Please join us for a special open house event and artist meet & greet for RENEWAL: Historic Roots and Artistic Growth & Wishing Trees: A Community Art Project.

Everyone is welcome to come out and chat with the artists, make a leaf for the wishing tree, and appreciate the first works of art displayed in the Postmark gallery!

This event is FREE to attend!

Light snacks will be served. 

The exhibition features artworks by 24 talented PNW artists, each sharing their own artistic perspective on the theme of trees, branches, and growth through nature. 

Featured Artists:
Diane Davis, Amanda DeSilver, Jan Dove, Ryan Dunn, Kevin Ebi, Rebecca Elyanow, Pete Fleming, Kathleen Frugé Brown, D'Arcy Heiber, Lynn Kamola, Janice King, Vanessa Lanza, Corbie Leiker, Steve Lloyd, Jannelle Loewen, Donald MacDonald, Mary Mann, Steven Markussen, Yoshi Nakagawa, Eric Shellgren, John Smither, Jeff Sweet, Suze Woolf, and Xin Xin.

Starting in summer 2017, the City of Auburn began a community art project called the “Wishing Tree.” The wishing tree ritual has multiple sources, among which is an Armenian tradition dating back to pre-Christian times. Participants would write a hope, dream, wish or desire on pieces of cloth or paper and tie them to the tree. Wishing trees have been found all over the world in places like Glasgow, Hong Kong, Finland, New York and San Francisco.

For Auburn’s Wishing Trees, the community has been welcomed to draw and write wishes on leaves that are being displayed from metal trees as a work of collaborative community art. The goal of this project is to bring people together and create a work of public art that expresses the uniqueness and diversity of our growing community. Our hope is that each unique leaf can celebrate the wish and character of each individual participant, as well as collectively representing the beauty, wishes, and unity of our community.

This grove of beautiful metal Wishing Trees, created for Auburn’s inaugural exhibition at the new Postmark Center for the Arts, were created by the following talented local artists: Greg Bartol, Steve Nagode, Steve Ray, Anita Schuller, and Frank Whylie