“Sea Blossom,” by Tininha Silva.

Image courtesy of Tininha Silva

Growth and change are represented in the aesthetics and methods of two local artists soon to be on display at Second Child in Uptown Port Townsend.

To open an exhibit of works by textile artist Tininha Silva and paintings by her husband Sean Yearian, Second Child will be hosting a small affair with natural wine and small bites from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11.

Both of them have taken long journeys to get their work where it is today.

Yearian is a Port Townsend native who left briefly, but of course, couldn’t stay away.

Silva was born in Brazil where the two first met during one of Yearian’s travels. He brought her back to Seattle with him, where their creativity combined.

“I used to organize art shows for Sean in Seattle,” Silva said.

The art itch has been with Yearian for his entire life.

“I’ve always sketched,” he said.

Yearian took art lessons while growing up in Port Townsend and today cites Jason Gould as his biggest influence for what he describes as his spirit of “just go do it, don’t be inhibited, have fun doing it.”

“I kind of ran with that; traveled with a sketch book. When I met her I was traveling with a sketching book,” Yearian said.

“I sketched and painted on fishing boats for 13 seasons in Alaska,” he added.

These days he’s working with a new technique to create the style of a sketch on a large scale.

“I try to make my paintings look like sketches,” Yearian said. “I’ve gotten down to this technique where I take my sketches, I solder my sketches into plywood, I wood-fill it, I do protection on that, and I start painting on top of that doing sanding processes.”

“It ends up being this decay; it rusts,” he said. “Not that actual paint is falling off the medium, it just kind of looks like that old, beat-up truck where it’s got the nice three or four different paint layers.”

Silva’s path was more circuitous which is reflected in the flow of her textiles which can turn in upon themselves while pouring out at the same time.

Her first forays into fabric were in the swimwear world when she ran her own company, creating bikinis in Seattle.

“Back then I didn’t see myself as an artist,” she said.

It wasn’t until the couple escaped the big city for the magic of the Peninsula that Silva got the inspiration for the work she’s doing now.

“When we moved to Port Townsend, I came across the weaving world,” she said. “I did my very first weaving with a little bit of cardboard that I had at home and some leftover yarn.”

What she hadn’t known when paying others to sew her swimwear was how good it could feel to work with your hands.

“I noticed that when I was weaving, I didn’t even see the time passing. That felt very meditative for me,” Silva said.

Yearian then used his carpentry skills to build her a proper loom to replace the cardboard.

From there she’s taken off, creating organically inspired wall hangings, wearables, and installations including a collaboration between both Silva and Yearian for a piece woven into a performance by Seattle’s Coriolis Dance.