Artist sees gallery goals as helpful to local community
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Felicia Gray's art is on canvas, on walls — and even on stage.
The noted Goldendale artist contributed a vital piece of stage scenery for use in the recent Goldendale High School production of My Man Godfrey. It depicted a sprawling view of the Brooklyn Bridge. And work of this nature demonstrates her connection with both her art and her community.
"I've done several murals all over," Gray says. "I really enjoy doing kids' rooms. Anything with a theme I love doing. I do a lot of faux interiors. I help people a lot with their interior design. I do designs for exteriors for buildings or gardens. I do quite a bit of different designing."
Gray acquired recognition early on in her distinguished career. Before coming to Goldendale 18 years ago, she was in Seattle, working as the art director for a business that prepared visual merchandize for department stores around the world. Among them were Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue.
"I was running a silk screen company," she recalls, "and the way I learned was all the salesmen would come in with their new products and toys and they'd show me how to use them. So it was like on-the-job-training all through my sophomore, junior, and senior years." Then off she went to prominent art schools, where she advanced rapidly. She was placed in a commercial art position and started working.
Coming to Goldendale was a pleasant surprise for her in several ways, not least of which was discovering the extent of artistic talent in the area. "That was surprising to me," she says. "But we've had the gallery open to find out the quality and type of people in Goldendale-it's unbelievable." She refers to the Goldendale Art Gallery, which she helped start some six years ago. And it's not just painting talent that she sees in the area. "From authors, to poets, to musicians, it's just amazing to discover the people living here who are that talented. Not just the arts in painting, but all the arts. And you hear that this guy played for some famous person, or this guy is a percussionist who played for one of the big guys. It's just amazing to see and hear what kind of town we have."
Gray pauses to reflect on how much the arts, and the gallery in particular, have to offer the community. "It gives artists and people the opportunity to get out of their houses and show their work," she says. "So many people are fearful of that kind of exposure. When you display something you've been working on for a long time, it makes you feel like, 'Here I am, here's my heart,' because that's what you put into it. It's really given the community the opportunity to appreciate art more."
It's also been of help to educators in town, she adds. "Many teachers have said bringing art into the schools has really helped a lot of kids who otherwise would have been pushed aside. It's brought a lot out of the kids, and also adults who've participated in the gallery, and they've been able to show and sell their work; that's really been inspiring."
She remembers one student in particular. "We had a first grader who showed and sold a piece at the student art show for $50," she says. "Being a first grader, that was pretty impressive, I thought. She did a wonderful job. So I think it's really been great encouragement for the whole community. To see that we have a gallery in Goldendale impresses people from all over the world. They say, 'This is unbelievable.' There are a lot of visitors who just seek out galleries. They come in the door from Australia, China, Europe, from just everywhere. It's pretty amazing."
Study says wind turbine sound is harmless to humans
It's the answer to a question nobody knew needed to be asked.
Some people wondered if the noise wind turbines make could be dangerous to human physical well-being. To address that speculation, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) put together a multidisciplinary panel to investigate the matter. The panel concluded that the sounds generated by wind turbines are not harmful to human health.
Comprised of medical doctors, audiologists, and acoustical professionals from the United States, Canada, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, the panel undertook review, analysis, and discussion of the large body of peer-reviewed literature, specifically with regard to sound produced by wind turbines. The panel was established by AWEA and the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) to review all relevant literature available on the issue.
"The panel's multidisciplinary approach helped to fully explore the many published scientific reports related to the potential impact of wind turbines on people's health," said Dr. Robert J. McCunney, one of the authors of the study and an occupational/environmental medicine physician and research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "There is no evidence that the sounds, nor the sub-audible vibrations, emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects on humans."
Top findings from the study include:
• "The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds, that they could plausibly have direct adverse physiological effects."
• If sound levels from wind turbines were harmful, it would be impossible to live in a city given the sound levels normally present in urban environments.
• "Sub-audible, low frequency sound, and infrasound from wind turbines do not present a risk to human health."
• "Some people may be annoyed at the presence of sound from wind turbines. Annoyance is not a pathological entity."
According to the report, there have been no reports of ill effects from people living near the more than 30,000 wind turbines in North America.
"The objective of the panel was to provide an authoritative, scientific reference document for those making legislative and regulatory decisions about wind turbine developments," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode.
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