Library art exhibit packed

Last Friday evening the Sisters Library saw more people coming and going than it has since its opening in January of 2006.

In addition, it was probably the first time so many people coming in could be heard saying, "I wonder who will get first for photography," and the people going out saying, "Boy! Wasn't that a show! I thought the hare and the tortoise rocker was really something!"

In the midst of the crushing crowd of over 200 people from throughout the Sisters community, the soft restrains of Lola Knox's woodwind players could be heard drifting from the Teen Room of the library.

At times, the community room was so packed with art-lovers, happy participants and those, "oohing," and "aahhing" over the art, it was elbow-to-elbow humanity.

Dads with kids on their shoulders looked fondly at Mark Thompson's clever woodwork, "Hare and Tortoise" rocker. One parent exclaimed, "If my daughter sees that rocker, she'll want one just like it of her pony."

"Man is that good," and other similar exclamations were often heard between mouthfuls of hors d'oeuvres and wine consumed by the crowd. And standing in the corner, grinning like the preverbal Cheshire Cat, and shaking hands and pats on the back was Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) Art Committee Chair, Zeta Seiple - who has been running the show with Paul Bennett and her board since the day the new library came into being.

Last year was the first time the art committee asked viewers to select three items as "Best of the Show." Best of the 2014 FOSL Art Exhibit went to "Gold Country Blacksmith," photograph by Greg Waddell; acrylic "Flurries," by Charles Chamberlain and the wood carving "Hare and Tortoise," by Mark Thompson.

The FOSL Art Exhibit will be up or viewing through January, with some pieces from the glass cabinets in the foyer and throughout the library for sale - 17 of which are already sold. Ten percent of the sale goes into the FOSL coffers to be used not only in services and equipment for the Sisters Library, but for purchasing books and audios for the entire Deschutes Public Library System.