What was your inspiration to pursue art as a career?
During my college years, I took art classes, but mostly I was involved in theater- a field that allowed me to study costuming and set design, inspiring me to later to open a small dinner theater in Bonnie Doon, CA with a group of drama graduates. One of the things I would do at the dinner theater was to bring in local artists for each new show and I recall that it was always something that I enjoyed doing. The journey between those theater years and today took many twists and turns, but I think every twist and every turn was the lead-in for what was going to be my destiny, after my husband and I moved to Spokane from Hawaii over twenty years ago. In Hawaii, I had dabbled in painting and started a line of hand painted purses and accessories that I wholesaled to some of the finer boutiques.
What lead you to decide to own and operate an Art Gallery and when did that happen?
After moving to Spokane, I wasn’ t sure what I was going to do, but I knew I needed a creative outlet. For awhile, I wrote for the Inlander and took on a few jobs as an event planner. Meanwhile, I was itching to pursue a dream that I had been yearning to do for many years. So when I met Alesha Calendar, a highly creative and smart young woman with an entrepreneurial spirit, the two of us gathered our resources and opened“ The Artist Tree Gallery.” The gallery was located directly across from the Davenport Hotel and by 2003 / 2004 there were a significant number of galleries all within a twoblock radius. It was a very special time as the area was bustling with fresh energy and rightfully called the Davenport Arts District.
FIBER ARTIST MICHELE MOKREY
26 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE