A pedestrians pause to look at art displayed at the UP Front Gallery sidewalk on Front Street North during ArtWalk. By Greg Farrar

The start of Labor Day weekend marks the end for ArtWalk.

Before the outdoor happening goes on hiatus until May 2011, head to downtown Issaquah and Gilman Village for a final first Friday of artists and musicians. ArtWalk runs from 5-9 p.m. Sept. 3 along Front Street and in Gilman Village, 317 N.W. Gilman Blvd.

UP Front gallery, 48 Front St. N., features works from graduates of the EDGE professional development program. The program helps artists set short- and long-term career goals. Expect to see works from the Puget Sound artists featuring amalgamate photography, painting, fiber and textiles, wood and metal sculpture. The exhibit opens at ArtWalk and runs until Sept. 23.

In addition to the UP Front opening, find artEAST artists at work inside the former Lewis Hardware space, 95 Front St. N. The nonprofit organization hopes to turn the storefront into a downtown arts center.

Check out artists Pepper Peterson and Patty Forte Linna in the lobby at Village Theatre, 303 Front St. N. Peterson specializes in painting figures. Linna has attracted attention for her pastel works. Find artist Alexandru Pricob at Centennial Park at the intersection of Front Street North and Rainier Boulevard.

Musicians abound during ArtWalk. Tiger Zane has a Gilman Village set planned. Listen for rock ‘n’ roll classics from Larry Strobel and guitarist Ronnda Cadle at Gilman Village, too.

Settle in for Hettel Street Blues at the Hailstone Feed Store, 232 Front St. N. Find singer-guitarist Austin Jenckes at the Issaquah Library, 10 W. Sunset Way.

Puget Sounds Piano Studio, 485 Front St. N., Suite F-1, has a show planned for ArtWalk. So do the Issaquah Singers. Find the choir at the Issaquah Valley Senior Center, 75 N.E. Creek Way.

The band, primed for a weeklong recording session in Seattle, persevered. Beeman — a lead songwriter, too — gripped his bass with fingers emerging from a blue cast, although he may have to re-record some material.

Days before the band opens Bumbershoot at the Experience Music Project, the band beat back nerves. Great Waves will reunite not long before going on before a first-day Bumbershoot crowd.

Guitarist Will Holmes, a student at Occidental College, plans to fly back for the day and then — in rock star fashion — return to Los Angeles the next day. The other band members live in the Seattle area.

The band originated at Skyline High School; members graduated from Skyline and Eastside Catholic High School.

Bumbershoot caps the band’s yearlong romp across the Seattle music scene.

“Blue Blood” — Great Waves’ debut EP — came out in December. The tracks roam across bluegrass fields and lonesome highways. Singer Ashley Bullock has a plaintive voice that sounds like the ghosts from a thousand breakups.

The band released the drum-driven “At the Bottom of the Well” EP in April. Drummer Ryan Sprute sprinkles tricks and fills throughout the tracks.

The still-untitled third EP is set to come out after Bumbershoot.

Only a handful of the tracks recorded at Jupiter Studios last month made the cut. The band scrapped most of the songs written for the EP, but some of the new music might sneak into the Bumbershoot set.

“We feel like we made a lot of strides this year and we want to keep getting better,” Beeman said.

Warren Kagarise: 392-6434, ext. 234, or wkagarise@isspress.com. Tim Pfarr: 392-6434, ext. 239, or newcas@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

The result is “Kilowatt Ours” — the last film to be screened as part of the city-sponsored Sustainability Film Series.

“Kilowatt Ours” explores the source of electricity and the problems caused by energy production, including climate change, mountaintop removal mining and childhood asthma.

In the film, Barrie encounters people, businesses, organizations and communities using energy conservation and “green” power to save money and the environment.

The free event runs from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 16 at the King County Library Service Center, 960 Newport Way N.W.

Arrive early for snacks, the chance to talk to local energy experts and to sign up for home energy audits.

The city Resource Conservation Office presents the Sustainability Film Series through a grant from the King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program. Call the Resource Conservation Office at 837-3400 to learn more.

The city Parks & Recreation Department and Seattle-based Lunar Flicks plan to screen the animated film “Monsters vs. Aliens” at 8 p.m. Sept. 11 on the community center lawn, 301 Rainier Blvd S.

Bring blankets and lawn chairs for seating. The event will be moved inside the community center in the event of inclement weather.

Swedish Medical Center is sponsoring the event. Call 837-3300 to learn more.

Take it off Saturday at Nudestock, the annual music fest at Fraternity Snoqualmie, the nudist campground nestled in the Tiger Mountain forest.

Nudestock runs from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. The lineup includes the bluesy Mary McPage Band, the eclectic Kim Archer Band, Fraternity Snoqualmie member band Spicey C’eetoe — yes, the members perform nude — and Wired! — a Snohomish County outfit specializing in rockabilly and classic rock.

Find a complete list of Nudestock activities at the campground’s website. Call 392-NUDE (6833) for more information.

First-time visitors to Fraternity Snoqualmie receive a free one-day membership; return visitors pay regular day fees of $15 per person. Children can attend if accompanied by their parents, at no additional fee. The campground requires photo identification for admittance.

Joe LaRosee (left), producer and engineer at Jupiter Studios, looks on as Great Waves members Will Holmes, Paul Beeman, Ashley Bullock and Ryan Sprute listen to a rough track inside the Seattle studio. By Tim Pfarr

The night before Great Waves played a make-or-break set, the Sammamish band stumbled through the worst performance members could remember.

Holed up in Ballard, the band played to a room empty except for a brooding hipster nursing a beer. Great Waves had not rehearsed in two weeks — and the rustiness crept into the show through botched intros and forgotten lyrics.

The band remembers the night as “unbelievably awful.”

The next day, the folk-infused rock band delivered a flawless Sound Off! set at the Experience Music Project. The turnaround continued a week later: Great Waves took the top spot in the competition for musicians 21 and younger. The prize: the opening slot at Bumbershoot on Sept. 4.

“Our expectations were not very high,” singer Ashley Bullock said. “We didn’t think we were going to get in.”

Great Waves originated after bassist Paul Beeman and guitarist Will Holmes formed a “really awful band” in eighth grade at Pine Lake Middle School. The duo added Bullock at Skyline High School. Eastside Catholic High School drummer Ryan Sprute completed the group.

For Bumbershoot, the band departs from the basement parties and school functions of the past to appear on a bill alongside Bob Dylan, Neko Case and The Decemberists.

Despite the post-Sound Off! attention — the gigs at the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and the Crocodile Cafe, the radio performances and a niche in the Seattle music scene — Great Waves members remain humble and self-deprecating.

Maybe a little too self-deprecating.

“It’s rare that we don’t make some sort of catastrophic mistake,” Beeman said.

Great Waves, good manners

The lineup solidified in high school, after Beeman and Bullock started dating. The future singer had performed in the school choir before her boyfriend recruited her.

The band “leaks into our relationship more than the relationship leaks into the band,” Beeman said.

Members scattered to colleges across the West Coast, and the distance took a toll on the band. Great Waves took a backseat to college, but the members decided last August to take a year off from school and plunge into writing, recording and performing full time.

“We got a chance to see what it was like to be musicians at a professional level,” Bullock said. “You get the ins and outs you don’t really get in high school.”

The competition prize included recording time at Jupiter Studios, a dim warren of rooms tucked into Wallingford. The band has been hunkered in the studio recording a still-untitled third EP.

“Being in a band is like having a bunch of girlfriends you can’t sleep with,” Sprute said.

Great Waves picked up another plum from the Sound Off! goody bag: “Rock Band” agreed to make one of its songs available for download to the game.

But the group seldom acts like a real-life rock band. Great Waves plays few gigs. The polite members spend most of their time penning lyrics.

“We feel like we made a lot of strides this year and we want to keep getting better,” Beeman said.

Making tracks

Though band members can be a little too quick to criticize songs and performances, the musicianship is tight and the band has attracted ample attention. The show at Sound Off! set Seattle music bloggers atwitter.

However, guitarist Holmes admitted he prefers the quiet of the studio to the unpredictable stage environment.

Inside Jupiter Studios, the band recorded amid vintage music posters and scattered amps and guitars. Members sunk into a green velvet sofa in the mixing room to listen as producer and engineer Joe LaRosee polished rough tracks.

“Some songs come easy and some songs do not at all,” Sprute said.

Many of the pieces members pen for recording sessions end up scrapped. Great Waves released the EPs “Blue Blood” in late 2009 and “At the Bottom of the Well” in April.

“The painful part is, there are some ideas we really like that just don’t work out,” Beeman said.

Bullock often prompts comparisons to Regina Spektor, but the sound defies easy categorization. Flecks of bluegrass, folk and rock shine on the band’s EPs and soon-to-be-released tracks.

The band name comes from a song title by Australian instrumental trio Dirty Three.

Onstage, Bullock prefers songs to banter. Holmes, a classical guitarist used to looking at his frets, has to remember to smile and look into the crowd.

Playing at Bumbershoot offers Great Waves a chance to introduce their music to a broader audience.

“We just hope people will come,” Bullock said.

Warren Kagarise: 392-6434, ext. 234, or wkagarise@isspress.com. Tim Pfarr: 392-6434, ext. 239, or newcas@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Like many summer concerts, this one is free to attend, but it is recommended that one food item per person be brought to help benefit Northwest Harvest and the Emergency Feeding Program. Community members are more than welcome to donate more canned food items, said Brian Anderson, operations director at the Emergency Feeding Program.

The goal of the concert is not only provide entertainment for locals, but also to reach beyond neighborhoods, religions and cultural barriers in order to raise awareness about those in need of food.

Cougar Mountain Music in the Park will feature music from around the world, including opera, bluegrass, jazz, pop, Broadway, bagpipes, cloggers, dragons, drummers and more. The concert will feature the bluegrass band Northern Departure, from Seattle.

The concert will take place at the former anti-aircraft site on Cougar Mountain.

Look up, into the tree branches, along Issaquah Creek near Pickering Barn. Yarn crocheted into intricate patterns stretches from trunk to trunk — a visual representation of the nearby creek.

Seattle fiber artist Mandy Greer started to install the piece — called “Mater Matrix Mother and Medium,” or “MMMM” — earlier this week. The recycled fabric and yarn stretches for 300 feet.

The city Arts Commission and the King County cultural affairs agency, 4Culture, cosponsored the installation. The work remains on display through late September.

Greer spends time teaching people how to crochet. The skill helps participants renew the installation as pieces degrade.

Greer plans a “Community Crochet” workshop at the Issaquah Farmers Market from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday near the installation. The free event includes all supplies and welcomes beginners.

Photographer Mary Ann Halpin, renowned for her ‘Fearless Women’ portrait series, also created Fearless Women Day. By Mary Ann Halpin

On Aug. 26, Issaquah will have the honor of hosting the first Fearless Women Day Seattle in the Pickering Barn. Women of every age and background are welcome and encouraged to attend.

As part of a national day, the evening event will mark the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, a monumental day in history when women in the United States received the right to vote.Karna Sundby, a founder of the Seattle branch of the event, will host Fearless Women Day Seattle.

“The music is just beautiful and it is an evening of inspiration and upliftment,” Sundby said. “It’s a chance to really connect with other women. Invite your girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, and those men who support women finding their voice and making a difference in the world.”

Attendees can expect the evening to be filled with inspirational speakers, catered wine and food, and music from the husband-and-wife group Gypsy Soul, which used to be based in Issaquah.

Fearless Women Day was first created by author and photographer Mary Ann Halpin, who had written a book, “Fearless Women, Fearless Wisdom,” telling the stories of 40 women and their fearlessness. Each of the women is photographed in the book holding a magnificent sword as a symbol of courage and empowerment.

Sundby is one of the 40 women whose story is featured in the book.

“When the book came out, it started taking on a life of its own,” she said. “So now, coast to coast, all over the country and Canada, women are coming together to celebrate all the women who came before us and on whose shoulders we stand on, to celebrate that we have greater freedom and a greater voice than any other women in the world.”

Along with food and drinks being provided, women will have an opportunity to participate in the Women’s Video Project, an opportunity to be photographed with the sword.

The video compilation of these photographs will be used to promote the program in the coming year.

“There’s something magical about the sword,” Sundby said. “When I was photographed with it, it was a very powerful experience.”

On Aug. 26, one local woman will be selected to receive the 2010 Fearless Women Award and be presented with her own sword.

Tickets can be purchased for $77 and all net proceeds go to raise money for the Women’s Funding Alliance.

Sundby expects anywhere from 100 to 200 women to attend the first Fearless Women Day Seattle.

“I just feel like we live in an amazing time,” she said. “I feel myself and that many other women are being called to create a better world.

“I felt inspired to produce this event in hopes that women would come to feel more fearless and reach out to help others.”

If you go

Fearless Women Day Seattle

6-8:30 p.m. Aug. 26

Pickering Barn

1730 10th Ave. N.W.

www.fearlesswomendayseattle.com

Kirsten Johnson: 392-6434 or isspress@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

The exhibit features work from Susan Briggs, an artist who uses intricate fabric collage, stitching and beading to create detailed and colorful designs. By Susan Briggs

Textile art by Eastside female artists is to embellish the walls of Providence Marianwood through the end of September, thanks to a partnership between the assisted living facility and artEAST.

The exhibit, titled “Vibrant Threads,” showcases the work of Anne Anderson, of Issaquah; Sharlet Driggs, of Fall City; and Susan Olds, of North Bend. Made from felted wool, hand-painted silk and fabric collage, the art boasts vivacious colors and unusual media.The show will be open for public viewing through Sept. 30. One-fourth of the proceeds from the sale of the artwork will be donated to Providence Marianwood.

“We are grateful to the artists and to artEAST for bringing this great show to us,” Arlene Carter, executive director of the Providence Marianwood Foundation, said in a press release. “Both the art and having interaction with the community in this way brings joy to the mostly elderly residents at Providence Marianwood. That’s a nice win-win.”

As a remodel to the building is in its final stages of completion, the staff at Providence Marianwood thought it was the perfect time to begin a rotating art show. The current exhibit is the venue’s third of many, according to Liz Ashley, an artEAST artist and member of the Providence Marianwood Foundation board of directors.

The first exhibit displayed photography from 12 local artists, while the second showcased artwork from Marianwood residents.

“It’s nice to get something fresh every couple of months,” Ashley said, adding that many of the residents appreciate the change of scenery.

If you go

‘Vibrant Threads’ exhibit

Through Sept. 30

Reception for the artists

6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 18

Providence Marianwood

3725 Providence Point Drive S.E.

Paige Collins: 392-6434 or isspress@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.