Art Chowder September | October, Issue 23 | Page 34

The Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center at Gonzaga Univerisity By Melville Holmes and Kathryn Brogdon Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center Exterior photo: courtesy of Gonzaga University W hen I first came to the door of Miss Myrtle Woldson’s home on Spokane’s prestigious Sumner Avenue and was ushered inside, I was a bit stunned to find myself transported back to another age and place: an exquisitely tasteful interior, where the only hint of modernity was electric lighting. The reigning aesthetic sensibilities were like those found in 18th- century French painting, interior décor, and decorative arts — beauty, order, balance, proportion, logic, refinement. The serenely restrained color harmonies and atmosphere might best be likened to those subtle nuances found in paintings by Jean-Marc Nattier or Jean- Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. She was an inveterate Francophile. 34 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE The Living Room Northeast Corner The oil painting: A Shepherdess with Her Flock, is by James Desvarreux-Larpenteur (1847-1937) photo: Melville Holmes