• Custom Compounding for People & Pets
• Flavor & Dosage Form options for veterinary prescriptions
• Bio-Identical Hormones
• Customized Preservative-Free, Dye-Free and Allergen-Free Products
• Low-Dose Naltrexone
• Hormone Consultations
• Nutrition Counseling for Wellness, Weight Loss & Athletic Performance
• Professional Grade Supplements including: Thorne, Ortho Molecular, Metagenics, Design for Health, Pure Encapsulations, Integrative Therapeutics
• Pharmacist formulated CBD
• Locally owned
Email Health & Home Editor Anne McGregor at annem@inlander.com.
The conversation continues on the Inlander Facebook page, and stay in touch with us at Inlander.com/Health&Home.
here’s no denying that happy, warm feeling when someone offers up a compliment, even for something mundane, like that ’fit you weren’t quite sure about or how your hair finally behaved that morning.
Recently, Inlander Health & Home received some wonderful — and significant — compliments in the form of six combined first and second place finishes in the magazine category of the Society of Professional Journalist’s annual regional awards, which cover magazines across Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. We took home first place for Magazine Print Page Design, with the judge calling out our “Nice cohesive and clear designs that align with and strengthen the storytelling.” Thanks go to Art Director Ali Blackwood and Graphic Designer Leslie Douglas for their endless creativity. E.J. Iannelli’s “Angling for Benefits” (July/August 2024), a story on the health benefits of fly fishing, also got a first place nod. And we received four second place awards for our coverage of health, food, people and businesses.
While Health & Home is celebrating 20 years, it always feels good to be validated by our professional peers. But really, the thanks go to you, our readers, who enjoy what I hope is a pleasant distraction from the frequent difficulties and frustrations of everyday life — a chance to settle in and enjoy reading about the people in your very own community, doing so many wonderful things. And I would be remiss to not give a big shout out to our advertisers, who make it all possible by understanding and supporting the value of award-winning, local print journalism.
Cheers!
BOB JOHNSON is a national award-winning writer and editor from Southern California who relocated to North Idaho in 2024. His work thus far for the Inlander and Health & Home has focused on wine, food and personality profiles. “I love meeting people, finding out what makes them tick,” Johnson says, “and telling their stories.”
CARRIE SHRIVER is a freelance writer who was fascinated with reading and writing before she could understand either activity. When she isn’t reading or writing, she often pursues other creative arts like jewelry making. “Talking with eye doctors helped me see just how vulnerable this sensory organ is to damage from activities we wouldn’t normally consider dangerous,” she says.
SPOKANE • EASTERN WASHINGTON • NORTH IDAHO also at inlander.com/health&home
1227 W. Summit Parkway, Spokane, Wash. 99201 PHONE: 509-325-0634
HEALTH & HOME EDITOR
Anne McGregor annem@inlander.com
HEALTH & HOME ART DIRECTOR
Ali Blackwood
INLANDER EDITOR
Chey Scott
INLANDER NEWS EDITOR
Samantha Wohlfeil
COPY CHIEF
Chris Frisella
CONTRIBUTORS
Erick Doxey, E.J. Iannelli, Bob Johnson, Young Kwak, Will Maupin, Madison Pearson, Azaria Podplesky, Summer Sandstrom, Dora Scott, Carrie Shriver
ADVERTISING & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Tamara McGregor
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Carolyn Padgham, Kristi Gotzian, Autumn Potts
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Kelcey Boyce, Tracy Menasco, Stephanie Grinols, Toby Rose, Alanna Spencer
ADVERTISING COORDINATORS
Raja Bejjani, Colleen Bell-Craig
PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER
Tom Stover
SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Derrick King
GRAPHIC DESIGNER, PHOTOGRAPHER
Leslie Douglas
CIRCULATION
Frank DeCaro, Travis Beck
BUSINESS MANAGER
Dee Ann Cook
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE SPECIALIST
Amanda Bodie
PUBLISHER
Ted S. McGregor Jr.
GENERAL MANAGER
Jeremy McGregor
Health & Home is published every other month and is available free at more than 500 locations across the Inland Northwest. One copy free per reader. Subscriptions are available at $3 per issue: call x213. Reaching Us: Editorial: x262; Circulation: x226; Advertising: x233 COPYRIGHT All contents copyrighted © Inland Publications, Inc. 2025. Health & Home is locally owned and has been published since 2004.
SUPPLEMENT TO THE INLANDER
BY MADISON PEARSON
Fresh mountain air, picturesque views and a glass of delicious wine. If that sounds like your perfect summer evening, it’s in your best interest to head to Schweitzer Mountain Resort for the 2025 edition of their annual Northwest Winefest. The two-day event features live music, food vendors, classic mountain activities like hiking and bike riding, and of course plenty of wine ready to be sampled. Each ticket comes with commemorative glassware, six tasting tickets, access to the tasting tents and the promise of a delightfully good time. July 19-20, price TBA, Schweitzer, schweitzer.com
Dust off your bagpipes and iron your kilts to perfection because the Spokane Highland Games are quickly approaching! This annual festival is celebrating 67 years of teaching the Spokane community about the history of Scotland and showcasing the traditional features of Highland Games such as massed bands, pipe exhibition, heavy athletics and highland dancing. Participate in games like tug-of-war or sit back with a stomach full of haggis and enjoy the show. Either way, it’s going to be an exhibition you won’t want to miss! Sat, Aug. 2 from 9 am-5:30 pm, $5-$12, Spokane County Fair & Expo Center, www.spokanehighlandgames.net
About 20 minutes outside downtown Spokane and a few more miles down a curvy, meandering road sits Medical Lake’s Waterfront Park. The park, while quite desolate during the colder months, is vibrant and full of activity once the weather creeps up past 70 degrees. The biggest event the tiny town, and even tinier park, sees is the annual Blue Waters Bluegrass Festival. This year, catch bands like Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Blue Point, Friends Again and many more as they jam under the trees and fill the park with the sounds of clangy banjos and tuneful fiddling. Aug. 8-10; Fri starting at 4 pm, Sat starting at 1:30 pm and Sun starting at 12:30 pm, $38-$84, Waterfront Park, Medical Lake, bluewatersbluegrass.org
After a successful inaugural festival in 2024, Spokane is one of six cities to host the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in 2025 (and the only city not in Canada!). With big-name pulls like Matt Rife, Bert Kreischer, Fortune Feimster and Derrick Stroup, audience members will most likely leave with sore ribs from doubling over and laughing in their seats. Alongside big-time comedians, local funny folk will open the festival with sets of their own. If comedy is your thing or you just like to laugh, get your fill during this year’s Great Outdoors Comedy Festival. Aug. 22-23; times vary, $78-$439, ONE Spokane Stadium, greatoutdoorscomedyfestival.com
The cold weather will no longer put a damper on farmers’ market fun, as the region’s first year-round farmers’ market, THE SCALE HOUSE MARKET, held its grand opening on May 31.
Built on the site of an old rock quarry, located at 4422 E. Eighth Ave. in Spokane Valley, the
area has been renovated and renatured through a $4.4 million project. It’s now a community hub that features a commercial kitchen, classes, an indoor market, seasonal outdoor vendor space and much more.
The market will not only help connect local farmers to the community but also provide
Longtime Inlander contributor E.J. Iannelli’s new podcast highlights local creatives
BY MADISON PEARSON
You’ve seen his byline in the Inlander and Health & Home for more than a decade, as he’s covered local theater, classical music and anything else he can get his multifaceted hands on.
Now, you can tune into E.J. Iannelli’s musings on his new weekly podcast, A LINE AROUND YOUR THOUGHTS. Each episode centers on conversations with local artists, writers, musicians and other creatives from our region — and with Iannelli at the helm, the episodes are bound to be full of thoughtful questions and interesting answers.
“Even though my first love is print, I value recorded, variable-length interviews like these because it lets the guests express themselves entirely in their own words,” he notes.
support for new businesses and a place for people to reconnect with their food. It’s predicted to host 65-plus local farmers and businesses, generating $14 million in annual sales, and creating 155 jobs.
The indoor mercantile is open Wednesdays from 3-7 pm, Fridays from 3-8 pm and Saturdays from 8 am-2 pm. The outdoor market is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 am-7 pm, Fridays from 11 am-8 pm, Saturdays from 8 am-4 pm, and Sundays from 11 am-4 pm, through Oct. 31. — DORA SCOTT
For more information head to thescalehousemarket.com or follow the market on Instagram @the_scale_house_market.
So far, he’s interviewed the music director of the Spokane Symphony James Lowe, Shelly Wynecoop of Spokane Arts, and Marit Fischer and Rob Worstell from the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture as well as prolific Spokane author Jess Walter among others.
Find new episodes of A Line Around Your Thoughts every week at alaytpodcast.com and anywhere you stream podcasts. You can also view each interview on YouTube at youtube.com/@ALAYTpodcast
BY ANNE MCGREGOR
Situated next to the iconic Flour Mill, the Upper Falls Condominiums rise seven stories above the Spokane River. Constructed in 2007, the condos offer sweeping views of not just the waterfalls churning below, but also the iconic highlights of Spokane’s skyline including the Gesa Credit Union Pavilion and the Clock Tower.
Designer Natali Alexander, owner of Spokane’s Design Works, says her clients purchased the unit when they relocated from the West Side. They chose the space for its urban location with easy access to Riverfront Park, shopping, entertainment and the nearby universities.
And indeed, choosing a condo, with its low maintenance requirements, was a good fit as the couple spend significant time each year traveling. They loved the floor-to-ceiling windows and the fourthfloor location in a well-constructed and well-managed building.
What they didn’t quite love was the condo’s interior. “The space had been really, really well maintained. They wouldn’t have bought it if it hadn’t, but it wasn’t their taste,” Alexander says.
“We loved the bones of the home,” write the owners, while on a trip to the Arctic, “and knew we would need to revise most surfaces in order to make it our own.”
The changes weren’t superficial. “We completely gutted it,” says Alexander.
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“Falling
Though Alexander’s portfolio features several colorful projects, for the condo, she took cues from the owners. “Whenever I come to a project, as a designer, I have my own preferences, but I really try to step into their world and what it is they’re looking for.”
She got her first clue with the owners’ bold choice to replace the original wood flooring: large format, dramatic tiles. “There’s sort of a reflective, almost concrete look to it, and they’re almost black,” Alexander says. “Once she made that selection, I had a pretty clear idea of the direction.”
“We focused on consistent and calming tones in order to avoid the feel of clutter and allow the view to be the main highlight wrapped in a modern black window frame. We used mirrors to open the room and ‘catch the view’ wherever possible,” the homeowners write.
No contractor is going to run all over town to find the perfect brass the way I will. I’m there to make sure that it happens right.
—Designer Natali Alexander (above)
In the open layout, the great room fireplace got a makeover, and the kitchen was outfitted in black cabinetry with gold-toned hardware.
“We had chosen gold or brass hardware,” says Alexander, who is very particular about finishes and scoured her sources for the perfect items. “There's so much variation, and they can look so vastly different. They don't all look good together. And when I say they don't all look good, I mean they look actively bad together… No contractor is going to run all over town to find the perfect brass the way I will. I'm there to make sure that it happens right.”
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“Falling in Love,” continued...
The kitchen was reframed with its walk-in pantry space reoriented to open into the dining area, and the former pantry space was outfitted to serve as a home office. Windowed sliding doors allow privacy without sacrificing the view. “He works a lot, and that way he’s got his own little dedicated space that’s out of the rest of the living spaces,” says Alexander.
The bathrooms posed a bit of a challenge. The homeowners wanted to keep the cabinets and granite counters, though at first glance the style was not in keeping with the condo’s urban, modern look. “Granite can age things… I wanted to make it look like, ‘Oh, that’s a really beautiful piece of granite. It looks great in this modern bathroom,’” says Alexander. She spent considerable time choosing a paint color for the vanities with the perfect nuance to enhance the granite. The primary bathroom’s shower was enlarged, and new tile installed.
Living downtown is a real treat. We are within walking distance of the city’s top restaurants, shopping mall, concerts...
Though Alexander specializes in the “hard stuff that stays in the condo,” rather than furnishings or rugs, she enjoyed collaborating with the homeowner to outfit the space. “She would narrow things down, and I would give her my opinion… A lot of the furniture came from Restoration Hardware, which she loves.”
The goal was a space with a “serene casual feel that could also function as a business meeting/entertaining space,” the homeowners write.
Mission accomplished.
With the renovation complete, the couple are eager to continue exploring.
“Living downtown is a real treat. We are within walking distance of the city’s top restaurants, shopping mall, concerts, festivals and universities. The amazing view is ever-changing… It’s even commonplace for us to witness couples getting engaged on the bridges. Very romantic place!”
DESIGNER AND GENERAL CONTRACTOR
• Natali Alexander, Design Works
CABINET REFINISHING AND PAINT THROUGHOUT
• Ryan Doherty, Paint Perfection
TILE WORK THROUGHOUT
• Dustin Schmehl, One Time Floor Covering
KITCHEN CABINETS AND CARPENTRY
• Tim West, West Constructors
ELECTRICAL
• Dave Christianson & Northwest Electrical Solutions
STONE FABRICATION
• Stix & Stones
CABINET HARDWARE
• Spokane Hardware
FIXTURES AND APPLIANCES
• Ferguson
PAINT REP
• Vernon Barnes, Rodda-Miller Paint
CUSTOM SLIDING DOORS
(PRIMARY SUITE + HOME OFFICE CONVERSION)
• Rustica
PAINT SELECTIONS
• Rodda CA100 'beechwood' for main living space walls and primary bathroom cabinets
• Sherwin Williams White Sesame 9586 'white sesame' lids, trim, bedroom and bathroom walls
• Sherwin Williams 6990 'caviar' large river-view window trim and accents throughout
FIXTURE LIGHTING, FURNITURE, SOFT FURNISHINGS
+ GUEST BATHROOM VANITY
• Restoration Hardware
ALL TILE SELECTIONS
• Elysium, via Design Works
A Hayden Lake cabin gets a new look, with heartfelt ties to the past
BY ANNE MCGREGOR
When Jessica Hodgson contemplated the overhaul of the kitchen in a Hayden Lake family cabin, she knew it would be a big job. The Schaff Homes’ in-house interior designer and project manager was also aware the project was particularly meaningful for the homeowners.
“The home has been in their family for a long time,” she says. “They wanted it to feel modern and clean and updated, but also still feel like the cabin they loved.”
CABINETS: Cabinets Northwest
- Bonners Ferry
COUNTERTOPS: Capaul Stoneworks
APPLIANCES: Fisher and Paykel
supplied through Fred’s Appliance
PLUMBING: Pace Plumbing
ELECTRICAL: Solid Electrical Solutions
HVAC: McCleary - Heating and Air Conditioning
PAINT: Everhart Painting
DECORATIVE LIGHTING: Cedar and Moss flush mounts over island
However, the kitchen in the cabin they loved wasn’t functioning well. Closed off from the rest of the living space, it featured an awkward footprint with among other shortcomings, inadequate cold storage space. But the biggest issue was it just didn’t accommodate their desire to host the friends and family during the Inland Northwest’s somewhat short but utterly blissful summer season.
“They just have so many people all the time,” says Hodgson. “They wanted two fridges, that was essential. They requested four garbage can rollouts.”
So the project was substantial. “It was a huge overhaul. We rearranged everything — closed windows, moved all of the appliances,” says Hodgson.
The old kitchen featured white oak cabinets with a blue green hue on the walls, and the owners wanted to preserve that memory by incorporating similar elements in the new version. “He really wanted to keep the wood cabinetry that was light (toned), and she really loved that (wall)
color, so those were the jump-off points,” Hodgson says. “And then they kind of just gave me full rein. They wanted it to feel modern and clean and updated, but also still feel like it was a cabin.”
Hodgson chose quartersawn, slab-front white oak cabinetry accented with painted vertical shiplap that extends up the wall above the six-burner range, which is topped
grab breakfast before heading outdoors. The addition of a generous kitchen island offers casual dining for four.
Though storage space was lost with the removal of some of the upper cabinetry, Hodgson made up for it with a pantry and laundry area just around the corner.
Like any remodel, there were some surprises along the way, including when a
They wanted it to feel modern and clean and updated, but also still feel like the cabin they loved.
by a custom hood. Two new windows flank the range adding natural light. Custom features include a coffee- and toaster-station, tucked behind cabinet doors when not in use that’s perfect for early risers to
wall was opened up to reveal a support post that couldn’t be moved. Still, the project, which started in January finished up in April, with plenty of time for the homeowners to enjoy summer at the lake.
BY ANNE MCGREGOR
Way back in 1949, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, responding to “hundreds of requests,” researched ways to make a kitchen more efficient. Applying World War II principles of work simplification to kitchen design resulted in “A Step-Saving Kitchen” where every task related to meal preparation had been analyzed and optimized.
A short color film documented the innovations in the U-shaped kitchen, where natural light floods the space from thoughtfully placed windows over the sink. And when the researchers couldn’t find adequate supplemental light fixtures to adequately light the space, they built their own, placing fluorescent tubes in handcrafted wooden “troughs.”
Food and equipment storage was arrayed within arm’s reach in each of the kitchen’s carefully considered zones for baking, cooking and dishwashing.
The movie ends as a family sits down to dinner and the narrator concludes, “In this kitchen that has made her task of food preparation so much lighter, the housewife can share her family’s enjoyment at mealtime.”
The USDA’s Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, which had offered support to homemakers through the Great Depression and World War II, was decommissioned in 1962.
Much has changed since then — and yes, we can all agree that the prep and presentation of meals need not be referred to as “her” task. But it’s worth appreciating the sincere desire to make a homemaker’s life easier through applying research and innovation to seemingly mundane daily activities.
And in different ways, that’s still happening today. Read on to learn how kitchen design and materials are being adapted to our modern lifestyles.
Storing dishes and glassware in cabinets has been standard kitchen protocol for many years. But what if there was a better way?
“I would say there’s a huge shift toward drawer storage over cabinet storage,” Jessica Hodgson, in-house designer and project manager at Schaff Homes says. Drawers offer a win-win: allowing easy viewing of their contents as well as improved accessibility — for shorter people, for those without a lot of upper body strength and for people using wheelchairs.
Large pullout drawers with strategically placed pegs can accommodate stacks of various sizes of plates and bowls and even cups or mugs, as well as pots, pans and lids. Slim rollout cabinets on either side of the range are also popular, taking full advantage of an often awkward space and offering handy storage for spices and everyday cooking ingredients like oils and vinegars.
Incorporating storage drawers is also allowing designers to reduce or even eliminate upper cabinets, something Hodgson says is, “A huge, huge thing, too.” Instead of cabinets, the above counter space can be
used for open shelving.
Establishing clean symmetry in cabinetry and keeping countertop clutter to a minimum is paramount for many clients. Hodgson says she’s concealed drawers of different sizes behind what appears to be two equal-sized drawer fronts that open to reveal a “drawer within a drawer,” with the smaller space holding utensils while larger items are stored below. “Mostly I have done
that in more modern applications because it just looks so clean,” she notes.
The notion that metal finishes need to be consistent throughout the kitchen – meaning the faucet has to match the cabinet knobs and light fixtures – is giving way to more relaxed design. “There’s a lot more layering happening, and it makes it feel more creative,” Hodgson says.
Cabinetry surfaces are also undergoing
an evolution. While painted cabinetry remains popular, natural wood finishes are now a top choice. White oak dominated for the last few years, but Hodgson says preferences now seem to be moderating toward slightly darker, mid-tone woods. “People still like white (cabinets) – that’s a classic timeless look,” Hodgson says, “but people are getting a little more bold with what they want to do.”
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One of the most notable appliance trends is induction ranges. Though similar in appearance to electric glass-top ranges, induction cooktops use electromagnetic waves to directly heat cookware, resulting in a cooler, safer cooktop surface, better energy efficiency and, when compared to gas ranges, improved indoor air quality. Professional chefs also praise induction’s rapid, smooth heat. “I got one because we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, and now I can’t go back. [The heat] is just so consistent,” Hodgson says.
Steam ovens, long standard in commercial kitchens, are now making their way into the residential market. Touted for their ability to help retain nutrients and flavor, as well as cooking faster and without added fat, steam ovens also save energy.
If space permits, double dishwashers are helpful for those with frequent hosting duties or larger families. On the other hand, single dishwashers with two separate drawers offer the option of running either a large or small load. Cooling drawers offer additional refrigerated space, and can be tucked under the counter, providing optimal temps for specific storages, such as for vegetables or fruit. Built-in coffee stations are another popular luxury.
As for lighting, Hodgson says she’s seeing clients moving away from one of the recent-past’s must-haves: can lights and pendants. “I’ve seen a trend toward more flushmount fixtures versus cans. I don’t think I see as many pendants anymore,” she says. “On an island, I see a large chandelier or multiple surface mounts.”
Kitchen counters have to stand up to rugged use over many years – decades even – and also, as one of the main contributors to a kitchen’s aesthetic appeal, they need to look good.
Natural stone options include granite and marble. Every slab is unique, and options range from stones with minimal pattern and veining to more dramatic and opulent options.
Granite and quartzite are similar natural stones. Granite is distinguished by small flecks or grains that are distributed fairly evenly across the surface, while quartzite often has more of a grain. Both are durable, though they can stain or chip and require occasional resealing. Each slab is one-of-a-kind.
Similarly, marble is a natural material, known for its beautiful veining, though it is a softer material than granite and prone to developing a patina reflecting its use over time, which can be a plus or minus.
“Some people enjoy it,” says Sabrina Melzer, showroom associate at Stratus Surfaces in Spokane Valley. “It’s like, ‘Oh, do you remember when that happened?’ It can be memory-related, but a lot of people want something that’s not going to have those things.”
Manmade countertop materials at Stratus Surfaces include quartz and porcelain. These surfaces resist staining while offering a variety of looks. Porcelain slabs are made to mimic granite, marble or quartz by fusing exquisitely detailed images of various surfaces to a giant porcelain tile. Matte and polished finishes offer both durability and predictability: Customers know exactly what their counters will look like.
To form quartz countertop material, naturally occurring quartzite stone is crushed and blended with resins and pigments. Designs can be veined or solid, and in various color and texture combinations, with some variation among slabs.
Melzer is ready to help customers
confronted with what can be the dazzling number of choices at the Spokane location, where entire slabs of porcelain and quartz are on display, or with Stratus’ online inventory of natural stone.
She starts with the basics: “Do you like bolder patterns? Do you like contrasting colors? Thinner veinings? Thicker veinings?” She notes that looking at a slab that’s displayed vertically is not the same as seeing it installed on a horizontal plane. And lighting matters a lot, so Melzer encourages customers who see a material they like in the store to try it out on the company’s visualizer app, and to take a sample home.
ThinScape laminate is installed without an underlayment; retro prints are another Wilsonart countertop option. WILSONART PHOTOS
Laminates are another form of manmade countertop, and they’re crafted from an unexpected material: paper.
“The decorative part of laminate is actually decorative paper,” says Lacey Crawford, Wilsonart Engineered Surfaces regional sales representative for the Pacific Northwest. To produce a laminate countertop, the decorative paper is topped with a layer of melamine, and then backed with sheets of Kraft paper.
For Wilsonart’s ThinScape line, dozens of layers of Kraft paper are stacked beneath the decorative paper layer. After adding phenolic resin and dye, the stack of paper is heated and pressed to create a solid wood substrate with a decorative top. For consumers, the result is a ½-inch thick product that doesn’t require a plywood backing, is impact- and heat-resistant, and offers durability that Crawford says is comparable to other manmade and natural stone options, at a lower price point.
But if midcentury design is what you’re after, Crawford points to the Retro line, which features cheerful patterns including boomerangs and readily recognizable starbursts from the 1950s and 1960s. “I’ve had a lot of people install these recently,” Crawford says. “You don’t always have to have a stone look! You can have a 1950s look if you want to.”
There are some things you’d rather not see.
Like whatever just squished under your shoe while walking in the park. Or when the thing that you thought was an extra thick boot lace moved of its own volition. Or the man crossing the street showing the world his Kermit the Frog boxers as his belt and jeans slip southward.
For everything you’d rather not see, there’s at least another thing you do want to see.
Like the last of the snake that you thought was a boot lace. Or your indoor cat waiting on your porch after his latest Houdini trick. Or two more chocolate peanut butter cookies in the package when you desperately need chocolate.
Thankfully, we can protect our eyesight by slipping on a pair of safety glasses. When is the right time to take this precaution?
“All the time,” Alison Granier, an ophthalmologist at the North Idaho Eye Institute says. “I’m biased because I see the worst of the worst, but I would probably have my children or my loved ones in protective eyewear for everything if it were up to me.”
“I’ve seen everything go into an eye. Hangers, Barbie legs, pencils, knives, golf balls, air soft pellets,” Granier says.
One of the worst injuries Granier has encountered was a patient who had a circular saw blade penetrate through his eye and into the front of his brain. Somehow the man resisted any urge to pull the blade out himself. The patient survived the injury, but not only was his eye affected, he also ended up with “significant neurological dysfunction.”
Eye-opening
advice from experts on how to avoid damaging your precious vision
BY CARRIE SHRIVER
Sara Edmons, an optometrist at Eye Consultants in Spokane, has also seen her share of objects vs. eyeballs. Like a high school student with a pencil in his eye (because the teens were throwing pencils at each other). The pencil penetrated the student’s lens (behind the iris, the colored part of the eye) and displaced it, leading to permanent vision loss.
So, danger lies not just in what you’re doing, but also what the person next to you is up to, notes Granier. This is true for work and for recreational activities like skiing, hiking, riding an ATV and gardening.
“I’ve seen a surprising number of plants go into corneas when people are pruning,” Granier says.
Another situation to consider wearing safety glasses is for sports that involve balls — like tennis, volleyball, pickleball, etc. — according Edmons. “When my brother was in high school, he got elbowed in the eye in a basketball game, and he ended up bleeding in his eye,” and missing a week of school. Edmons also recommends wearing safety glasses in any dusty, dirty environment.
For people who already have impaired vision loss in one or both eyes, it’s especially crucial to wear eye protection.
Granier sums it up: “Realistically, you should have protective eye wear on whenever you’re doing anything that involves unpredictable movement patterns, unpredictable obstacles or machinery, or any kind of industrial application if you work in a welding shop, auto shop, mechanic, etc.”
Let’s start with minor problems.
Granier says some superficial eye injuries include scratches and/or foreign bodies that can be treated in a doctor’s office by
While you may wear sunglasses more for your comfort in bright or intense light, sunglasses also help avoid sunburn of the eyes and eyelids. Eyelids account for about 10 percent of all skin cancers, mostly because no one is chancing rubbing sunscreen in their eyes. Meanwhile, “Somebody’s out in the sun, they can get a sunburn on their cornea,” says optometrist Sara Edmons of Eye Consultants in Spokane. “Also chronic exposure to ultraviolet light is going to speed up cataract formation, a yellowing, clouding to the lens of the eye.”
If you’re lucky to celebrate a large number of birthdays, you’re eventually going to develop cataracts, but “if you don’t wear sunglasses and you live outdoors, you’re going to get cataracts much younger in life,” Edmons says.
The best kind of protection is from sunglasses with a sticker stating “100% UVA and UVB protection.” The tint and darkness of sunglasses is a personal preference. People with lighter colored eyes are usually more sensitive to light and may prefer darker sunglasses. Polarized lenses are nice if you’re light sensitive or need glare reduction, like for boating or skiing.
Edmons recommends children form the habit of wearing sunglasses at a young age. She had her own son sporting shades at 6 months old. While he initially pulled them off, over and over again, she kept putting them back, and eventually he stopped resisting.
— CARRIE SHRIVER
removal of the object and antibiotic eye drops. (Note that eye infection can be serious, destroying vision in as little as 48 to 72 hours.)
Significant, though usually temporary, vision impairment can arise from a superficial trauma, say from being struck by an airsoft pellet or in fist fight, when bleeding in the anterior portion of the eye gets stuck between the iris and the cornea.
Termed hyphema, it’s most often found in kids and young adults, and if treated quickly and appropriately, it results in full vision restoration.
One alarming, but not usually serious ailment is a broken blood vessel, a bloody area that develops in the white part of the eye. The causes are varied and can be something as innocuous as rubbing your eye, sneezing, coughing or taking a blood thinner (like an aspirin to treat a headache).
“They look really bad, and they always make people very nervous, but oftentimes they usually are not of much concern,” Granier says.
Things can get much worse if you choose to forgo the safety gear (or temporarily remove it at the wrong moment). One of the most serious scenarios is a ruptured globe. This is when an object (like a saw blade) penetrates or perforates the eye.
This requires surgery and the possible long-term complications include low or elevated eye pressure and scarring. Depending on where the object entered the eyeball, a patient’s eye may never function the same way again.
“If (an object) enters your iris or your lens, which are the structures that lie behind your cornea, that can be very devastating. If you have an object that either goes all the way through to the back or exits the back of the eye in the retina, that causes a much, much more complicated injury,” Granier says. “They’re much more likely to cause a level of blindness or visual impairment.”
Retinal detachment is another serious situation.
“Retina is like the film of the camera,” Edmons says. “If the retina detaches from the back of the eye you lose vision where that retina has been detached.”
A detached retina requires surgery, and the sooner you are seen by a doctor, the better your possible outcome.
“If you come in right away, within a day or two of it happening, and we get [it] fixed, we can frequently get vision back to normal, but if it’s ignored and the patient waits several weeks before they come in and it is something as serious as a retinal detachment, the retina starts to die,” Edmons says.
“Even if we get it reattached it’s lost that blood flow, it’s not going to regenerate, and patients may always have — depending on the severity of detachment — some peripheral vision loss if it was just the peripheral part of the retina that was detached. So it’s important to get in right away.”
If you do have a broken blood vessel and it’s accompanied with discomfort, vision changes or a sudden light sensitivity, it’s best to get it checked, she cautions. ...continued on next page
If you’re now convinced eye protection is a good idea, Edmons and Granier recommend polycarbonate safety glasses because the material won’t shatter if it’s hit with an object moving at high speed. And no, regular prescription or even sunglasses don’t offer enough protection. You need safety glasses that have peripheral protection and are formed to your face so nothing can slip behind the glasses and enter your eye.
(Plastic protective glasses aren’t recommended by Edmons unless it’s to protect
Lots of things can cause dry itchy eyes and teasing out the exact cause may take time. Eyes may get itchy due to allergies.
Pataday and Lastacaft are the over-thecounter brands of allergy eye drops that ophthalmologist Alison Granier of the North Idaho Eye Institute suggests patients use. Wearing sunglasses can help minimize the allergens in your eyes, as can keeping windows closed at night in allergy seasons. Showering in the evening, including washing your hair and eyelids, can help remove any pollen lingering from the day. Oral allergy medication may also help.
Staring into a computer screen for most of the day can lead to dry eyes, which can be helped by using lubricating drops or by simply trying to blink more frequently. “The only way those tears get spread over the surface of the eye is to blink,” optometrist Sara Edmons says. Other dry eye treatments involve increasing tear production or preventing tears from evaporating, and even plugging tear ducts so the tears in the eyes stick around longer.
— CARRIE SHRIVER
There are nutrients shown to benefit eye health, including antioxidants (like vitamins A, E and C, as well as zinc and lutein). So include them in your diet, optimally through eating foods like kale, spinach, collard and beet greens as well as blueberries and blackberries, or if you can’t do that, supplements may help.
“There can be a lot of expense and false advertising in some supplements that are purported to support eye health. More than they actually have evidence,” ophthalmologist Alison Granier says. “Most of those things aren’t necessarily dangerous, but I have seen vulnerable populations spend a lot of money on supplements that are probably not effective.”
“Fish oil is good for the eyes, so eat fish several times a week,” optometrist Sara Edmons says. “If you don’t like fish, you can take a fish oil supplement.”
General health for your entire body is also important for your eye health. “The more diseases we have, the more likely you’re going to have eye diseases,” Edmons cautions.
— CARRIE SHRIVER
your eyes from chemicals you’re working with, like bleach.)
Polycarbonate safety glasses that can fit around your prescription glasses are available, and you can even order a pair that contains your prescription.
“Most opticals in our area are comfortable helping you custom order. Oftentimes there’s also an insurance benefit for that if you talk to your employer or look at your vision insurance. Insurance companies like to prevent eye injuries because they are costly,” Granier says. “Make [eye protection] a conscious effort in your day to day life, and especially at the times when you wouldn’t expect or anticipate it, because those seem to be the injuries that sneak up on us.”
BY E.J. IANNELLI
There’s a phenomenon of human hearing known as binaural beats. It occurs when two pure tones of different frequencies are played simultaneously, one into each ear.
Under these conditions, what the listener perceives is an illusory beat with the frequency of the difference between the two tones. As an example, if a tone of 425 hertz is being piped into a listener’s left ear and 430Hz into their right, their brain will perceive an additional tone at 5 hertz, or 300 beats per minute.
Binaural beats might sound cutting-edge and futuristic, but they’re not a modern discovery. The Prussian physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove first reported his findings along these lines back in 1839. And based
on influential papers published during the 1920s and ’30s, researchers were still actively pursuing the subject in the early part of the 20th century.
These days, the term “binaural beats” is more commonly found on Spotify playlists and YouTube videos promising relaxation, improved concentration and the most restful sleep. Putative benefits like these hinge on the idea that binaural beats have therapeutic qualities because of the way they affect brain activity.
But how substantive are those claims?
They may have some merit. Over the course of his career, audiologist Frank Musiek conducted extensive research on hearing, including publishing nine books and hundreds of articles. He points to
recent studies that have analyzed the effects of binaural beats using electroencephalography (EEG), a testing method that measures electrical activity in the brain.
EEG data is generally captured in terms of alpha, beta, delta, theta and gamma waves, with each category of wave corresponding to a different brain state, from deep sleep to high anxiety.
In these kinds of studies, researchers “are looking at whether or not binaural beats can enhance that entrainment of these different oscillations in the brain,” he says.
“What they are finding is that, yes, when you have binaural beats, these waves seem to be slightly enhanced. And they feel that maybe this has something to do with the ability to relax, to become calmer and
all sorts of things.”
There’s even a chance that binaural beats can be experienced when the tones fall below audible levels. One key study by J.J. Groen in 1964 titled “Super- and subliminal binaural beats” examined whether the phenomenon could be perceived when presented tones didn’t quite meet the threshold of hearing.
The findings in Groen’s study — and others that followed — suggested it was possible under certain circumstances. Musiek hypothesizes that this could stem from a kind of low-level triggering of the more sensitive auditory fibers that lead to the brain. We aren’t quite “hearing” the presented tones, in other words, but our brain is still able to register them as a binaural beat.
Spokane-based mechanical engineer Jim Marsh became interested in binaural beats when his late wife, who had a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was unable to sleep through the night.
“It was during the pandemic, and I was usually the only caregiver. So I was sleeping less than one to three hours a night for months on end, and it really affected me and her as well,” he explains. “Out of desperation, I created this technology.”
The technology he’s referring to is a form of ‘non-audible’ binaural beat that Marsh says is achieved through a proprietary low-power magnetic field. Instead of wearing headphones to deliver the tones via the ear, the listener uses a standalone localized device.
“You plug it in, put it next to your pillow, and just set and forget. It creates a field in the bed or around your pillow.”
Marsh says that he fine-tuned the magnetic field for improved sleep by experimenting with different frequencies. The one he found to be the most effective is similar to what he describes as “Earth’s natural frequency,” a naturally occurring phenomenon called Schumann resonances.
“It’s made from electrical strikes all around the Earth. That energy from the lightning striking or discharging in the atmosphere resonates in the Earth’s atmosphere and creates a very low-level hum naturally.”
Marsh began marketing his device as the SleepVibe in 2024. That was about two years after he started circulating development prototypes to friends and family based on the results he was seeing at home.
“When I first gave a prototype for my wife to try, we had a caregiver that would chase her around because she would just get up and walk after one to three hours. With SleepVibe, she slept eight hours straight through the night,” he says.
According to March, his volunteer prototype testers — a group of about 70 — also offered encouraging feedback. Many said that they slept more soundly and felt less fatigued. Some said it made their dreams more vivid.
“Two people did not want to give the units back because they said it was the best sleep they’ve gotten in decades,” he says.
Pending approval from an institutional review board, SleepVibe will be undergoing a clinical trial at Washington State University’s Sleep and Performance Research Center (SPRC). The results of that trial are anticipated around mid-July of this year. It’s available to consumers online at thesleepvibe.com for $450 and is HSA/FSA eligible.
Musiek stresses that conclusions on the effects of binaural beats, audible or not, are still a long way from certainty, but the potential of this “fascinating issue” is worthy of exploration. He’d like to see more interdisciplinary work at the nexus of audiology, neurology and psychology.
“I think there is some good research out there that seems to indicate some [therapeutic] things. But it could go either way. With more research, maybe it could open up a really fantastic area of diagnostics and psychiatric treatments.”
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BY SUMMER SANDSTROM
Working to assist teens and young adults in Eastern Washington and North Idaho who have aged out of the foster care system, Safety Net Inland NW provides a myriad of resources to make that transition smoother and to provide support systems for teens and young adults emerging from foster care.
Molly Allen and Coleen Quisenberry founded the organization in 2008. Safety Net Inland NW relies on local funding, which Allen says allows them to have faster turnaround with their work.
“It’s pretty unique, and there’s really nothing else out there in this area like us,” says Allen. “For the youth who we interact
with, it’s game-changing.”
Allen was inspired to start the nonprofit based on her own experiences, as she adopted her son from the foster care system when he was 10 and thereafter began to learn about difficulties many children face after leaving the system and the lack of resources available to them.
“I realized that even having the stable family he’d had for quite a while, he just wouldn’t be ready,” she says of her son. “[Coleen and I] just decided there was a gap there that needed to be filled, and we wanted to fill it and kind of act like aunts and family members.”
For example, Allen says that they help teens and young adults with acquiring
things like laptops, bus passes and beds, and also they have warehouses with a variety of gently used items where youth can shop for free.
This September, Safety Net Inland NW will hold an auction to raise money for the program and to acquire some more gently used items for the youth they serve.
“If you think about when you moved out of your house for the first time, it was all family members coming together and helping you by giving dishes or an old TV or a couch or whatever, so we want to be those people in their lives,” Allen says. “If they need something, they need it now, they don’t need it in six months. We pride ourselves on that quick turnaround and just being able to be local and involved.”
12114 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley
Located in the historic Opportunity Township Hall building, Spokane Valley Heritage Museum aims to preserve and share the history of the area. Opened in 2002 by director Jayne Singleton, the museum is home to a number of exhibits — including exhibits such as Under One Sky which showcases stories of fur traders, Antoine Plante and more from around the years of 1865-1880, as well as the museum’s interactive Communications Corner. “The museum is a regional repository, so we have over 14,000 photos from all areas in this region and across the state line. We also have a searchable database with about 10,000 records,” says Singleton. Every year, the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum holds a fundraiser — which will take place on Nov. 8 this year with ticket sales starting on Aug. 27 — and they accept financial donations and memberships. For more information about donating or volunteering, visit spokanevalleymuseum.com.
2427 W. Smythe Rd.
Jamie McAtee founded Rescue4All as a way to help cover some gaps present in the shelter system by taking in all animals, regardless of if they’re injured, sick or have serious medical conditions. The name Rescue4All was derived from the last words of the Pledge of Allegiance — “... and justice for all,” — serving as a commitment for the organization to rescue and help as many animals as possible. To get involved with Rescue4All, you can volunteer at events or the organization or sign up to be foster animals in the shelter, which can be especially helpful for animals that may need more intensive care or rehabilitation before they’re ready for adoption. You can sponsor an animal, get involved or donate at rescue4all.org.
1832 W. Dean Ave.
Since 2013, the Spokane Edible Tree Project has worked to decrease food waste and help provide the community with more access to healthy foods. “It started with a bunch of volunteers saying, hey, there’s a bunch of unused produce from farms and from farmers’ markets that doesn’t get sold, and it’s just going to waste — what if we took that and brought it to food distribution so that food could instead go to people that actually really could need fresh produce and don’t often have access to it?” says Executive Director Brendan Finch
The organization works with several farmers in Green Bluff as part of their Glean for Good program where volunteers pick excess produce, as well as a few farmers markets in the area for their Farmers Market Gleans program, to pick up excess produce. July and August are the organization’s peak gleaning seasons, with a variety of volunteer opportunities and events occurring during that time. The nonprofit also partners with Second Harvest, Catholic Charities, the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center and other organizations that offer food distribution services. To get involved or donate, and to keep up with upcoming events, visit spokaneedibletreeproject.org or the nonprofit’s social media.
and most comfortable transportation in the region. Featuring the shortest wait times, GPS tracking, reminder calls, & en-route texts.
How to share summer’s bounty now — and in the cold months ahead
STORY BY AZARIA PODPLESKY
PHOTOS BY YOUNG KWAK
To feed someone is an act of love. An act of nourishment. An act of connection.
You might invite that person over for a meal, or maybe you drop off a freshly baked loaf of bread or a batch of cookies. Even something as simple as making them a cup of coffee communicates “I care.”
While it may not be the first thing that pops into your head, gifting pickled vegetables, created through a quick pickle or hot water canning process, can be a flavorful act of kindness.
Kate Lebo, author of The Book of Difficult Fruit and Pie School, among other works, got into pickling in her early ’20s when she realized how accessible the craft was. Wanting to be safe, Lebo picked up the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and set about making pickled beets. Jar after jar of pickled beets made their way to Lebo’s countertop. Only after she finished pickling the final beet and gave her creation a try did she realize something: She hated the taste of pickled beets.
Quick pickling, as the name suggests, is the fastest method of pickling. Simply put fresh, clean veggies of your choice in a clean jar of brine, and let sit for at least a few hours before enjoying.
Lebo often lets her garden dictate what she quick pickles. If she has a lot of cucumbers, coriander and dill on hand, she might throw that in a jar with onion or garlic, chili or whatever else calls to her from her spice rack.
“It’s a response to the bounty of the season and figuring out what to do with it,” Lebo says. “It’s so flexible and it’s safe. It’s fun.”
Lebo also says it’s nice to have a food scale ($22.99), funnels (one for wide-neck jars and one for narrow-neck jars, ($18.99$19.99), a ladle ($8.99), a jar lifter ($9.99) and tongs ($14.99) to lift the lids and jars after they’ve been sterilized.
Lebo notes that hard water in Spokane might stain jars and equipment when hot water canning, so she adds a “glug” of vinegar into the canning bath and any water being used to sterilize metal equipment to remove the hard water stains.
“That’s a tip for the beginners here is make tiny batches first to make sure you like the recipe,” she says. “Part of what’s great about pickling is the way that it will preserve large amounts of food, but if you don’t actually like the flavor of that food, what is the point?”
Through trial and error, Lebo found recipes she actually did enjoy. During a time in her life when she frequently housesat, Lebo would put thinly sliced onion and cucumber in a jar of red wine vinegar and add the concoction to sandwiches or have it as a snack wherever she was at the time.
She would then leave the homeowners a jar of their own quick pickle as a gift.
Hot water bath canning, which uses hot water to kill bacteria and create airtight seals, is a little more time intensive because you must first sterilize your jars and lids. The plus side is that after the extra work, your canned food will be shelf stable for years.
For hot water bath canning, aspiring picklers can buy a canning pot ($146.99 at the Kitchen Engine) or use a large stock pot they have already.
Clean glass jars are a must. Lebo says these jars can be recycled, but they have to be chip-free and able to fit a standard Ball or Kerr lid. Lids only seal once, so those must be new each time, but Lebo says it’s OK to reuse the rings if they’re not bent, rusty or dirty.
It’s also important to use a clean cloth to make sure there is no water, brine or vegetable pieces on the rim of the jar or in the threads of the ring. Canners should also be sure not to overfill jars when hot water canning, as the contents can force their way to the top and potentially break the seal.
“All these methods, there isn’t a right one,” Lebo says. “Choose the one that fits your life and keeps you safe.”
Susie Craig, a professor of food safety and health at Washington State University Extension in Seattle, stresses that pickling and fermentation are safe when people use tested recipes from the USDA, the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) and the most up-to-date Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
In other words, the family recipe that’s been passed down from generation to generation doesn’t cut it in terms of food safety.
...continued on next page
1. Thinly slice an onion. How thin? “We eat with our eyes!” Lebo says, so make the slices the size you’d like to eat. Any onion will work, but Lebo suggests a sweet onion.
2. Choose a vinegar you like. “Get a decent vinegar. The vinegar does matter,” Lebo says. For her quick pickles, she chose a red wine vinegar from Walla Walla.
Quick pickling is perfect for preserving extra garden produce. Note that none of these pickles has been canned or sealed, so they cannot be stored on the shelf. But because they are very acidic, they are safe to eat so long as the vegetables are fully submerged in brine and they’ve been refrigerated. The brine can be reused for more pickles, or as the base for salad dressing.
Craig shares that while the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning can often be found for sale online, it is free to access through the NCHFP website. Craig also hosts the “Food Safety in a Minute” podcast and has episodes covering, among many other topics, necessary equipment for food preservation, canning foods and fermenting foods.
“The No. 1 myth in food safety is that if it looks OK and smells OK, it is OK,” she says. “It’s the spoilage bacteria primarily that cause things to look and smell bad, but the pathogenic disease-causing bacteria, they are not spoilage bacteria, so you don’t know that they’re there.”
In pickling, Craig says, vinegar with at least 5% acidity controls harmful bacteria when used in appropriate proportions.
“The level of acidity is important for flavor and for safety,” she says. “In tested recipes, ingredients, recipe ratios and the procedures are tested for safety. Using
3. Fill your clean jar about 2/3 full with vinegar and then top with some water. Add seasonings. Lebo chose a lovage stem from her garden, a teaspoon of mustard seed, and 2 teaspoons of coriander seed, salt and sugar to taste.
4. Add sliced onions. Place the lid on the jar, and then tip it around to mix.
5. Refrigerate. “It keeps forever,” says Lebo. Discard when the texture is no longer appealing.
— more recipes on page 36
these recipes and following directors can prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum. Botulism can be fatal.”
(With fermentation, a different process that’s used to make things like sauerkraut, the natural bacteria in vegetables like cabbage break down natural sugars and other substances, leading to the formation of lactic acid, which helps control harmful bacteria.)
Even after using trusted sources, sometimes things go wrong. Before consuming your pickled goods, Craig says people should check for signs of spoilage (odor, changes in color or texture) or a broken seal. If found, those jars should be discarded following NCHFP instructions. Neither Lebo nor Craig want people to be scared to try pickling. It’s smart though to first do some research and “understand the basics of pickling, the science which supports recipe formulations, equipment, processing and storage,” Craig says.
“Fermentation has been around for decades,” she says. “The difference today is consumers have resources that are research based — recipes that are good and safe to eat, and quality equipment.”
A little research and the right equipment can go a long way, turning pickling into, as Lebo sees it, a small but significant source of power.
“How do we remember in our daily lives all the ways that we have the power to create the world around us, rather than buy it from someone else, ready made?” she says. “Being able to buy something ready made, it’s fantastic to be able to save that time so that we can devote ourselves to something else in our lives. But I think when we go for convenience over and over and over, we lose a sense of independence and power and the ability to make our lives what we want to make them. Pickling, even as simple and homely as it is, is, to me, part of that.”
TRY IT YOURSELF
This pickle makes use of the brine left over from previous pickles. Kate Lebo used brine left from sweet pickles her mom made. “If you want to get real lazy, you can do it with store-bought pickles,” she says.
Add your choice of vegetables to the brine. Lebo chose unpeeled, scrubbed carrots; a red pepper; a clove or two of garlic; and cauliflower from Casa Cano farm.
Add only enough vegetables to be completely covered in the brine. Store in the refrigerator.
TRY IT YOURSELF
1. Thinly slice cucumbers — use a mandoline if you have one. In a large bowl, toss cucumber slices with salt. To press excess moisture out of the cucumbers, place a plate directly on top of the slices and top the plate with something heavy, allowing the cucumbers to rest while you prep the rest of the ingredients, about an hour or so.
2. Thinly slice one onion, using the mandoline if possible.
3. In a large measuring cup, add about 1 cup of vinegar, and top with 1 cup of filtered water.
4. Dissolve about a tablespoon of sugar in warm water, and then add to brine mix. You will have leftover brine.
5. Drain and rinse the cucumbers and then add the onions to the bowl and toss.
6. Slide the onions and cucumbers into a clean jar. A wide mouth funnel helps with this process.
7. Fill the jar with brine, then tamp down the slices to remove air.
8. Refill to the top with brine.
9. Now use a chopstick to poke down into the jar, allowing any trapped air to bubble up. Add more brine as needed to completely cover cucumbers and onions.
10. Refrigerate. This salad is ready in a few hours, but also keeps for two weeks.
— Adapted from The Jewish Holiday Table
The annual Huckleberry Festival provides a tasty excuse to visit North Idaho’s historic silver-mining town
BY BOB JOHNSON
One should never feel the need to test the authenticity of a friendship. But should you be having doubts over someone you thought was your BFF, ask them this question: Where do you go huckleberry hunting? If they’re hesitant to share, well, you have your answer.
Huckleberries are liquid gold in the Inland Northwest. Bakers turn them into seasonal pies and other sweet treats. Chefs transform them into glazes and purees.
Here, huckleberries aren’t merely hunted, gathered and consumed; they’re celebrated. Between Aug. 9 and Sept. 7, seven huckleberry festivals are held — two in Washington, two in Idaho and three in Montana. An hour and 15 minutes from downtown Spokane, the 40th annual WALLACE HUCKLEBERRY FESTIVAL (Aug. 15-17) provides an opportunity to not only honor the huckleberry but also tour a town that’s on the National Register of Historic Places.
Huckleberry Festival weekend includes a huckleberry pancake breakfast, dozens of food and craft vendors, live music, carnival games, and a 5k race. While the festival takes place in Wallace’s downtown core, it’s wise to bring comfortable walking shoes because the town is worth exploring.
One popular selfie location is in the middle of the street where Bank and Sixth
meet. There, one finds a manhole cover designating Wallace as the “Center of the Universe.” The declaration was made in 2004 by then-Mayor Ron Garitone since, he said, nobody could prove his claim was wrong. (Disclaimer: We are not suggesting you take a selfie in the middle of an intersection.)
Other spots worth checking out in Wallace include:
4 The NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD DEPOT MUSEUM (adults $5, families $10), featuring chateau-style architecture and exhibits detailing the history of railroading in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District.
4 The scenic stair system, with staircases ranging from 76 to 84 steps that start at the bases of numbered streets from Third through Seventh and climb to the forest surrounding Wallace. Wildlife sightings are common.
4 The Oasis Bordello Museum, for a look at fashion trends of another era, of course.
But it wasn’t railroad tracks, staircases or, ahem, ladies of the night that put Wallace on the map. Wallace claimed a designation beyond “Center of the Universe” — that being “Silver Capital of the World” — by drilling... and drilling... and more drilling.
A good way to learn about silver mining in the town is to stop by the Wallace Visitor Center and explore the adjacent Mine Heritage Exhibition. It’s an outdoor exhibit in a park along the Coeur d’Alene River’s south fork.
For a more immersive experience, hop on a trolley (adults $20, 60-plus $17, children 4-16 $10, under 4 free) and head 1 mile north of downtown to the SIERRA SILVER MINE. There, one of five retired miners will guide you through part of an underground silver mine.
Ward Lister is among the quintet of guides and draws from his experiences to tell the story of mining in Wallace. After demonstrating some of the tools used by miners, describing the long days of work and detailing how Idaho far surpassed other states in silver mining, Lister was asked why Nevada, and not Idaho, is known as the “Silver State.”
“Makes no sense to me,” he said. “I guess they just claimed it first.”
Claims about claims, it would seem, can be difficult to document.
The trolley trip to the mine passes by the Historic Nine Mile Cemetery. The cemetery is worth a stop for its scenic beauty and to view the sections devoted to heroes from every American conflict since the Civil War.
Also buried there are some victims of the Sunshine Mine fire of 1972, which saw carbon monoxide, heat, smoke and gas spread through the mine. Eighty-five miners managed to make it to safety. Ninety-one did not. (Note: A stop at the SUNSHINE MINERS MEMORIAL, between Kellogg and Wallace, is worthwhile for anyone planning to take the Sierra Silver Mine tour. Informational signs provide good background, and a 13-foot-tall statue of a miner is a worthy photo op.)
The trolley ride back into Wallace from the Sierra Silver Mine includes a brief tour of the town — a town worth a visit while the weather is nice and the huckleberries are in season.
BY SUMMER SANDSTROM
The Bank Left Gallery, located in an old bank building on the bank of the Palouse River, showcases not only an array of regional artists’ works, but also features creative food offerings at the attached Bistro. Since 2005, owners Pamela and Nelson Duran have curated both the menu and the art at their location in Palouse, Washington, about an hour’s drive south of Spokane.
has a focus on international food, mostly French — he loves to do French foods — but he also does other international foods,” says Pamela.
Nelson sends out a menu ahead of time and can accommodate anyone with dietary restraints or allergies.
100 S. Bridge St., Palouse bankleftgallery.com
“One of the things [Nelson] wanted was for art to become accessible to people,” says Pamela. “He didn’t want a gallery where things were so expensive or so over the top that they were unattainable for anybody who comes in.”
Nelson, who grew up in Honduras, has traveled around the world, picking up techniques, recipes and new ingredients for use at the Bistro, which is currently only open on Saturdays or for special events. “He does all the cooking and baking, and he
When the couple opened the gallery, Pamela says Nelson wanted to empower local artists.
“He wanted them to think, ‘I’m an artist, and I have beautiful work, and I want to share it with the world, I want people to love it and buy it.’” Pamela says. “A lot of people think you shouldn’t go into art because it’s not a good business to go into, but [Nelson] totally doesn’t think that way. He wants his artists to be successful, and so he really pushes that. [He] really wants it to be a good place for all of his artists and for the people who come here.”
3223 N. Argonne Rd., Millwood
Originally opening in 2008, Bottles carries a variety of unique beers and wines for all different palates. “We work really hard to curate a selection of wine and beer and a few small options that are nonalcoholic and cider,” says co-owner Mara Johnsen, noting there’s a small bar as well. “Everything is hand chosen — we taste the wines, we taste the beers, we go through, and we pick them based on quality and having an option for everybody.” Bottles is a 21+ store, but there’s a dog friendly patio for guests to enjoy during the summer.
814 W. Main Ave. #111
In need of classy menswear for an upcoming event, a business casual look for work or just for an elegant night out? Look no further than Anderson & Co., a locally owned men’s clothing store dedicated to providing great quality pieces for any occasion. A vast selection of shirts, jackets, and suits in brands such as Canali, Robert Talbott, Dion, and Remy Leather, just to name a few, offer options for any occasion. Located on the street level at River Park Square, Anderson & Co. is an easily accessible spot to shop for a gift or spruce up your own closet.
210 E. Sherman Ave. Ste. 103, Coeur d’Alene
Whether you’re gift shopping or just roaming around downtown Coeur d’Alene, consider popping in to Figpickels. The toy emporium, which opened 20 years ago, is full of fun, unique and classic toys and puzzles perfect for kids (and shoppers of all ages). If you’re looking for stuffed animals, a new puzzle, trading cards, board games or knick-knacks, or for fun little toys to add to an adult gift, you’re likely to find something fitting inside this enchanting toy shop.
An intergenerational love for food fuels Madeleine’s Café & Patisserie
oil and other ingredients that mark the pages. VanStone is always on the lookout for a good cookbook or, better yet, a vintage magazine.
“I remember growing up my mother always got Martha Stuart Living magazine,” she recalls. “And from a very young age, I remember always flipping through the pages and loving how beautiful the pictures were. And the pastries and the treats and the cooking and the tablescapes — and just being so inspired to want to make things beautiful myself.”
She followed her calling, now co-owning Madeleine’s Café & Patisserie alongside her mother, Deb Green. Growing up, VanStone helped her mother with her catering business — Shake, Rattle and Boil — and also lent a hand when Green ran a small Café inside the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.
“There’d be weekends in college when I would come home because we had to host a gala or something, and we were catering for 500 people,” VanStone says. “And it would be her and I until 2 am shopping and cooking and prepping for it.”
France was also a defining part of VanStone’s passion for food. She took French classes in high school (using the French name Madeleine) and went on a trip to France during her junior year with her mom accompanying as a chaperone.
After attending the University of Idaho, graduating with a degree in marketing, VanStone departed the Inland Northwest for the San Francisco Baking Institute with a vision.
“I kind of thought, ‘If I go to pastry school and I really learn how to bake and [my mom’s] such an amazing cook, we can open a restaurant,’” VanStone says.
The mother-daughter duo did just that, opening Madeleine’s at its first location on the corner of Main Avenue and Wall Street in 2008.
Through the restaurant, VanStone befriended many regular customers and even met her now-husband, Aaron. Working down the street, he frequented Madeleine’s for coffee, and they got to know each other.
Her husband proceeded to introduce himself, and the two hit it off, later holding their wedding reception on Wall Street outside of the restaurant.
In 2014, Madeleine’s lost its lease, prompting the restaurant to move to its current home at 415 W. Main Ave.
“It was kind of a sudden thing, and we were in the middle of building Durkin’s, so all of our funds were being put towards Durkin’s,” says VanStone about the nextdoor liquor bar co-owned by her brother and mother.
We always have dinner together as a family, and we’re always trying new recipes and experimenting
However, embarrassed that she still didn’t know his name, VanStone asked her mother to bus his table and find out.
“My mother, being the crass person that she is, walks right up to his table and says, ‘How is my daughter supposed to date you if she doesn’t even know your name?’ And I’m watching all this go down so at this point I’m bright red,” VanStone says.
Though they lacked funds, family and friends rallied to help renovate the new space.
“My husband and my grandpa built most of the cases and shelves, and we had late-night painting parties and all the things,” VanStone says.
Madeleine’s previous shabby-chic theme was revamped with modern, yet cozy, ...continued on page 45
Note from the baker: “It’s a very simple French cookie,” Megan VanStone says. “I think the hardest thing about it is getting your oven temperature right so you can get the classic dome on the back of the Madeleine. That requires a really hot oven in the beginning, and then you have to lower the temperature of your oven so that you don’t overbake the cookie.”
• 2/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Grease Madeleine pan.
3. Add dry ingredients into a bowl, whisk together and set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment add the sugar, yolk and eggs to the bowl. Mix on high until mixture becomes light and airy, about 3-4 minutes.
5. Slowly add in the flour mixture to the eggs and sugar and mix on low speed until incorporated.
6. Drizzle in butter and vanilla until batter comes together.
7. Add batter to a piping bag fitted with a #11 tip and pipe batter into the molds.
8. Bake for 4 minutes at 400 degrees. Rotate the pan and turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Bake for another 3-4 minutes until golden around the edges.
9. Let cool slightly before removing the cookies from the molds.
10. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.
French Café decor and a soft color palette of grays and blues with accents of yellow. Hanging above the kitchen door a sign reads, “Like mother, like daughter.”
Besides moving, Madeleine’s has significantly evolved throughout the years. The restaurant used to serve pastries, lunch and dinner and is now known for its breakfast, coffee and lunch offerings. When the U.S. figure skating championships were held in Spokane years ago, the restaurant decided to offer breakfast specials to accommodate the extra tourism and hasn’t gone back.
Tried-and-true staples include dishes like the croque madame sandwich. Take a peek at the fresh-baked case to see what pastries are available (snag the cinnamon rolls if you see them, they’re a favorite).
While many of Madeleine’s recipes have remained the same, VanStone and Green still keep an eye out for bouts of inspiration.
“We love to travel as a family, and I think we get so much inspiration from that,” VanStone says. “So we will come home, and something will have inspired us to try a new recipe or try to recreate it.”
For instance, on a recent trip to Hawaii, Green tried a croissant that was similar to a croque monsieur but with a Mornay sauce and recreated it as a weekend special.
Once a recipe idea takes root, the family will first test it out at Sunday dinner.
“We always have dinner together as a family, and we’re always trying new recipes and experimenting,” VanStone says. “I think that leads to a lot of inspiration.”
While working with family has its expected challenges, those are outweighed by the daily time spent with loved ones.
“It’s been 18 years now, so we’ve figured something out and made it work. It creates new appreciation for each other,” VanStone says.
Since opening and running Madeleine’s, VanStone has become a mother herself.
Juggling kids and running the restaurant — spending many Hoopfests and Bloomsdays working with a baby strapped to her back — she doesn’t have as much time to bake as she used to, but she’s never lost her love for pulling something beautiful (and delicious) out of the oven.
Pend d’Oreille Winery celebrates 30 years as part of the North Idaho cultural scene
BY WILL MAUPIN
With its collection of boutiques, restaurants, festivals and resorts, Sandpoint has long been a destination for the arts and culture in North Idaho. Celebrating 30 years in business this summer, Pend d’Oreille Winery is an established pillar in the Sandpoint community’s vibrant scene.
Current owners Kylie Presta and Jim Bopp took over the space in 2017 but have maintained the winery and its products true to the form that has kept it in business since 1995.
“The previous owners needed to sell, and we had, I think, 300 barrels of wine that we had helped make and we were taking care of. We didn’t want to see that wine disappear, and we wanted to keep the process going and keep this as part of the community at Sandpoint,” Presta says.
Bopp’s involvement in Pend d’Oreille
Winery dates to the early days of the ’90s. Having grown up in south Sandpoint, Bopp knew the Meyer family who ran the winery at the time, and during a break from college he helped with the 1998 harvest. He saw it as a fun change of pace from his work in construction at the time.
Bopp finished up a teaching degree over the following years but never fully shook off that experience.
He returned in 2006, became head winemaker six years later, and has been with the winery ever since.
“Steve [Meyer] really encouraged me to make my own wine. And so I make a petit verdot that I’ve been making for about 15 years now,” Bopp says.
True to the vision of the original owners, Presta and Bopp, with his signature petit verdot, have maintained the stylistic approach that Pend d’Oreille Winery was
founded on.
“We wanted to keep the style that the previous winemakers had established. It’s an old French winemaking style. We’ve added some of our own nuances and made it our own in ways that we feel have been small improvements that reflect us, but for the most part we’ve been remaining true to Pend d’Oreille Winery as it was,” Presta says.
All of the winemaking is done with Washington grapes at the winery’s facility in downtown Sandpoint. With harvest occurring in September and October, the occasional late-season warm spells that delight many around the Inland Northwest have made for a unique but fun challenge in the early stages of the fermentation process.
Luckily, Presta says the cool North Idaho night air is the perfect
remedy to those unseasonably warm October days.
The winemaking process employed by Bopp is simple, fruit-forward and minimally filtered. It’s also all-encompassing. Located outside Washington’s traditional winegrowing regions, Pend d’Oreille Winery manages all steps of the process once the grapes arrive.
“Yeah, from grape to the bottle. We do everything here,” Bopp says.
Bopp credits their in-house bottling line for their ability to independently produce such a wide variety of wines.
“For a winery our size to have something like that, it’s very nice. But we’re so far away from everywhere else, that it doesn’t really make sense not to have something. We could have something a little bit more primitive, I suppose. But yeah, we were lucky enough to have this one,” Bopp says.
Another feature Bopp is very proud of is their “wowler” system. Like a growler for beer, the wowler allows the winery to refill bottles for customers. It’s a service that has significant environmental impact, considering that Sandpoint does not offer glass recycling.
The food menu is also crafted in house. Their line of pizzas feature Pend d’Oreille Wines in the dough.
Bopp credits the locals for keeping things going year-round, and he appreciates the influx of business during the busy tourist seasons. During the summer months, Presta recommends pairing the Spanish white albariño with any of their seafood offerings — fitting for a lakeside resort town.
For visitors, whether locals or out-of-towners coming during the busy summer tourist season, the winery experience offers more than drinks. Local musicians play Friday and Saturday nights. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays guests are treated to music from a grand piano dating to 1863, which predates the founding of Sandpoint by nearly four decades, an apt reminder of the cheerful resilience and determination that have served Pend d’Oreille Winery for its 30 years and counting.
BY DORA SCOTT
Located on the South Hill, the Local Flavors is a restaurant and bourbon/whiskey bar that builds on the Egger’s family legacy. A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Steven Egger co-owns Local Flavors with Armand Van Pelt.
Local Flavors is the newest venture at 5611 S. Perry St., the building it shares with Egger’s Specialty Market, a longstanding family liquor store owned by Egger. Right behind the building stands Egger’s Better Meats and Seafood, founded in 1962 by Egger’s grandfather and now co-owned by Egger’s father and uncle.
kind of make it into something we’re really, really proud of,” Egger says.
Local Flavors combines Egger’s love of spirits with Van Pelt’s love of food. Throughout their friendship, the two have spent many weekends together in the kitchen whipping up beef Wellingtons and experimenting with other recipes.
5611 S. Perry St., Mon-Tue noon-8 pm; Wed-Sat noon-10 pm
The restaurant offers a sandwich-based menu with classics like clubs and Reubens as well as other finger foods like charcuterie that go well with spirits.
“My family bought this property to try and develop it and continue our legacy and
“As far as food goes, I’ve had a passion for charcuterie, dry aging meats, my family [has] Austrian heritage and [brought] a lot of those sausage-making techniques over to here,” Egger says. “That’s kind of where it all stemmed from.”
411 N. Nettleton St., Sun 9 am-3 pm; Tue-Thu 11:30 am-10 pm; Fri 11:30 am-11 pm; Sat 9 am-11 pm
Ruins, the beloved restaurant owned by chef Tony Brown has found a new home on the western edge of Kendall Yards, overlooking the Centennial Trail and the Spokane River.
Ruins first opened in 2014 on North Monroe Street in the building now home to Chowderhead. In 2021, Ruins relocated to the Bickett Building downtown. Regulars of these earlier iterations will find Brown is still offering a rotating and eclectic menu at the new location.
For lunch, Ruins offers a lineup of sandwiches including tuna melts, egg salad, meatloaf and banh mi. Dinner is more varied and takes advantage of Brown’s versatility and creativity, though fans will find returning hits like the dirty fries, featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and some sort of gnocchi dish.
“There’s some things that stay on the menu that people love, but it’s typically my own little playground,” Brown says.
8214 N. Government Way, Hayden, Tue-Sat 7 am-3 pm
When Alex and Stephanie Paniagua opened B. Boulangerie in Hayden on Jan. 7 after operating a cottage bakery out of their home in Coeur d’Alene since February 2024, the croissants were an instant hit.
However, when one customer came to them with a polite complaint, they were all ears. The couple immediately went to work to improve their already-popular product to live up to French pastry standards.
Now, the croissants— whether plain, chocolate or almond — not only remain popular, but strive to achieve comparable texture and airiness to those made in the finest boulangeries of Lyon. On any given day, additional croissant flavors may include ham and Swiss, turkey and cheddar, Nutella, or cookie dough. Even kouign-amann, a puff pastry-like croissant cousin, can be found on the menu.
In addition to croissants, find other baked goods like tiramisu, hand pies, eclairs and more.
507 S. Howard St., Tue-Sat 7 am-4 pm; Sun 7 am-noon
On your next morning commute or for a study session, consider stopping by Tay Tay’s Cafe at 507 S. Howard St. on the southern edge of downtown Spokane.
Named after owner Taylor Edwards’ childhood moniker, Tay Tay’s occupies a spot previously home to the Meeting House cafe, which moved to the South Perry district in October.
Having worked in the food industry for over 15 years, Edwards pays close attention to offering quality drinks, using Anvil Coffee Roasters, and plenty of food options.
“We bake everything in house: the bread, the scones, the cookies. Make all the dressings for the salads, all the hummus, all the pesto, anything that we can make, all the syrup for our coffee. Pretty much anything that we can make from scratch, we do,” he says.
If you want something more substantial, order one of the sandwiches — like the breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, sausage or bacon, and tomato jam on a house-made biscuit — or a salad, great for an on-the-go lunch.
Artist Mary Frances Dondelinger brings an “ancient civilization” to life
BY BOB JOHNSON
Secrets have been unearthed about the people who lived thousands of years ago in M.Flandia. In what is being described as a “rare and unprecedented archaeological cache of pottery and sculpture,” one chipped piece, resembling clay and in the shape of a dinner plate, depicts a naked man lovingly holding a baby up in the air. Another similarly shaped object portrays a clothed woman in the act of shooting an arrow from a bow.
In fact, there never was a place named M.Flandia. Mary Frances Dondelinger, who is known professionally as MF Dondelinger, is playing with our assumptions about what we think we see in her latest conceptual piece. Comprising around three dozen artworks depicting traces of an ancient, mythical civilization called M.Flandia, the work will debut on Aug. 2 at Coeur
d’Alene’s Art Spirit Gallery.
“Because this is meant to depict an archaeological find, there are pieces ‘found’ entirely intact, some pieced back together, some broken, and assorted bits and pieces,” Dondelinger says. “The key line is: In this post-truth era comes a discovery so big, so unbelievable, it’s got to be true.”
The “discovery” is based on Dondelinger’s research into actual archaeological finds in California’s Santa Rosa Island region, some of which date back 8,000 to 13,000 years. The inspiration for the theme, Dondelinger says, came from a website that was posting disparaging comments about a former U.S. first lady.
“Which first lady is not the point,” she stresses. “I don’t care which political line you’re on; it was disrespectful. It presented information as if it were true, but it was so erroneous. Only years later did the creator say, ‘Oh, I was just kidding.’ With this exhibit, I’m taking assumptions and turning them on their heads.”
That’s why the M.Flandia exhibit depicts both men and women in atypical ways. For one thing, there will be fewer men than one would expect to see in a “typical” society.
“That makes it harder to determine what’s going on in their lives,” Dondelinger notes. “The women, on the other hand, are very active, which is unusual in art. If you pay attention to outdoor sculptures, you might encounter one with three kids — two boys playing a game on the ground, and a little girl watching. In this exhibit, I have a little girl climbing a tree, and the women are hunting and boxing; they’re active.” Boxing?
“I have a lot of women in boxing gloves in my work,” Dondelinger explains. “I had drawn this woman in my sketch book, and I thought she just wasn’t interesting enough. She had on a short, fluffy skirt — kind of like a ballet skirt — and I thought I needed to toughen up the image. Not her, but the image. I thought, ‘Let’s put her in boxing gloves. Wouldn’t that be funny?’ It turns out to be pretty interesting because it can relate to so many things that women experience. She represents whatever that woman is struggling with — not necessarily a fight, but a struggle.”
It's no coincidence that M.Flandia’s artifacts have been “unearthed” from an area that is bounded by an ocean. Water, in general, has become a central theme in much of Dondelinger’s work. It stems from a trip early in life to a cabin in Coeur d’Alene that was owned by family members.
“That [cabin] was my introduction to this beautiful body of water that I value so much,” Dondelinger says. “I fell in love with the lake. Isn’t that what we all do?”
An avid swimmer, Dondelinger says she can’t wait to get in the lake and swim when it’s warm enough.
“It really calms my body and my mind down,” she says. “There’s something magical about getting in the water and being submerged by something that’s totally natural. You’re one with the fish, even though you’re not really. It’s otherworldly, and I feel more connected to the earth by getting in the water. This is the perfect lake for that.”
The Northern California native attended North Idaho College, learned about graphic design and went to work for the Spokesman-Review. She designed ads by day out of the paper’s Coeur d’Alene office and worked on her art projects by night. She holds a B.A. from Seattle University, has studied and apprenticed with iconographers in central Idaho and Bologna, Italy, served as the director of the Gallery One Visual Arts Center in Ellensburg for seven years, and received numerous awards for her art.
Much of Dondelinger’s work in iconography is included in her 2012 book, Modern Icons (RT Publishing). It focuses on “the sacrifice of endangered species in the American Southwest.” Her exhibits have appeared in galleries and museums in the U.S., as well as the Belvedere Palace Muse-
um in Vienna, Austria.
But in her adopted home, she agrees she may be best known for her “Love Letter to Lake Coeur d’Alene” exhibit, which ran for two months last summer at Art Spirit Gallery. It depicted a school of 45 ceramic fish, each representing a year Dondelinger has been connected to the lake.
“My goal was to have the work talk about the importance of a healthy lake, but to do it in a way that’s fun and visually interesting, because I’m not good at lecturing,” she says. “I like to think of it more as
a conversation — where you look at it and ask yourself, ‘What’s going on here?’”
Each fish in the school has a note inside it from a long-time Coeur d’Alene resident explaining what the lake means to them. But the note can be accessed only by breaking the piece.
“The note is not something you need to find,” Dondelinger says. “You just need to know there are well wishes inside the fish.”
Dondelinger says that working in three-dimensional art is “out of character” for her since she’s spent so much of her career painting. And even though working with clay — which is easier on her physically — requires a different skill set, she says she has taken to it surprisingly quickly.
Regardless of the media, Dondelinger says the motivation for her work remains consistent.
“I’m a conceptual artist,” she explains. “I’m motivated by the concept of pieces, so I start with that and then figure out the best material to use for the project.”
With the M.Flandia exhibition, Dondelinger says she hopes “it might change the way you look at the world — in a more positive direction.”
Meanwhile, it accomplishes something for her as well: “It feeds my compelling drive to create. I can’t not do it.”
June 26, 2025–January 4, 2026
