BY ANGELA JOSSY for WEEKLY VOLCANO 8/29/25 |
When I was gifted a storage unit full of newspaper boxes, I immediately saw them as canvases—even though they were dirty; some had trash inside; some were rusty and dented. Still, I jumped at the chance to bring them back to life somehow. Brand-new newspaper boxes cost around $400 each, so I knew, even in this disrespected state, they were valuable and could be a great way to highlight what makes Weekly Volcano different from other publications in the area. Having them repainted and branded with Weekly Volcano logos would have been prohibitively expensive. This newspaper isn’t even making enough money to pay the bills we already have, let alone take on a daunting expense like that. But something inside me just knew this was an opportunity I could not pass up.
I’ve been involved with Tacoma’s art community for more years than I care to mention. I’ve managed several local festivals, put together dozens of ART BUS tours, and attended loads of art parties. I am just attracted to creative people in general. It’s safe to say that I know a lot of artists, so I asked if any of them would be interested in painting a newspaper box. We almost immediately received more than thirty-eight applications! Some didn’t end up participating, but it wasn’t because I rejected anyone. The timeline to participate was very short; they had to be finished in time to display them at the Art on the Ave Festival in July. The end result was thirty-three of the most beautiful newspaper boxes in the world. I’ve done the research—there is none better! Each newspaper box our local artists painted is a masterpiece.
Every single one deserved to win. I don’t particularly enjoy pitting creatives against one another, but this was a fundraiser, so people voted with dollars. Each voter decided which box (or boxes) to vote for and how many dollars to vote with. The total raised was $7,414.09. The net after expenses was $5,313.14, and after giving artists 50 percent of the net earnings of their boxes, Weekly Volcano’s net was $2,656.57.
The winning box by Kate Pascal raised $1,238.77 gross all by itself—a significant lead. In second place, Grace Witherall’s box no. 17 earned $854.74, and Mary Smith’s box no. 25 earned $630.72. Possibly what set no. 7 by Kate Pascal apart from the rest was her innovative decision to use mosaic tile. She also employed one of Tacoma’s favorite icons: the Northern Pacific Octopus, a creature famously known to occupy Tacoma’s Puget Sound waters and attract scuba divers from across the world. We do love our octopus friends here.
Kate Pascal says she always wanted to draw, paint, and make things with her hands even as a child—“drawing pretty realistic horses and unicorns” at three years old. The moment she felt confident calling herself an artist as a young adult came later, in an art class at UW Tacoma with Tyler Budge, a teacher who, she said, always found super creative ways to challenge his students. When Budge asked whether anyone wanted to try welding, she was the only one to raise her hand. “So, I learned how to weld!” She made sunflower sculptures out of recycled saw blades and displayed them at UW Tacoma. The choice of material carried meaning: “I chose to make flowers out of saw blades because it represented how I felt welding them; I am soft and sweet but there is a strong and sharp side to this girl.”
She has lived in the Pacific Northwest for twenty-six years, and its diverse landscapes and access to nature have woven their way into her work. “I love exploring line, color, texture, and value in the natural world around me.” Tacoma’s art scene, “rich and diverse, and sometimes a little gritty,” inspires her; she feels the city “does a fantastic job of celebrating and supporting the arts.”
Her process begins by thinking about whether the work has a message or hidden meaning, and what sparked it. With mosaic, the decisions get more precise: “I’m considering if the grout lines are going to create an image or are the glass pieces going to be the focal point? How do the colors of the glass interact with the backing and grout? How can I cut the glass to be sure I get enough pieces and the line I need?” She almost always sketches first, then adjusts as she goes—“going into flow state.”
“Making art for me is really almost like a moving meditation.” She wants the work to feel colorful and balanced, to reflect a world in which “we are connected to the earth, each other, working with ease and joy, and celebrate our differences.” Often the pieces carry a personal or global deeper meaning.
For the Newspaper Box Challenge entry, she planned a warm-colored background, native plants, and quotes from local elders—ideas fed by work with the Native Culture Club at her school, including a free community district powwow and a new Native garden. Then she picked up the box and “just saw an octopus wrapping its tentacles around” and imagined the texture “if it was done, partly, in mosaic.” “I love octopus and feel like they should be a Tacoma icon. Octopus represent adaptability, intelligence, creativity, transformation, and renewal. All things I hope our communities can embrace.”
She grabbed a Sharpie and drew her lines. Her husband asked whether she would have time to finish the mosaic; once she said she was sure, “I was committed to finishing and he supported me the whole way (which can sometimes be messy, literally).”
She admits that art influence comes from many places, including her own students, who have inspired her and taught her as much as she has taught them. She often returns to a line she attributes to Andy Goldsworthy: “We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us.” And she names Kathy Anderson (a former Weekly Volcano Artist of the Week) among her favorite local artists from her time at Hilltop Artists: “She has taught me to not give up.”
A memory that stays with her comes from COVID. For a decade she has painted the telephone pole outside her house, changing it every few years. During the pandemic she painted a raccoon with a mask, holding a balloon that read, “Focus on the possibilities not the problems.” One day she saw two boys talking to the raccoon. Their mother asked if she had painted the pole and told her it was their favorite street to walk because of that telephone pole. “The boys got so excited about saying hello to the raccoon.”
What’s next? She currently has an in-progress list: “at least five unfinished mosaics,” a painting to replace the sign at the Orchard and Vine Community Garden, and “a mural for a friend’s meditation room at her house (painting a mandala/octopus)!” With the school year starting, she will be teaching pottery. She has also taught glass art and visual art and design. She now looks forward to a first-semester project with her pottery students called ceramic storytelling.
A bigger dream has been taking shape recently. In the next two years, she wants to make it happen. She and her husband share a vision of opening a kava coffee shop in North Tacoma where she can have an open art space to host art groups, private art lessons and parties, and open art nights. After twenty-three years of marriage, they know this much: “We love to create and hold space for people to come together.”
