Editor.

Greetings fellow citizens of Langley and the surrounding community, and all who people the sidewalks and stores of this town everyday! Isn’t this such a wondrous village, especially now with the second street project being so successful and with a freshly renovated library, to boot? Wow, and with the Saratoga coastline a stairstep away or an easy stroll downhill by foot and the marina as close as a whisper nearby. What a great place to be on an island like Whidbey!

There is one key area though that is missing the Village by the Sea imprint. It’s something I’ve been wondering about over the years: What does that blank canvas that is the Star Store pediment above the brick facade on First Street “want to be?” From my perspective it is the potential “jewel in the crown” for First Street that could serve as a gathering symbol in the most conspicuous place available for such a possibility.

The pediment “canvas” could be a painting, a bas-relief, a blown-glass feature, a tribal mask, a mixed media mosaic, or even a complex mirror design, which will present the magic of a mythical configuration, to inspire us all.

But there’s a logistical problem, there are fixed, hazardous wires in place which prevent access even to refinish the brickwork, let alone to scaffold up to the pediment atop of the building for any kind of “crowning” installation.

For an artistic vision to come into being in this centermost place on first street, it will take a village to troubleshoot a way to make it feasible. From city planners to electrical contractors, architects, builders, roofers, what would it take to make this possible, i.e., to access the First Street facade of the Star Store building, by lift or scaffold?

The resulting public artwork would make a fitting legacy for longtime Star Store and Mercantile owners Gene and Tamar Felton, and be an iconic feather in the cap for Langley, to show future generations that yes, we were here, and for the record says: we paid attention. We felt it. We named it. This is what we saw and in our reckoning this is what we leave behind that cannot be unmade, not for fame, but for form. For imprint.

And for the Langley Arts Fund cohort, this is something that John Braun, father of the arts in Langley, could be remembered for.

Mike Hooper

Langley