by Kirby Lindsay, posted 1 June 2018
This column originally posted in 2011, but is being re-posted here in honor of the 30th Annual Fremont Solstice Parade on June 16th, 2018.
On Saturday, June 18th, the Fremont Arts Council (FAC) will once again bring art to the streets. The annual Solstice Parade culminates weeks-long, earnest effort by dozens and dozens of artists, and their assistants, to create original costumes, floats, props and accoutrement for no other reason than this transitory celebration.
Eight ensembles received funds to launch their projects thanks to the Arts Council Dave McKay grant program. The grant is named in honor of a Solstice Parade artist who passed away in 1995, and who embodied the ideals the FAC want to encourage during the parade build. “A figure of quiet passion and intense creativity who mentored many of us,” Peter Toms described him in a piece he wrote for the FAC, “he was a master craftsman, sculptor, puppeteer, and idea source with an amazing talent to inspire.”
Some History
Born in Utah, McKay (also known as ‘Buck’) eventually move to Los Angeles, where he worked as an actor and costumer, then to Santa Barbara where lent his talents to the Summer Solstice Celebration, including serving as a staff artist.
Toms met him there. “I had just entered and was standing in the middle of the Santa Barbara Solstice Parade workshop in 1985, just six days before the event, where the scene was an intense swirling madness of creativity – cutting, sewing, gluing, jumping around, half-dressed people trying bits of things on, paint flying on to cardboard, music blaring from a cheap stereo in the corner,” Toms wrote. He described “a very pregnant woman,” Barbara Luecke, who approached him and asked if he had a task. When he said no, she ushered him over, “to where a tall man with shocking red hair and enormous beard was stitching something to something else while he talked with two other people about a third thing. His twinkling eye caught me up…”
Luecke worked as parade staff with McKay, and has mentioned that, “He really believed that every move he made had to have a lot of intention.” Toms described McKay’s care to details, even those that spectators might miss.
Toms would move to Seattle, as did Luecke, and the two expatriates met here over coffee and got to sharing how they missed the “cooperative art experience,” as Luecke described it, of the Solstice Celebration. In 1989, they founded the Solstice Parade at the FAC. McKay arrived in Seattle, and came to help with the Parade, in 1992, Luecke recalled.
More Inspiration
McKay immediately made a significant impact. His enthusiasm for creation and community art influenced a community of artists. “When around someone with a lot of skill,” Luecke recently commented about the artists that worked with McKay, “it inspires them to reach a little higher; try a little harder. The rising tide raises all boats.”
“He was a very remarkable person,” explained Denise Henrikson, “He set a high standard for himself, so the people around him set high standards for themselves.” She recalled his effect on the whole FAC organization. “He was really generous in his spirit,” she described, “he created cohesiveness.” She said that, “he worked so hard to create gracious space, so people felt taken care of,” and established a sense, “that we need to take care of each other.”
McKay also physically influenced the art of the Arts Council, including a sun design that he brought from Santa Barbara and became a logo for the Fremont parade for a decade. “We didn’t really know how much he did until he was gone,” observed Henrikson.
As illness slowly overcame him, he continued to work on Arts Council projects, including installation, with Veronica Truffaut, of the original section of the B.F. Day Elementary School tile mural. Henrikson remembers installing tile with him, “one long, rainy day” under a blue tarp just before the dedication ceremony held in April, 1995.
Long Legacy
“He was like a spiritual father of the Fremont Arts Council,” described Truffat. McKay succumbed to AIDS, at age 43, surrounded by a community he drew around him. Henrikson remembers the way friends – she estimated about 40 – gathered to assist McKay, and how they all met with medical professionals. “In that case,” she recalled, “tragedy really pulled people together.”
The McKay grant program keeps alive his ethics of creativity, craftsmanship and intention, as Luecke sees it, although, “for some people in the Arts Council, it’s just a name.” By e-mail, Toms explained that, “his influence persists because the things that he cared about, and emphasized, are much of what we are still doing. He thought art should be made in community – he made his skills available as a teacher – he was willing to take on gargantuan tasks in order to fulfill a vision.”
“Plus,” Toms added, “His stuff was awesome. He was a fine artist.”
Thousands of people continue to contribute, sometimes with blood, much sweat and even a few tears, to make the Solstice Parade happen. Each year new beauty, creativity and ingenuity emerge from the FAC, and the parade build.
And an artist named Dave McKay continues to contribute. He gave something that went beyond mere decoration, and created a legacy – a positive influence – that can still be felt by those who look beyond the surface of the Solstice Parade.
Related Articles
- B.F. Day Tile Mural: Budget Cut Victim, Or Volunteer Opportunity?
- by Kirby Lindsay, March 22, 2010
- How To Build A Solstice Parade
- by Kirby Lindsay, May 16, 2011
Other Fremont Profiles
- The Famous Fremont Gold Dust Trial
- by Kirby Lindsay, September 22, 1999 in The Seattle Press
- An Artist = Hard Work + Reputation
- by Kirby Lindsay, November 9, 2009
- Letting Some Creativity Out: A Return To Art Roots
- by Kirby Lindsay, November 2, 2005 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
©2018 Kirby Lindsay Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.
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