Lois Chichinoff Thadei Shares Experiences of Art and Aviation

This photograph of pilot and artist Lois Chichinoff Thadei was taken in 1977. On March 18, Thadei will discuss her experiences flying the Pacific Northwest at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center.

Courtesy of Lois Chichinoff Thadei

News Release Date: March 8, 2017

Contact: Mary Rose, Executive Director, Friends of Fort Vancouver, [phone]

Join the Friends of Fort Vancouver and the National Park Service for a unique afternoon event of art and aviation! Lois Chichinoff Thadei is a bush pilot and aviation mechanic who learned from Clark County’s own Wally Olson at Evergreen Airport. To receive her pilot’s wheel rating and learn to dope and fabric old aircraft, Thadei commuted between Ketchikan, Alaska and Vancouver on a pontoon plane via Seattle.
 
Thadei, born into a Tlingit and Haida community in Southeast Alaska, is also an artist who comes from a family of Native Alaskan artists. Her work responds to a seasonal cycle as different materials become available. In the winter, she fires pottery in her home, creates stained and fused glass work, and weaves Ravenstail baskets using cedar bark and grasses. She also creates jewelry from sterling silver, glass, copper, jasper, sapphire and ruby.  In the summer, she harvests and cures native grasses in the traditional method, creates and fires raku, and makes hand-built pottery. 
 
Please join us for a memorable afternoon as Thadei shares reminiscences of learning to fly, journeying across the Northwest, and creating art that expresses and celebrates her heritage.

What: Local artist and pilot Lois Chichinoff Thadei discusses her art and experiences as an aviator.

When: March 18, 2017, 1 pm to 3 pm. Lecture begins at 2 pm.

Where: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center, 1501 E Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98661
 

 

Artist Lois Chichinoff Thadei poses with her painting, "Augustine Volcano Erupting at Dawn."

Courtesy of Lois Chichinoff Thadei