Like Rachel Shimp of the Times, I too heard about the amazing “Fallen Timbers of the Northwest” show earlier this year through the Capitol Hill grapevine: a forest and projections by Stephen “EDWON” Shultz took over several rooms of the house, to the amazement and delight of all who attended. It took a visit to their new gallery and a conversation with John Roberts and Jared Knudson, two of the founders of the space, to see how big of a change this was. Besides the physical conversion of the entire ground floor into gallery space, it also meant a new focus for the community of Goblin House.

“We’ve had parties where people are throwing up in every bathroom and the next day strangers are sleeping around the house,” says John, “It’s funny to look back on, but we wanted to bring something to the community besides just having the neighbors calling the cops at three in the morning because we’re so loud.  We did a couple of [small shows]. After we did them, we realized that’s what we wanted to do – more community based and less alcohol and dancing based.”

A big theme of our conversation was community, and more specifically, creating a more open and accessible artistic community on Capitol Hill. Both John and Jerad talked about how one of the big goals of Catalyst was to be a space for new artists who hadn’t been shown in a gallery before to put on a first show.  “It’s really hard for artists to get a first show,” says John, “We wanted a space where new artists could get a show without all these reqirements and prerequisites.” Jerad makes the point that, “Wherever there’s money behind art its often really sterile. We want everything to be comfortable and accessible, not so austere. When people come into our gallery we want it to be welcoming.”

Jerad Knudson: The coolest part of seeing Steven’s show, Fallen Timbers of the Northwest, is that when people came through the forest room they entered another world and they didn’t know what they were seeing. Then they saw a projection sequence. They were glued to the screen. We want people to be pulled out of something, to feel something when they come in here.

John Roberts: It’s nice that people can see the work and delve into it and not just look at it.

JK: It’s also just being able to meet people around this area and talk to them. There’s so many weird connections we’ve had with people doing similar but different things from us and it’s been really cool. It’s a really good opportunity to meet other artists and other cool people.

If you’d like to connect to Catalyst, they’re located in the two story green house at 1114 E. Olive St., near Cal Anderson Park. Their present show is Three Visions, Two Minds: two artists, Minjae Kim and Trevor Brown, showing works in three artistic categories – portraits, landscapes and still lifes.  Jerad mentioned that in August Catalyst would be doing a bear-themed show: “The front door is going to be a big bear’s mouth and the main room is going to be the belly of the bear. It’s going to be a very interactive show.”  If you’d like to have a show of your own, just can get the founders contact info here. Like John says, “Everyone has something to offer.  Our contact info is up on our page – you don’t have to know us to have a show here.”