Known for his sprawling art display throughout his home and yard at the corner of Harrison Avenue and M Street in Centralia, the eccentric Hub City artist Richard “RichArt” Tracy died at the age of 89 on Dec. 22, 2022.
Following his death, most of his art pieces, mostly abstract sculptures and paintings, were auctioned off to collectors, and his home in Centralia was sold to new owners who have since remodeled the building and property.
However, RichArt fans who may have missed out on the chance to own a piece of his artwork at that auction still have the chance to add a RichArt piece to their collection, thanks to the Lewis County Historical Museum.
Born in Yakima on Nov. 15, 1933, Tracy attended high school in Naches and earned bachelor's and master’s degrees from the Central Washington University College of Education.
He served in the U.S. Army and taught at schools in Yakima, Olympia, Seattle and Sequim before moving to Centralia in the 1960s.
Tracy dabbled in both painting and sculpting. He gained notoriety for large and intricate art pieces he would build and display in his yard. His work drew inspiration from expressionism and included amalgamations of cubism.
On sale now at the museum are a series of multimedium abstract photo collages made using photos of his sculptures Tracy took himself according to Lewis County Historical Museum Executive Director Jason Mattson, who spoke to The Chronicle about the collages on Thursday, Jan. 22.
“He was a pretty prolific artist in town, so having some of his original collages for sale is a good chance for someone to hold on to a cool piece of Centralia history,” Mattson said.
Each collage is on sale for $55, an ode to Tracy, who was known to be obsessed with the number five. All proceeds from each piece sold benefit the museum.
Tracy previously told The Chronicle in 2014 the number fascinated him as it was very democratic (three decide, two have to follow), along with being sturdy and ubiquitous, a figure people can build ideas around.
“You got five minutes, five items or less, $5 — all sorts of stuff,” Tracy said in 2014. “I like it.”
At the time, he was holding an art show out of his Centralia home with the goal of selling 55 paintings. He would also charge visitors $5 for a 55-minute long tour of his home to look at the more than 1,000 paintings and sculptures he had there.
Mattson added the museum has other works by Tracy, which he intends to keep for rotating museum displays including one which will be focused on local artists including Tracy — like painter E.G. Scott, whose work includes a portrait of Mary Kiona in the museum’s collection, a famous Tai't-na-pam Tribal matriarch who some believe may have lived to be 121 years old by the time she passed away in 1970.
Another local artist Mattson plans on including is illustrator Bing Orr, who created many of the famous Yard Birds Shopping Mall illustrations along with artwork for the Southwest Washington Fair.
Some other changes are in the works at the museum too, as Mattson is currently working with members of Multiculturally Minded Lewis County to revamp the Native American display room, with the group having donated $40,000 to the museum for the room, he added.
With this year also being America’s 250th birthday, Mattson is planning for the museum to take part in the nation-wide festivities surrounding the upcoming July 4th holiday, but has yet to finalize plans.
Also being planned in the works is this year’s upcoming Chehalis Flying Saucer Party in September. And while speakers have yet to be secured, Mattson stated the theme for this year’s Flying Saucer Party will be “Ancient Aliens.”
The Chehalis Flying Saucer Party is an annual two-day festival celebrating aviator Kenneth Arnold’s historic June 24, 1947, flight — where after departing from Chehalis and flying towards Yakima to refuel, Arnold saw nine metallic objects flying in an echelon formation stretching nearly 5 miles as he approached Mount Rainier near the Mineral Lake area.
From what he could see, each object appeared to be circular, roughly 100 feet in diameter, with no discernable tail matching conventional aircraft. The objects would periodically perform various aerial maneuvers including flips, banks and weaves.
Though it was only an estimate, Arnold took the time the UFOs used to fly from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams as he observed them, and calculated their airspeed to be at least 1,200 mph, more than twice as fast as any aircraft in 1947. In fact, it wasn’t until later that year in October when U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in his famous Bell X-1 at 767 mph.
Upon landing at his final destination in Oregon, Arnold was interviewed about what he saw by The East Oregonian, who used the phrase “saucer-like aircraft” to describe what Arnold saw, coining the term “flying saucer” and in the opinion of some historians, helping kick off the famous Summer of the Saucers in 1947.
The Lewis County Historical Museum is located at 599 NW Front St. in downtown Chehalis. For more information, visit the museum’s website at https://lewiscountymuseum.org/ or follow it on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/2vevnwxm.
