Sunday, May 9, 2010

A sustainable artist: Cindy Mangutz


This weekend is Mother's Day. We spent a great day with my mom and then came over to Port Townsend to visit Chris's mom. It was really fun to hang out with the fam, spend some time in the sun and the go mingle with the locals in downtown Port Townsend. Right off of the main drag, Water Street, there was an arts and crafts fair going on. All sorts of stuff going on from jewelery makers to oil painters working live in front of you.

One of the artisans we came across was Cindy Mangutz. As it turns out, she was Chris' neighbor growing up. I've got to say, she is the most welcoming and amazing person to talk to. You're thinking, "what in the world does this have to do with anything?" Well I'll tell ya: Cindy and her husband Steve create sustainable art. In her own right, Cindy is an incredible artist with a huge expanse of work. Today, I saw a different side. She and her husband take art, function, sustainability and horticulture and blend it all together to make some incredibly unusual pieces.
Using wood coming from their property, they've created some amazing things. What caught my eye the most were two chairs. One was a beautiful maple chair, meant for the indoors, that was perfectly crafted and begged to be sat in. The other was a chair with a flowering seat. Thin cedar branches woven through the structure, this piece of furniture was also home to a living bouquet. The chair was structurally sound and visually appealing, but meant for the garden. I was jealous that another visitor made the purchase before we could, but we'll see what the future holds...

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