06/26 Featured Artist: Holly Rainwater

Serendipity has much to do with Holly’s many forms of expression.  What she finds on the beach, in the forest, by the road becomes something to repurpose. So pieces of driftwood become part of a king-sized bed frame with the help of a carpenter's nail gun; twisted limbs form an arbor down the yard; somebody's “FREE” Guemes roadside table gets a pastel paint job with flowers, and the loons she loves - and (also!) volunteers for - get beautifully painted on a flat piece of driftwood.  She does like her things “just so” but not in the same way as a builder does, all vertical, measured, and square, rather just a bit off.  Not too off, not kooky, or weird, mind you.  Holly “rescues” all sorts:  rocks, shells, glass, wool, rope, furniture, fabric, feathers, and scrap to be sure, but also injured and threatened animals. She still has a pharmacy for animal recovery from the earlier days.

Especially Birds! Whether with macrame or with driftwood and paint, Holly conveys her commitment and her infatuation with birds. Many of her altered, decorated, and arranged found objects are play and experimentation but the birds get special care beyond that. She also has a dovecote with 14 white doves 13 of which have lived almost twice the normal life expectancy of a dove. And though the eagle in the tree above her house and the crows closer to the water eat each others babies she is happy enough to have them both at home in the yard, along with somebody’s fawn.  As a child she cared for puppies; in Sammamish it was a menagerie; on Guemes it has primarily been birds, both domesticated and wild.

Two pieces of special significance for Holly are attached here.  Her macrame owl was long in the making.  This owl was done for her mother-in-law's 90th birthday using a pattern. This is a reprise of one she did as a young woman four decades ago.  The piece took some forty hours to create over several days. The process is/was both intense and restful.  She tends to do this sort of work in the colder, wetter, darker time while listening to country music.  She does not feel rushed and describes the long consecutive hours as a  precious “zone” to be in because she feels such absorption and calm; stillness is not her normal state.  Her loons, on the other hand, come from a different place beginning with a chance discovery on the beach. No particular subject in mind from the outset.  The board’s empty knothole could have gone either the orca way or the loon way as her inclination is to black and white in her work.  She did these loons in a seven or eight hour stretch. No model.

Holly is reluctant to call herself an “Artist” because others in both her and her husband Gary's family actually made/make their living in woodcarving and ceramics while she is entirely self-taught. The artistic inspiration and commitment of very close family awakened her willingness/courage  to give creating her own spin.  It is true, however, that she began macrame at an early age and then reprised it along with exploring newer forms of self expression with things found. Much, much more was going on in her life than this, but the creative work is part of taking precious life on fully and completely, especially now.  If it feels good to her to make things it also feels very good to her to have them seen, praised, or bought.  Much of what she sells is in the form of donations to fundraisers…for animals.

Holly’s most recent piece, Trio: Salish Sea seen at the top of the profile, will be shown at the “Art in Nature Walk” sponsored by the Lee Art Foundation in Snoqualmie Valley.  The piece consists of a slice of log with a heron, a fish and a river otter mosaic done in pebbles, feathers, sea glass, driftwood, and shells.  The piece is donated as part of a fundraiser for the foundation.  Opening events will be July 1, 2026 in Carnation, WA.

Holly and Gary started coming to Guemes when they were high school sweethearts. This was in the mid-70’s when Guemes was even less genteel.  The South Shore then was already familiar to other, older, Rainwaters, and these two decided—even then—that they would live on Guemes someday…after getting married, after retiring… of course! About 2011 they moved into a camper and started building their current home on Cypress Way.  Between those dates Gary did meticulous construction and Holly picked up what she could.  Living in Sammamish in the 70’s they had a slew of critters including sheep and chickens, horses, cats and dogs, a daughter and much more on five acres. Holly worked at Boeing and was busy with her animals and those of others.  The closest vet was in Issaquah and, in time, she became known as someone nearby who could and would actually care for injured and sick critters. That is still the case here today.  Volunteering is a big part of who she is; she might just be the one taking your blood specimen at Island Hospital’s lab.  Her sympathy for animals runs very deep but did not include moles. She realized that people in rural Sammamish needed someone to free their yards from molehills so she started “Moles Are Limited” to help them out.  She still does prefer animals to people.

Profile written by Ralph Mendershausen