By Diana Brement ,
JTNews Columnist
She was born and raised on the wet side, but Seattle native Josey Fast is now enjoying life on the dry side of the Cascade curtain as the owner of the only commercial art gallery in the Yakima Valley.
The Franklin High and Western Washington University grad first headed east in 2005, living for a while in La Grande, Ore.
After deciding that was too far away from her grown daughter and other family, she moved to eastern Washington for a short-term opportunity to do marketing for the arts community in Tieton, Wash., known as “Mighty Tieton,” as well as a bookkeeping post and other odd jobs.
“I never had a retail business,” she told me, but she had run her own business in Seattle as a freelance assistant and organizer. When she learned last fall that the owner of Oak Hollow Custom Frames and Gallery in Yakima’s West Valley neighborhood was retiring, Josey jumped on what “turned out to be a really, really good opportunity.”
Josey has kept Oak Hollow’s business model of custom framing, fine crafts and art gallery intact, which has pleased local artists and the community. She exhibits a new artist every month and, “I’m booked all the way through the middle of 2014 with shows.” You can learn about current shows and read Josey’s blog at www.oakhollowframes.blogspot.com.
The work is fun and “challenges everything I like to do,” she says, including business details, problem solving, “the creative part” of cutting mats and frames and, most of all, “not sitting behind a desk.” Josey cuts every mat and frame, and hangs every show herself.
“People accuse me of being artistic,” she says dryly.
When not at the store (Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), she walks her dog in the orchards near her house, gardens, and takes advantage of the areas cultural offerings, including symphony and theater.
“It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful,” she says.
Josey has found a synagogue home at Yakima’s Reform Temple Shalom, which meets Friday evenings, some Saturdays, and holidays in an old house in town. A student rabbi visits once a month and currently the congregation is served by Molly Plotnik, who grew up in the Seattle area.
2 Gary S. Kaplan, M.D., chairman and CEO of Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center, was ranked No. 2 in Modern Physician and Modern Healthcare magazine’s annual listing of the “50 Most Influential Physician Executives.”
This is Gary’s seventh time on the list and he placed 12th last year. More than 17,000 reader votes were cast for 2012’s 2,700 nominations. The votes counted toward half of the final outcome, with the magazine’s editors providing the remaining input.
Gary was singled out for his use of the Toyota production system to reduce costs and improve quality. The magazine noted a “shift in culture and re-engineering of core practices” under his leadership.
The University of Michigan alum has been chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason since 2000. He is a University of Washington clinical professor who gives a lot of time to service organizations in his field. He was recently elected chair of the board of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
3 Registered Rep, a print and digital magazine for retail finance investment professionals, nominated broker George T. Cox of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Seattle office as one of its top ten “Advisors with Heart” this year.
George is the founder of the Alexander Hamilton Friends Association. He was nominated for his work with that organization, which annually helps 35 talented, financially needy high school juniors develop character and leadership skills. Many of these students are from broken homes, as was Hamilton, who went on to help write the Constitution.
In other Cox family news, George’s wife Carolyn (Puddin) has a small part in the Seattle International Film Festival selection, “Ira Finkelstein’s Christmas.” The movie, part of which was filmed in this state, has its final festival screening on Sat., June 9 at 11 a.m. at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle. Members of the cast — including Elliott Gould — will be at that screening, Carolyn informs me, and tickets are still available at www.siff.net.
You can read more about both Gary and George in their previous MOT appearances, which, coincidentally and conveniently, appeared in the same issue, Oct. 29, 2009, online at bit.ly/KETR60.
George’s Registered Rep profile can be read at www.registeredrep.com.