Christopher Mathie, Red Raku Pottery.

Local ceramicist Christopher Mathie has been invited to show some pottery at the annual fundraising art sale “Behind the Shoji” at Portland’s Japanese Garden, which opens this Saturday.

Says Mathie:

I was very excited to be asked to participate this year and created a collection of new Raku pottery for the show.

Locally, Mathie shows often at Two Vaults Gallery on S. Fawcett downtown.

“Behind the Shoji” runs through September 2. The Garden is open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, 12-7 p.m.

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L to R: Art doors painted by Maureen McHugh, Bonnie Chance, Alysia Jines, Linda Lapping-DeSantis, Dawn Fortner. Image: Paul Uhl.

It’s not often you get a chance to acquire an art-door, support a local festival and have a rockin’ time to boot, but Thursday evening you’ll get all that. The committee for the Glassroots downtown art festival, is holding a fundraiser with a difference: local artists have painted doors (yes, old house and shed doors, unattached) which will be auctioned off live at Sanford and Sons. A quarter of each sale goes back

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Marsha Blaker, “Not Galileo’s Globe.” Image courtesy Traver Gallery.

Undersea Glass at Traver Gallery

Husband and wife team Marsha Blaker and Paul DeSomma show their skill at Traver: Blaker creates lime-and-aqua fusings of kelp shapes, while DeSomma creates more abstract drawings via glass, metal and scorched wood. Tuesdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays 12-5 p.m. through Aug. 10. Free. 1821 E Dock St, Tacoma. 253-383-3685, www.travergallery.com

Shakespeare in the Parks

Magic and mayhem rule at Wooden O Theater’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." The Seattle company performs

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Sean Alexander, “Tacoma.” Image courtesy The Helm Gallery.

Q: What do a print and a chalk mural have in common?

A: They’re both drawn by people, they draw people (to see them) and…they’re both appearing at Frost Park tomorrow.

Okay, I ran out of clever puns there. But here’s the gist of it.

The Helm Gallery, which is in dire straits right now (see previous post here) is currently having a fundraiser: buy a limited edition print (300) of a groovy Tacoma skyline by Helm co-owner

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The mayor was there. So were Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. Well, actually it was Brian D’Arcy James, Sutton Foster and Chester Gregory II, the actors who play the three characters from “Shrek the Musical.”

They showed today at Downstairs at the 5th, the underground concourse beneath the 5th Avenue Theatre, along with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, to tout the upcoming run of the new multimillon-dollar stage production.

As TV and newspaper photographers recorded the event, the mayor spoke of the Emerald City’s growing prominence as an out-of-town launching pad for Broadway musicals based on movies. “Hairspray”

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Design for Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival poster by Ariana Smith. Image courtesy Peninsula Art League.

Looking for something to do this weekend? The folks from the Peninsula Art League are organizing the 24th annual Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

Here’s what the organizers say will be there:

&bull 128 local and national arts and crafts vendors on Judson Street, in downtown Gig Harbor

&bull Fine food from crab melts to Peruvian, shaved ice to ice cream, and all of

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The Grand Cinema is opening two new movies on Friday and they couldn’t be more different. One, “Roman de Gare,” is a devilishly twisty thriller from France’s Claude Lelouch, best known as the director of 1966′s “A Man and a Woman,” which won the Oscar for best foreign language film. The other, “Up the Yangtze,” is lushly photographed and remarkably intimate documentary about the vast social upheaval caused by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world that has caused millions of people to be displaced by its rising waters.

These pictures

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The board of directors at Tacoma Little Theatre has appointed local Doug Kerr as interim artistic director, following their decision last Wednesday to release David Duvall from the position. Here’s what their press release has to say about Kerr:

"We have tapped a veteran of the arts with a strong business management background and familiarity with TLT and the management team," stated TLT Board Vice President, Marie Kelly. "Doug was the head of the Pierce Community College Theatre Department for more than thirty years and is a respected and accomplished director, set designer and artist. Importantly, he shares

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