Welcome to Our World!
Night Sky, San Juan Island
It’s great to be here in this beautiful place, and we’re happy to welcome you to our first-ever blog.
Full disclosure: we’re new at this.
When I say “we” I mean my wife, Shelley Alan and me, Kerry Hartjen. We are both artists, though we work in different media. Shelley works primarily with fabric, while I mostly work in acrylics, watercolor, gouache and occasionally oils. Here are two examples of our work:
It’s mostly me, Kerry, doing the writing and it might take a few posts before I get the hang of it, but it’s going to be fun!
We have a lot to share with you on a lot of topics, including:
Living on San Juan Island, Washington
Travel to the San Juan Islands and local happenings
Our art — my paintings and jewelry, and Shelley’s fabric art creations
Other people’s art — we have so many artist friends to share with you!
Making your own art (we’re kind of into art)
Local wildlife and birds, plants, sea creatures…
and LOTS more!
Boats docked in the Port of Friday Harbor, WA. Photo by K. Hartjen
The reason for this blog is simple: we love living where we live and doing what we do. We love talking to people about the San Juan Islands and the Salish Sea, and we love sharing our story with people like you.
And, to be totally transparent, we need a way to let more people know about our journey as artists so we can grow our art business online. It’s how we make a living these days and we’d like to keep doing it for as long as possible.
Please know that we appreciate each and every follow, every subscriber, every like, and every single one of you who take precious time out of your day to read our posts and visit our website.
We promise not to overstuff your inbox, to do our best not to bore you, and to bring you something to make you smile with each post.
Thank you for being here!
Kerry Hartjen and Shelley Alan
Us having a little fun at The Brickworks in Friday Harbor, WA at Christmas time.