Phil Fagerholm еland Island Descendant & A Driving Force In Seattle's Avant Garde Art World
by Maria Jarlsdotter Enckell

A few blocks from the center of Seattle’s downtown, situated at a slightly angled street running into a multi-street intersection, is the large, artist-run gallery, Art/Not Terminal. Surrounded by buildings, the area abounds with shops, offices, and bars on the street level. Ethnic groups from around the world are represented by the people moving about.

Walking southward several blocks, one arrives at the bustling Pike Place Market. Everything edible found in the Pacific Northwest is on display at the Market, among fruit and vegetable stands laden with produce. Steeply below is the harbor with its many ships from around the world, coming and going. In a port city like Seattle, the commerce continues throughout the year. For some reason, Seattle always reminds me of Helsinki, also a port city, although Seattle’s terrain is steep in comparison with my home town. But, Seattle is also a recognized city of artists. As early as the early 1960s, I heard that Seattle’s art scene had its own style.

The artist-run art gallery, Art/Not Terminal, has a vital role as one of Seattle’s present-day grassroots galleries. During my regular visits to Seattle, I try to visit the gallery because it is so exciting to check out what is on display in its huge and irregularly-shaped quarters on three levels, two of which are below street level. What an incredible sensation it is to go down and down again to reach the cavernous hall with its immense walls where large items are on display.

Upon entering the gallery, I find Phil Fagerholm working, hidden behind the computer. He is the “Featured Artist” in the gallery’s “Featured Show” area. I have come to admire his artwork consisting of small, intimate collages. I have known Phil for a number of years. We met at the Swedish Finn Historical Society’s Seattle headquarters. For years, Phil has given of his Mondays as a volunteer there in the archives, working primarily on the newspaper collection.

Professionally speaking, Phil is a formally- schooled artist and one of the major forces in the gallery. This unique gallery’s mission is to give the area’s avant garde artists a regular chance to exhibit their creations. My friend Phil was born in Bellingham, Washington on November 27, 1940. He grew up on Lopez Island, one of the San Juan Islands situated between the big Vancouver Island and the mainland, close to the Canadian border.

He was baptized Albert Philip after his father, Albert Fagerholm, a commercial fisherman on the island. Phil’s mother was Dorothy Kilpatrick. His grandfather, Filip Florentin Fagerholm, was born on the Åland Islands at Gölby in Jomala parish on May 1, 1867, and he emigrated to the U.S. in 1887. In the States, he met Maria Wilhelmina Bergman, also from Åland and born at Geta. She emigrated in 1889. They married in the small port town of Port Townsend, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. Then, they moved to Lopez Island where they homesteaded. Early in life, Phil exhibited his art interest. While in school, he took private art lessons for four years with artists Jane Given Johnston and Bruce Johnston, who also lived on the island.

When he graduated, Phil continued his art studies at Skagit Valley College at Mount Vernon, Washington. According to Phil, his most influential teacher at SVC was Sidney Eaton. In 1961, Phil moved to Seattle, where he came in contact with religious organizations, joined an Afro-American church, and was baptized. As a member of this organization, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he lived for nearly four years. From this location, he traveled all over the United States attending the church’s conferences.

During these years, Phil did not work as an artist, but by 1992, he had severed all his ties to this church. One year later, he was back in Seattle and working as an artist. In January of 1993, he joined this artist run gallery, Art/Not Terminal, which is operated entirely by members and their volunteer efforts. The gallery’s humorous name came about because its first home was the Trailways Bus Company’s abandoned terminal building. Nowadays, it is located at 2045 Westlake Avenue. The gallery was founded by the Swedish-American artist, Lonny Johnson, some 13-14 years ago with several of his artist friends. The idea was to fill the need of Seattle’s lesser-known artists’ crying out for a controllable space to exhibit their current work, a location which was also accessible to the broader public. This is exactly what Johnson and his band of artists managed to do.

The gallery runs on member-ship service. It is ruled by an eleven-member board elected yearly from among the membership. Phil has been elected to the board four times, serving one year as president. However, he attends all board meetings, even when he is not an elected member. At such times, he has no voting right.

Upon joining the gallery, he became one of its cornerstones, often just because he could be counted on to keep the gallery open on a day-to-day basis when other members, for various reasons, failed to fulfill their obligations. During some months, Phil has monitored the gallery during more than half of the days.

I asked Phil how it was to be president of an organization consisting of a bunch of artists. “Well,” he responded with a smile, “It was not always easy. In the company of such explicit characters, opinions fly like the seagulls outside. But,” he continued, “Our rules here are all very simple and direct, and thus, easily enforceable.”

The gallery does not exercise any censorship, nor is there a jury. Its members are free to exhibit anything they wish for the cost of $20.00 per piece/per month. Between 40 and 70 artists take part every month with one or more art works, according to their needs and budget. Ten to eleven times yearly, one room in the gallery is offered by lottery, and made available to the winner for a one-man show. Phil has won that lottery three times in the past. Most of the winners choose the space located directly behind the huge picture windows facing the street.

I asked Phil what is required from the membership. He explained that there is only one difficult require-ment: each member is supposed to “give” one day a month to the gallery so that it stays open. This person will thus represent the organization and its members, selling and presenting their art works to the public, and keeping day-to-day records of the gallery’s activities.

I am back at the gallery because Phil has again won the lottery and has a one-man show. This time he exhibits his collages. Most are about 16” x 20” and sometimes he works in an even smaller format. On exhibit, he has nineteen collages and six lampshades, also collaged. The lampstands in wood are created by his artist friend, Dale Dell ‘Ario. Some are floor models, others are table lamps. All are simple in shape with graceful lines, reminding one of reeds in the wind.

Phil gives me the space to look alone. Initially, one is attracted by the simplicity in his art work. The materials he uses are discreetly textured. Given time to look closer and longer, one is struck by the refinement in the balance of form and line, dark and light, and how they interact - almost as if they were in motion - pulling and then quiet. Some of his collages are lyrical in color, shape, and light. Others again are dark in their contrasts. In them, Phil demonstrates his capacity to drive, almost kamikaze-style, his dividing lines to the very edge. In those compositions, the effect is almost hypnotic.

Most of his pieces are accompanied by a verse of Scripture placed next to the exhibited work. Phil explains that through his choice of Scripture, his wish is to draw attention to the Creator’s name, YAHVAH. And he finds an opportunity to do this through his choice of form, color, and the quality of material he uses next to them. He tells me, “I have no wish to promote myself as an artist/creator — that position is the Creator’s alone. What I’m striving for through my art is to get the viewer to read His Word — and take it to heart.”

Phil does not hold membership with any organized religion. “But,” he states, “The Word of Scripture is still a central part of my life, and through the use of my art it is my effort to spread that knowledge.” I believe he has managed to do this. His quiet persona, his intimate works, pull the viewer into the enormity of the pocket-size world he has created.

Additionally, I believe that the gallery’s unique function, and the fact that it has been active for nearly 14 years, is a guarantee that it will be noted when the cultural history of Seattle, the Northwest coast, and perhaps even the State’s cultural history are recorded in years to come. This is the significance of its mission within this century.

As we all know, art reflects or mirrors society. And, as we know from history, it is true that those who achieve success in their lifetime have been forgotten one hundred years later. But, from among the multitude of today’s unknown, an ignored artist’s works might, in time, step to the foreground as a giant representative of his era. History holds many examples to choose from: Vincent van Gogh, the Dutchman, who never sold a painting in his own lifetime, and Finland’s own Helene Schjerfbeck, who had to die before she was bestowed the international recognition she always deserved.

I cannot predict whether Phil Fagerholm’s creations will reach that goal. But, what I am very sure of is that Phil is a vital part of its promotion, with his own enormous contributions towards Seattle’s cultural grassroots world.

Like so many places all over the world, Seattle also suffers from petty bourgeois cultural ignorance. The City newspapers’ art critics often ignore their exhibit openings. At most, they wait until others have identified the real discoveries found in this gallery — brought forth through invitations to exhibit in more “elite” galleries. Phil has also exhibited his works in the Sydney Gallery at Port Orchard, Washington. There, he has won much-deserved attention.

One thing is certain: every larger community should have an artist-run gallery such as Seattle’s Art/Not Terminal. We can ill afford to ignore the support our young, as well as unknown artists’ need. It is true that it is hazardous to give support by purchasing unknown artist’s art works. But, it is far more satisfying than putting tax dollars toward the support of their bread lines.

We must learn from the deeds of the New York-based postman and his wife who bought art works from totally unknown artists just because they loved what they saw. At home, they hung these pieces on their walls. After years of collecting, at their retirement they donated their collection to the Smithsonian Institute. It was reported in the nation’s newspapers that it was the most representative collection of contemporary art the museum had received—a sensational report in the world press. The collection was financed by a mere postman’s salary. There is much to be learned from this.

To see Phil's work click here

Art/Not Terminal is located at 2045 Westlake Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98121.

(Reprinted with permission from The Quarterly, the newsletter of the Swedish Finn Historical Society, Seattle, WA, and edited from the original article published by the еland newspaper.)