“Drawings 2024-25,” by Fred Birchman, is a new exhibit that will open in the Chapel Gallery on December 7. All are invited to meet the artist at 12:15 p.m. immediately following the second service, or at the public reception from 1–3 p.m. Several of his sculptures will also be on display. Refreshments will be served.

Birchman is a masterful draftsman, yet his finished works are playful. Many are mixed media. He explains himself by quoting American artist William T. Wiley, “We’re all kind of basically involved in the same thing, putting up a blank of some kind and filling it in.” He describes the work in this exhibit by saying, “Here are my filled-in blanks. They are part of an ongoing conversation I am engaged with on the nature of work, the meaning of, the shape it takes and my part in it. Sometimes the conversation is in the form of charts, architectural diagrams and illustrations and the odd bits of plants and animals. Sometimes it is in the form of dumb remarks, random notes, leftover coffee stains, scraps and empty spaces.”

Birchman was born in Vancouver, WA, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Western Washington University. He has been drawing all his life. “Aside from an occasional stab at painting or sculpture, it is what I do,”  he explains. Birchman’s work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums throughout the Pacific Northwest. 

Perhaps Birchman was meant to be an architect. “But,” he muses, “I am mostly attracted to the notes, scribbles and sketches that start out the process. The more mundane part of architecture, the making things stand up and stay up part of it, is not that interesting to me. Not as much as the drawing part."

The exhibit will hang in the Chapel Gallery through January 9, 2026. For more information about Fred Birchman and his work, visit his website at www.fbirchmanart.com.