Crazy Hill nursery in Belfair showcases South Sound artists

Kirk Boxleitner | Oct 21, 20210

After a first year that wound up being a “dress rehearsal” due to COVID-19, not only is Ethan Busby and Michael Kerkes’ Crazy Hill Garden & Botanicals boutique nursery up and running in Belfair, but it’s also the home of an art gallery.

Busby emphasized that it was his partner and fellow co-owner Kerkes, who’s a certified professional horticulturist, who had the dream of opening such a nursery, he told the Shelton-Mason County Journal. They opened in March 2020, just a few days before they had to close because of the pandemic.

However, because Crazy Hill carries edible fruit-bearing plants, it was allowed to reopen in the first part of May 2020 as an essential business, before it signed a lease on its current location in the first part of 2021. It reopened at 23450 NE state Route 3 in Belfair on March 6.

“Last year was our dress rehearsal,” Busby said. “It wasn’t quite our opening night.”

What would become Crazy Hill’s art gallery went through a similar first draft when the nursery reopened in Belfair. Busby said the space was originally intended to showcase gardening tools and publications that would be relevant to a nursery, plus some of his printed and framed artistic botanical photographs.

But once the nursery added the similarly botanical paintings of Busby and Kerkes’ friend, Western Washington artist Anna Hoey, Busby admitted, “It just sort of snowballed and shifted gears at the 11th hour.”

Crazy Hill showcases 35 South Sound “artists, makers and creators,” among them Ray Hammar’s self-described “Blue Collar Artwork” of sculptures forged from salvaged metal as the nursery has grown more flexible in the types of artwork it displays.

“We started out trying to limit it to more organic and botanically themed works,” Busby said. “Our first displayed jeweler specifically supplied dragonfly pendants. But we soon realized it was a little too niche to only allow garden-centric art, so we opened it up.”

The primary remaining criterion for artists to be showcased by Crazy Hill is that they must be South Sounders — the nursery draws artists from locales including Olympia, Hood Canal and Port Orchard.

“We’ve actually turned down folks from Port Angeles and King County,” Busby said. “We started with 17 artists, about three-quarters of whom were people we’d worked with. These were friends who were suffering, because their art is their primary income, and galleries being closed due to COVID meant they had nowhere to exhibit their works to the public.”

Busby added, “We just wanted to give them a platform to recoup their losses, which is why we charge a very minimal commission, just enough to cover the costs of lamination, labels and basic operating expenses. We’re not looking to make money off of our artists. There’s a slew of talent in this area, but we’re always looking for more, and because it’s difficult for us to do the leg work of seeking them out while we’re running a nursery, we’d ask that they contact us.”

If you’re interested in having your art displayed at Crazy Hill, can call 360-277-4254 or email [email protected].