The story behind the Clam Digger:

Celia, a Squaxin woman arrives with her sisters at the clam garden. It is a terrace contained by rocks and shells that sits below the surface of the water until low tide. It is a perfect habitat. Celia watches her reflection in the water fade leaving ripples and trails in the sand. As the tide recedes, tiny holes appear. They are the butter clams calling to her, “Here I am. Come find me”. The moon was full last night and the low tide this afternoon will give Celia and her sisters many hours to harvest enough clams to dry for the coming months. She pushes her shell into the sand beneath. The clam sinks deeper into the silt. She pushes deeper trapping it with her shell. As she pries them up, the clams are silent, closing themselves tight. Through the afternoon, Celia and her sisters fills their baskets until the August sun sinks low on the horizon. They hang the baskets, half submerged, on the outside of the canoe so the clams will spit out the silt and grit they have swallowed in their game of hide and seek. The women are a silhouette against the pink and orange sky as they paddle toward home. Like their clams, they are silent. This garden is one of few not taken over by the settlers. They will not speak of it.

Bio: 

Julie Szten received her Masters of Art in Teaching at Whitworth University and Bachelor of Fine Art in ceramics from Western Michigan University. Her fascination with the art of the Pacific Northwest Coast tribes brought her to Washington.
In Spokane, she received a teaching assistantship from Whitworth for graduate school and later continued to study at Eastern Washington University.

Julie has taught ceramics at Spokane Art School, Corbin House and worked as director of both the YWCA Pottery Program and the Eugenia Stowe Gallery in Spokane Washington. She taught art for over 25 years in public school and private settings.

Ceramics, bronze, pastel and digital imaging are among the media Julie explores. She exhibits her work in juried shows and galleries.
 

Artist Statement: 

My work illustrates stories of humanity, the myths of heroes and fables of vanities.  Both the art and legends of First Nations resonate in my work. Coast Salish and Haida, Tlingit, and Kwakiutl tribes, to the north teach me an interplay of movement and tension in calligraphic line and nesting shapes. The compact undulating forms of Aleut and Inuit reflect the strength of restraint and order.  

My ideas brew just beneath the surface but as I work, a dialogue develops between the medium and me. In this negotiation, an image emerges and often, so does its story.