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Month: May 2019

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May 22, 2019
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Help us help Jack Dorsey “Raise the Roof” through a Silent Art Auction

Sunnyshore Studio has an audacious goal: to help Jack Dorsey raise $30,000* through a silent art auction of Jack’s original watercolors, oils and acrylics. This money will go towards replacing the old hand cut shake roof installed by Jack and his family and extended family back in 1984. [*This is an estimate of cost to replace cedar shake roof with composite of metal roof. We are waiting to get bids back from Jim Spane of Spane Building to determine financial goal]

Here’s the story…

Jack and Ann Dorsey, and their son, Jason,moved to Camano in the fall of 1969 and into their current home in the spring of 1970. The house had no water, plumbing or electricity at that time.

Jack began to work full time as a professional artist, as well as to start fixing up the old home. He got an old cast iron furnace from Bob Crow that he used in the basement for heat, and bought a Monarch wood stove for the kitchen for $25.

In the early 1970’s Jack asked Dan Garrison at his real estate office (now Windermere near the Country Club) if he could cut wood for his stoves from his logged off land south of Camano Hill road, now Michael Way, and Dan agreed.

When cutting wood, Jack discovered old growth cedar stumps all over and he concentrated on cutting 24 inch bolts of cedar (blackened by fir). He hauled load after load home and made a huge pile of cedar bolts knowing they would make cedar shakes in the future. He often brought Jason along with him for this work.

In this photo you can see the bolts that were used to make the cedar shakes. Jed Dorsey is hard at work picking up some of the kindling to start a fire.

In the 1970’s and early 80’s, Jack and Ann shingle roofed house had lots of leaks. In 1984 Jack had an addition built on the house.

  • The new addition
  • April and Jed
  • Installing new roof

That is when he started splitting shakes with a tool called a “froe.” It had a wooden handle at right angles to a steel blade used to cut through cedar bolts. He would use a draw knife to smooth the shakes into a taper, but generally every time he cut a shake, he would turn the bolt which gave a natural taper to the shake.

  • Jack working with a Froe
  • Jack trims the shingles

Jason, and his siblings April and Jed, helped a lot with the making, shaping and installing of the shakes to the new addition and original home in 1984.

  • Jed hands shingles to April who passes them to Dad
  • Jed and April work on shingles
  • Jed and Jason on roof
  • Jack and Jason on roof
  • April trims shingles
  • Jason works on shingles
  • Jason pulling nails on roof
  • Jason puts tarpaper on roof

There’s some fun photos that Mom found. Like when Jason is nursing a hand bloody with blisters from the hard work.

Jason nursing his bloody hands

And this one of Jason and Jed collapsed on the ground, resting in the sun, after the hard work the roof.

Jason and Jed laying on the grass with their dog Nick

What is TRULY REMARKABLE about the photographs we’re found is how many other members of our extended family as well as friends helped out on this project. It is rather quite remarkable how many folks Jack Dorsey was able to rope into the project!

Jack’s nephew Bruce Dodgson helped out!

Bruce Dodgson

Here’s a photo with T.S. and Bruce Dodgson helping out!

T.S. and Bruce Dodgson

Doug Dodgson got in on the project too! Here he is helping Jason carry a sky light.

Even the younger cousins got involved. Here’s some photographs with nephews/cousins Derek and Ethan Dodgson.

Of course, Jack Dorsey was the mind behind the project and the master roofer that moved it all along.

He has always been a hard, hard worker. His kids and nephews learned from his example.

So it felt familiar when in July of 2018, Jed and Jason and his sons Jacob and Julian worked on the roof. Cleaning the fir needles off and replacing old shingles worn thin in the weather. Jack even got back up on the roof a bit. But his boys told him to stay on the ground and provide support. After all, he was 78 years of age at the time!

In working on the roof they discovered that many of the shingles were showing their age and that the old cedar shingle roof that had protected the home for 34 years would probably need to replaced in the next couple of years.

Raise the Roof Silent Art Auction

The Jack Dorsey “Raise the Roof” Silent Art Auction is taking place over three Saturdays in June: June 15, 22, and 29, from 10am-5pm. It will be held at Sunnyshore Studio: 2803 S.E. Camano Drive, Camano Island, WA.

Jack will have many of his watercolors, oils and acrylics at very affordable prices. Here is a great chance to get a Jack Dorsey original at a great price and help Jack “raise the roof” one more time!

Reception and Concert

On Saturday, June 22nd at 5:00pm Sunnyshore Studio will host a BIG BBQ, first come first served. We’ll have food for 100 people. At 6:00pm we are excited to host a Bluegrass concert by the Day Brothers.

Online Bidding

If you can’t attend the silent auction in person, you can bid online through the link provided below. The rules of the silent auction are listed here.

Jack Dorsey “Raise the Roof” Silent Art Auction
Posted
May 13, 2019
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Opening Weekend of Camano Studio Tour a success and fun too!

Sunnyshore Studio participated in our fourth Camano Studio tour. Our first year was in 2016. Our space wasn’t finished. We hung art on the exposed studs. It was a joy to showcase our family of artists.

  • mom’s legacy of art
  • telling the story

That joy continued for the opening weekend of the Studio tour in 2019. We Besides showcasing family of artists that spans five generations, we also had five guest artists and sold a lot of art!

As always the best part of the tour is seeing friends, and connecting to collectors and patrons. We are super thankful for their friendship and support and patronage over the years. It helps us do what we do. We made up this little video to thank them, and to give you a picture of our little studio tucked on the south end of Camano Island.

For example, high school friends Harry Baird and his wife Maria, and Todd Bonnifield and his son stopped by for an afternoon.

A man who had purchased Jason’s artwork back in the late 1980’s at the Stanwood Camano fair (helping put Jason through college!) stopped by to visit and talked to Jason about a commission to go above his mantle. How amazing is it to have built connections through art that last through the decades.

Another neat story happened to Jason. He was rummaging around at his desk when a woman stopped and was looking at his children’s books and original illustrations for them. They struck up a conversation and Jason told her that he had gone to Stanwood High School. She asked if he knew her nephew Tom Hamilton. Jason said that he and Tom had been classmates, played football together and were friends.

“Matter of fact” he said, “Tom is in this book that was just released.” He opened it up to the back pages and showed her a photo of Tom and himself dressed up in Camo and face paint and headed out to the woods on the fateful night of the story. It was an amazing moment, and a reminder of how very small our world can be at times!

She bought two books, one for Tom.

Jennifer Kelly, who was Jason’s English teacher at Stanwood High School visited the studio with another teacher, Brenda Taylor. Jennifer bought one of the original illustrations! Jason is very thankful for her nurture and support over the years. Brenda bought one of Jackie’s paintings (if memory is correct).

Speaking of Jackie Dorsey, she had a very successful opening of her studio. She painted for sweet watercolors, that her dad helped her frame. And they were sold by noon on Friday!

Dismas Smith of “This Coffee Life” roasted a special Sunnyshore Studio coffee at Dark, Medium and Light Roast and did pour overs for people to taste the coffee. It was so fun to have Dismas a part of this show.

We are honored once again to open our doors to so many people to share the beauty of Camano Island and to build community through art!

Posted
May 1, 2019
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We are Family, May 1 Update, Life Happens

We are plugging away at the We are Family Documentary. Here’s an update on where things stand May 1.

Hard Work and Life Happens

My friend and video editor, David Lichty, has been working hard. He has woven our footage together into 5 parts, each approximately an hour long. Think of this like a docu-series.

  • Part One: Background
  • Part Two: Season Starts: First part of season up to the ESPN game
  • Part Three: Golden Age, with Tech crushing opponents up the Hamilton SE game
  • Part Four: Teach character and into the State Tournament
  • Part Five: Championship Game and Impact

It’s a very interesting and well told story. I was watching one of the sections and my daughter Jackie started watching and said that it was interesting to her (she could care less about basketball) and “good”. That was encouraging.

Then Life Happens.

On March 28, David’s dad, named Bill, went in for a minor dental surgery. There were some complications, and the short of it is that Bill has been at Methodist Hospital three times, and the rest of the time at a care facility, and still has not gone home. In fact, he’s not doing well. David has been a faithful son. He’s at his side every night, and bearing a lot of stress in doing so, and sadness too. He’s exhausted.

I’ve encouraged David to be totally present with his dad and that the film can wait. Still, through the last month, David has continued to work. I hope in some ways that has been therapeutic for him. It is certainly not expected by me. So life happens, and you roll with the punches. You can pray for David and his dad Bill. I know he’s appreciate that.

Most of the Music has been delivered

Most of the music that we purchased has been delivered. We’re waiting to wrap up the feature documentary that will be approximately 1.5 hours to have Caleb Buse add his three songs, and Steve Wicks to do the final mixing and mastering, as well as filling out the sound track.

We have music from Daniel Dorsett (Tech fight song), Boyhood Bravery, Seaux Chill, Eron Harris, OsoKing Mezzy, and Malcolm Jordan. I can’t wait to share their awesome music with you in the film!

Eron Harris song “Titans”

Recruiting Tremayne Reed as Associate Editor for We are Family Feature Documentary.

David and I had the pleasure of working with Tremayne Reed to capture video footage. Tremayne also created our movie trailer. Check it out here.

We were super impressed with Tremayne’s professionalism, his eye for video production, and his work ethic. We’ve offered him the job of Associate Video Editor for the film and we’re hopeful that he’ll take it. This will really help move the ball forward with the Feature documentary.

Hired a Lawyer

I hired a lawyer to help us with some legal matters. For example, as I’ve shared about before, to get permission from the Indiana High School Athletic Association to use three of their videos in the documentary we needed to have Errors and Omissions Insurance.

As I began to work with the Insurance company I learned that I had to have a “Title Report” done by my attorney to provide proof that our title “We are Family” is not copyrighted and we have permission to use it.

So I had to bite the bullet and hire a lawyer. But this is ok. It is what it is.

Still, by God’s grace, somehow within budget

I’m actually quite amazed to be able to say this, but even with the extra costs that we had not anticipated:

  • $1,200 to put a lawyer on retainer
  • $2,000 Errors and Omissions insurance
  • $500 for IHSAA video usage

We are still right at what we were able to raise through the kickstarter campaign. I take this as a kindness from God. I just wanted to make a quality documentary to share a great story about some awesome kids and their coaches and a city that rallied around them. I had no idea of the challenges of doing this I would face along the way.

I’m so thankful for the generosity of about 110 people who gave 25K to make this project happen. The end result will be worth it all.

Animation

One last thing. A friend of my brother Jed from Indianapolis, Todd Gardner, heard about the documentary and was interested in helping out. He has a graphic design and video company, bitNbydesign, inc. Anyway, he said that he had been playing around with an animation for the movie and he gave us permission to use it, for free! I don’t know if we’ll use this in the film or for promotional purposes, but it was a great encouragement to receive this last week! Here it is.

Exclusive Screening in Indy

We don’t have a date for the exclusive screening in Indy. But we’re hoping in mid to late summer. I’ve learned my lesson about setting dates, and there’s still lots to do and hoops (no pun intended) that we need to jump through. But we’re making progress and the finished product will be great: it’s a story worth telling. And I thank God that I have the opportunity to share it!


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