It’s a rare thing to walk into Tacoma’s glass-based Traver Gallery and see it filled with ceramics. It’s also rare to see it all filled with the same kind of art. But with “Yours, Ours and Mine,” the work might be on ceramic but it’s painted by artists who usually work with glass, and of course every single platter is very different, created by either Cappy Thompson, Dick Weiss or Jeffry Mitchell, or some combination of the three. It’s also a joy to look at.

Like kids playing together at play-dough, Thompson, Mitchell and Weiss delve into a realm where nature and myth meet. They paint peacocks with women’s eyes, tigers with tongues like Hindu gods, flowers with sweet faces and skulls puffing pipes. They’re overlaid on more subtle, dreamlike images of wafty clouds crying tears of paint, or robot armadillos, with every so often a big splodge of thick black paint to remind you not to take it all too seriously.

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Thanks to the National Council for the Education for Ceramic Arts conference coming up in Seattle (March 28-31) a lot of local galleries are mounting clay-based shows. One of the first ones open is at The Art Stop, housed in LeRoy Jewelers in downtown Tacoma: The gallery’s sixth annual Washington Clay Arts Association juried exhibit is up through April and features many innovative and thoughtful ceramic artists from the region and continent.

Right by the door are three imaginative sculptures by Eva Funderburgh. Two are of wood-fired stoneware, with the cloudy ochre raku-style glaze – a large and a small animal, humped like mountains with deliciously lumpy fungi growing out of their backs, unnoticed. In between them, vertically, is a small, antlered animal gazing eyelessly and wistfully at a wilting flower held in its paws. Read more »

There are some rather unusual musical instruments in the Proctor Art Gallery this week. Two guitars and a mandolin have no strings – instead, they’re covered with a mosaic of glass and beads in swirls, curves, lines and hearts, shimmering with color like a swimming pool in brilliant sunshine. They’re the work of Patty Franklin, a Woodinville artist who shows in Seattle and around the region, and who is the featured artist at Proctor this month. She’ll also be demonstrating her mosaic technique this Saturday morning.

Franklin builds her mosaics up like relief sculptures on a variety of different surfaces: a sculpted female torso, onto which she’s created a white mosaic dress flamed with multi-hue glass tongues; flat framed boards of wedi (the waterproof substance used behind tiles in showers); and the guitars and mandolin themselves, actual instruments bought in junk shops and filled with foam for strength. Read more »

The 18th annual RAGS Wearable Art gala and sale is in a new location this year, promising even more eminently shoppable wearable art this weekend. The gala annually offers fashion and jewelry by dozens of local and regional artists, with a portion of all sales proceeds to benefit the YWCA Pierce County’s domestic violence prevention program

Still hosted by Larson’s Mercedes-Benz, the sale has now moved with the car dealer across I-5 to a new Fife showroom at 1701 Alexander Ave. East., and runs March 9-11.

“The new venue is bigger, brighter and flashier than our old location,” said publicist Kristy Gledhill. “This year we were able to add more artists.” The showroom also has a café. Read more »

The prolific Puget Sound Sumi Artists association is currently offering two free shows of sumi-e painting and mixed-media art: one at the Tacoma Nature Center at Snake Lake, the other at the Gig Harbor library, opening this weekend.

At Gig Harbor “The Spirit of Sumi-e” summarizes the ethos of this Asian-based brush painting style which dates to 8^th-century China. With strokes and dots of water-based black ink the artist aims to capture the spirit of the subject, both visible and invisible, with as much simplicity as possible. Other paintings include watercolors and mixed-media. The opening reception on Saturday includes a demonstration of the art by Fumiko Kimura, a Japanese-born Tacoma sumi-e artist.

Reception 2-4 p.m., demonstration 2-3 p.m. March 3, then open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday through March at the Gig Harbor Library, 4424 Point Fosdick Dr. NW, Gig Harbor. 253-548-3305, www.piercecountylibrary.org

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Not the new kid on the block anymore, Gallery Three in Puyallup is solidifying as a community arts presence in the downtown of the city, representing 18 artists and creating informal art events in Puyallup.

“Gallery Three is evolving into a center for art events,” says co-founder Tanya Lemma, of the cooperative sponsored by Valley Arts United and housed on the ground floor of the new Puyallup City Hall building. Upcoming events include post-concert wine after the Northwest Sinfonietta concerts in Pioneer Park Pavilion on March 18, April 29 and June 3, expanding hours to coincide with the Farmers’ Market when it opens in April, and “Random Acts of Art,” projects set up in front of the gallery with artists helping visitors to make an art piece to take home. Read more »

Maybe it’s something about the nature of printmaking, which requires artists to spend many solitary, introspective studio hours in painstaking technical work, but the latest print show in town has brought out a strongly empathetic focus from printmakers around the nation. Pacific Lutheran University’s School of Arts and Communication opened its biannual National Print Show last week, and this year’s focus subject – compassion – is given strong attention.

It’s a comfortably-sized show, which is a good thing – big group shows can be overwhelming – and it’s worth both the trek out to campus and the hassle of daytime parking to see. One of four events in the SOAC Compassion series (the others are an upcoming documentary film, the play “Rabbit Hole” in March and a new choral composition about war in May), the print show delves into human themes of empathy, sorrow, hope, connection and desperation with quiet dignity, and some very skillful use of the print medium.

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“Dawn of 2012” has been up for a month already at Fulcrum Gallery, but it’s worth going again to see these emerging Tacoma-area artists spread their exploratory wings. The work isn’t all perfect by any means – you wouldn’t expect that – but it’s jolting, witty and inventive by turns, with a real freshness of approach that’s totally apt for the new year.

Two of the best are highly line-based, though with very different treatment. Meghan Mitchell, Tacoma-born with a recent BFA from Portland, does intricate graphite drawings of tangled ribbons swirling over delicately shaded clouds of texture. Like the work of M.C. Escher the three-dimensional puzzles draw you in, then spit you out as you realize there’s no beginning or end in sight. When she superimposes two cut-off hands it’s not as effective: They float arbitrarily over the leaf-like background in a weirdly (and misproportioned) way. But it’s tantalizing to imagine how awesome these textured tangles would be en masse if Mitchell ever decided to enlarge her work. Read more »