‘Florabundance’ art exhibit to bloom in Port Townsend

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 7, 2026

PORT TOWNSEND — Strange and colorful plants, birds from North and South America and playful sketchbooks will get together in “Florabundance,” the Northwind Art exhibit open in downtown Port Townsend.

“This is the time when spring is in full swing around here, so we gravitated toward this blend of artwork,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.

“Florabundance” pairs two prominent Northwest artists: ceramicist Ariana Heinzman of Vashon Island and mixed media artist Sarah Helen More of Wenatchee, who is known for her glass mosaic mural at Sea-Tac International Airport.

The 29-foot by 6.5-foot mural, titled “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” shimmers with classic More imagery: flowers, quiltlike patterns and elements from the natural world.

In the Northwind Art exhibit, More will show a different kind of body of work: dozens of framed pages from her sketchbooks. Collage-like images, drawings and paintings of flowers, color charts and birds fill the pages.

Alongside More’s art in “Florabundance” are Heinzman’s creations, which have names such as “Banana Split Plant,” “Flower Spouts in Yellow Petal Stripes” and “Rubbernecking.”

The exhibition, curated for Northwind Art by Seattle Art Fair and Paul Allen collection curator Greg Bell, opened today and will stay on view through June 22. The venue is Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., where the hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.

A celebration of “Florabundance” is set for June 6 during Port Townsend’s First Saturday Art Walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information about the exhibit and Northwind’s other shows, activities and art classes, visit https://northwindart.org.

For her part, More said she feels eager but also a little uncomfortable about unveiling her sketchbooks. The pages in the Northwind exhibit are from the past six years or so, and they show plenty of play and experimentation.

“There’s a lot of excitement for me, because I’ve never shown any of my sketchbook work,” she said.

Her public art works, such as the Sea-Tac mural, are “very precise and composed. You don’t see the mistakes or the places where I tried something new. The working process is often hidden,” she said, “and there’s value in showing it. For me, it’s important to see the messiness behind all of it.”

Heinzman also is an experimenter, an artist who allows her clay shapes to evolve in her hands.

“There’s so much surprise in it that’s exciting and fun,” she said of her art form, adding that humor and vivid colors are key parts of her practice.

Those colors — yellows, blues, greens, reds — “are how joy comes across in my work,” she said.

Heinzman, from Cincinnati, Ohio, earned her bachelor of fine arts degree at the Rhode Island School of Design and then moved to the Seattle area, where she is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery. Her art in “Florabundance” appears courtesy of J. Rinehart.

More grew up in Houston, Texas, and Portland, Ore., and found her first inspiration in her mother and grandmother’s quilts and craft work. Long before she became a maker of murals and mosaics, she learned how to crochet, embroider and sew.

With her art, More seeks to elevate those traditional crafts while offering a reminder of the beauty in the world.