryart.org

Media:
1. Video 38 sec
2. Super Tulip (Day), 2021
3. Exhibition view from top of the stairs

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 2My current exhibition is on view at Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Madrona throug...
09/08/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 2

My current exhibition is on view at Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Madrona through September 19. The gallery is open Saturdays or by appointment.

I will be at the gallery this Saturday, September 12, from 3:00 to 7:00 PM, and will be joining artist and photographer Melinda Hurst Frye for an informal conversation at 5:00 PM. I would love to see you there!

The show shows my process in a new way, and also includes a humorous series using my own body, which I haven't shown before.

The show will be up through September 19. [email protected]
.photo

http://koplindelrio.com
http://ellengarvens.com

Images:
1. Install at KDR
2. Install at KDR
3. Axonometric Chair 1 – earlier in process – with digital drawing.
4. Axonometric Chair 2
5. Axonometric Chair 3 later in process -drawing replicated with actual materials
6. Vibrations
7. Bonsai
8. Install at KDR
9. Sleep Deprivation
10. Black Triangles

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 1Tenacity and vision are qualities I admire in the other SOLA awardees and why ...
09/07/2026

Ellen Garvens Social Media Takeover: Day 1

Tenacity and vision are qualities I admire in the other SOLA awardees and why it is so meaningful to be included in this distinguished group of artists. To continue to make work, finding ways to prioritize it, through all stages of life, is truly a challenge. What an honor to be a small part of Ginny Ruffner and Marge Levy’s legacy.

I am starting with posting what I am doing right now. Work in progress in my current studio space. I move often to different studios…. enjoying the challenge of each’s idiosyncrasies. Previous artist’s studio furniture sneaks into the work. Thank you Junko Yamamoto, Diane Culhane, Anna Mlasowsky and Matthew Szosz . .matthewszosz

Media:
1. Video of several set ups in current studio
2. Orbit
3. Easter, previous studio, 2026
4. Uncontrolled Growth, previous studio 2025

Ellen Sollod Social Media Takeover: Day 5- Photography and Alternative ProcessesThere is something seductive about the p...
09/04/2026

Ellen Sollod Social Media Takeover: Day 5- Photography and Alternative Processes

There is something seductive about the photographic process. It is often said that photography is painting with light; but, it is more than that. Capturing an image with a camera- lens-based or lenseless- is not simply recording a moment in time but implies framing, interpreting and manipulating what is in front of you for the express purpose of evoking thought. I think of photography as an intermediary that allows me to do things that I couldn’t by another medium.

I’m especially fond of the pinhole camera. For me, it is adept at eliciting a spirit of place, memory, history and the passage of time. It records reality in a slightly muted fashion: soft focus, limitless depth of field, capturing movement as a blur, a slight vignetting. The lack of a viewfinder means there is always a measure of chance in what will be recorded. A pinhole camera forces me to slow down and imagine what my camera "will see” since it will not be fully revealed to me until the film is processed. I also embrace alternative processes that rely either on using the sun’s interaction with photosensitive materials or a flatbed scanner as a camera because they also include an element of chance.

For me, making art is an iterative process of inquiry and discovery which has infinite possibilities, limited only by my own imagination. The SOLA award is allowing me to experiment and extend my practice further.

All selected pinhole photographs were made on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington State.

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