The Gallery at Town Center presents Elsa Bouman and BethAnn Lawson

The Gallery at Town Center Presents:

Elsa Bouman and BethAnn Lawson

August 13 - September 28, 2019

The Gallery at Town Center is exhibiting a selection of works by Collage Artist Elsa Bouman and Graphic Designer/Illustrator BethAnn Lawson. See these works and the creations of over 80 other local artists during Gallery at Town Center hours: Tuesday – Saturday, Noon to 5pm.

Elsa Bouman

Elsa Bouman is an artist living and teaching art in the Seattle area. She has degrees in fine and graphic art and worked as a graphic designer in the music industry in San Francisco for many years. She grew up in Holland Michigan but now claims Lake Forest Park as her home.

These analog collages explore mid-century United States (1940s through 1960s) using a sense of humor and the surreal.

Artist’s thoughts on artistic collaboration: Musicians, actors, and dancers work together, accommodating and connecting all of the time. It is less common among visual artists. This friendly, spatial puzzle known as a “HALVZIE” is a way for visual artists to collaborate together. It requires social skills to allow room for the other artist’s elements and ideas and it is a motivating challenge to let go of your ownership, ego, and idea.

Two ways for you to participate:

1. About the COLLAGE “HALVZIE” Project:

• Stop by the gallery to pick up your free “halvzie”.
• Finish the two postcards inside with paper collage, paint or drawing – whatever you like!
• Sign the back on the “finish” line.
• Keep your favorite one and drop the other one off at the gallery or send it back to the artist:

Elsa Bouman
19526 40th Place NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

2. Join the artist, Elsa Bouman, on Saturday, September 14th from 12-2pm for a collage demonstration and how to start and finish “HALVZIES”. Learn the art of collage, create visual stories and experiment with abstract design. All materials provided. All ages welcome.

Artist’s Statement: Whether creating or teaching, my art is spiritual testimony and where I find my truest self.

Theme for the show: Mid-Century Modern

BethAnn Lawson

Working as a graphic designer and illustrator for over 30 years, I’ve always spent a great deal of time looking at the way light, shape, and color work together. Through my large paintings, I’m able to expand on these skills, playing harder, expressing thoughtful, bold, colorful images and concepts without parameters. 

I can lose myself for hours inside of each one as I take apart the images and carefully put them back together emphasizing colors, rhythms, and patterns, bridging the gap between abstraction up close and more figurative from a distance.

I work buttery acrylics over large white canvases capturing little glimpses of life containing whimsy, the secrets of strangers, and the amazing architecture of nature.

I am always striving for that delicate balance between industry and nature, between meticulous and impetuous, between past and future, between painting as a physical object and invoking a redolent memory.


The Gallery at Town Center is a program of the Shoreline - Lake Forest Park Arts Council and is located inside the Lake Forest Park Town Center on the lower level. 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155.

The Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to cultivate creativity and inspire our community through the arts.