September has arrived and with it the Lakewood Film, Arts and Book Festival

By Ed Kane, Freelance Graphics.

The festival (www.lakewoodfestival.org) is an expanded and improved 3-day event that is sure to please Lakewood and Pierce County residents and attract friends and art lovers from far and wide. That has been the goal of the many volunteer members of the event’s staff – to establish a place for Lakewood on the Washington arts scene. The 2018 presentation is sure to make solid gains toward that goal as well as exhibit a serious respect for the arts as produced by local/regional artisans. The entire weekend, including the ArtsFest, the Book Festival and 9 feature films, will be free to all throughout the run of the festival.

The event also has a new venue – The Sharon McGavick Conference Center on the grounds of Clover Park Technical College. The Center will provide more space for expanded offerings, enable the addition of a new Book Fest and add a third day to the event. Since the festival is entirely indoor attendees will not have to concern themselves with adverse weather conditions. Nor will parking be a problem.

The Book Fest has attracted over 40 regional authors offering their books to the public. A more vigorous outreach effort to the photography community has resulted in a growth in the number of photographs entered in the photography competition. Photographer/artist/writer Ed Kane, a volunteer and web designer with the ArtsFest, has been asked to provide a special feature photography display for the third year in a row. Previous exhibits have been Saigon 67 and Birds & Blossoms.

For 2018 Kane’s exhibit will include his particular approach to traditional pictorial scenery, but in addition he will present a series of digitally altered images, mostly of Lakewood and Tacoma subjects in which Kane has ventured into the wild side of color, texture and other aspects of each image by dramatically altering them and creating intriguing interpretations nearly unrecognizable from the originals. In some cases a number of images were altered and composited to create an entirely new art piece. The special exhibit totals at least 12 images not shown in public before. If there is to be a theme to this year’s exhibit it would be “In Our Own Backyard.” These are all easily accessible subjects from areas within Pierce County. Kane will be present during most of the 3-day event to answer questions. He will likely be found at his authors table in the main lobby participating in the Book Festival with his travel and history book, Roads to Ruins, a pictorial guide to the medieval castles of Germany.

The special photography exhibit will not be a part of the photo competition in which top photos will share cash awards totaling $500 or more. There will also be cash awards for the top arts submitted in the fine arts competition.