October artists at The Gallery at Town Center: Odette Allen and Peggy Curtis

The Gallery at Town Center Presents

Odette Allen and Peggy Curtis

Open Now - November 14, 2020

The Gallery at Town Center is exhibiting a selection of works by Acrylic Artist Odette Allen and Photographer Peggy Curtis. See these works and the creations of over 90 other local artists during gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon to 5pm. Thank you for shopping small and supporting the arts in our community!

Odette Allen

I am a painter and muralist living in Seattle, WA. I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in 2007, and a Masters in History and Archives from Western Washington University in 2014. 

My work reflects my educational background with color focused, abstract forms, and references to historic and current social justice issues. Art has the amazing ability to communicate ideas and feelings that inspire others, and I want to use this to address issues like sexism, racism, or environmental exploitation. These are pressing issues that concern me deeply, and art enables me to communicate about them in meaningful ways.

My art practice incorporates many mediums, but my primary focus is painting. My work is made using acrylic paints on mounted birch panels. Using many isolated layers of acrylics, I am able to build up colors and enhance textures, creating luminous colors that feel viscerally satisfying. My images evolve organically, starting as abstract color fields and slowly focusing into forms as I add shapes or elements. I work on many pieces at once, all exploring a specific theme. My work at present is inspired by traditional southern cooking and foodways, the history of black agriculture, and the use of traditional black cooking as a foundation for Black identity and activism.

Follow Odette on Instagram 

Peggy Curtis

Peggy Olafson Curtis was born in Seattle, USA and grew up in nearby regions during the turbulent Sixties.

Her love of photography began with a film camera and a high school course in photography. Her artistic inspiration came a few years later during a two-year residence in Japan. There she became immersed in the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which holds that there is beauty in all states of being, including decay.

Now she loses herself in junkyards in search of an interesting patina on a rusting Studebaker or a pleasing arrangement of shape and color in the broken paint. She wants an image that somehow transcends the literal in the viewer’s imagination, suggesting a mood, a greater mystery, a timelessness. She sees rivers, ponds, and maybe a forest of healing trees in the leave behinds of time, use, and nature.

Follow Peggy on Instagram: @peggycurtis2758


NEW! Want to browse local art online? The Gallery Online Shop is now open! The virtual shop includes handmade masks, paintings, sculptures, and more. Thanks for supporting our local artists!

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.