Mes Amis Spring 2011 - Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart

alumna Spotlight: cora edmondS ‘83
Cora Edmonds ’83 in her gallery, ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle.
Portrait
14 Mes Amis Spring 2011
of an
artist’s journey
By taylor Durham ’11
For Cora Edmonds ’83, photographer and director of
the ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle, it has always been
about the journey.
Born in Hong Kong, Cora moved to the United States at age 12 and
came to Forest ridge as an 8th-grade student. Her bilingual, bicultural
background sparked a lifelong interest in global exchange that has
since taken her to more than 30 countries. The Artxchange Gallery is
the product of years of hard work and serendipitous encounters that
meld her love of photography and international culture.
Having spent time working in advertising at an agency based in Hong
Kong and in communications at microsoft, Cora was familiar with
both the creative process and technology. But it wasn’t until her father
brought two contemporary Chinese paintings home from a business
trip that Cora realized her true passion. Inspired by the distinctiveness
of the pieces, Cora began to formulate her vision for what was to
become Artxchange, questioning, “How can I really marry these
things that I love—technology, art, people, culture and photography?”
Cora began by sending out translated brochures to artists, galleries,
museums and institutions all around the world, asking for images to
include in an online art database that was in its infancy. “About two
or three months later it was like Christmas. I was getting mail from
all around the world,” she says. “People were folding drawings up
and sending them to me in envelopes from mongolia!” She quit her
job at microsoft and began pursuing what she calls, “the best of
cultural exchange.”
“I started traveling and meeting the artists face to face. The beautiful
thing is that when you meet an artist, it’s never just meeting an artist,
it’s meeting their friends, their social network,” she says. “I feel so
lucky because I never travel without knowing someone. you are
instantly welcomed like their family.”
Evolving from an online gallery to private showroom and finally to
its current gallery in Pioneer Square, the Artxchange features work
from a diverse body of international artists designed to expose the
Seattle community to cultural exploration and the exchange of ideas
through art.
Cora’s work has taken her in many different directions, from cities
(“Urban juice,” she says, “feeds my creative soul,”) to remote regions of
the world where she wonders at “the tenacity to survive.” In one such
encounter, while filming a documentary on healers and their practices
throughout the world, Cora found herself in the Humla region of
Nepal. Often called the Hidden Himalayas, Humla’s isolation makes it
a perfect location to study traditional ways of living.
recalling her last day in Nepal, Cora remembers, “We had to hike
through the night to get to the village from which we planned to fly
out. It was pretty rough; I was really tired and cold and hungry—the
wind was whipping. I remember my headlight battery died twice.”