Remembering Kit Marcinko

Gregarious and irreverent, Kit was ready with a story, song, or joke, whatever the occasion. He dedicated his life to making art: abstracted landscape paintings and elegant, often whimsical, sculptures of found objects, stone, glass, metal, and wood. He knew the lyrics to almost any song you could dream up. He was laughing and singing to the end.

James Christopher Marcinko, known always and to all as Kit, died March 29, 2023, two weeks shy of his 79th birthday. Born in Tacoma, Washington, April 14, 1944, to James and Thelma (Johnson) Marcinko, Kit spent his childhood in Lacey and attended Olympia schools. (Older brother Jon Marcinko passed away in 2014). Kit reminisced fondly of summers at his family's cottage on Long Lake, pumping gas at his dad's Standard Oil station, leading cheers as "Yell King" at Olympia High (1962), and cooking for his unit of the US Army Reserves (1966-1972, honorable discharge, E-4). He majored in painting and art history at Western Washington University (BA, 1968). After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Oregon in 1970, Kit moved to Guemes Island, where he remained a fixture of the community for more than half a century! Together, Kit and friend Glen Veal founded the Anacortes Brass Works, a production foundry specializing in custom art objects and commercial sand-casted products. Kit was lead sculptor and graphic artist for the foundry from 1970 until 1980 when he established his own art studio on Guemes. In 1982, Kit and Donna Jung welcomed son Blake; he was a devoted father.

Kit's paintings and sculpture have been featured in gallery and museum exhibitions in Bellingham, La Conner, Anacortes, and Seattle; and his pieces can be found in numerous private collections. Kit also worked as a landscape designer, curating stone gardens (often artfully placing massive boulders), large-scale walls, and plantings. He continued to design foundry commissions for several decades. 

In the early 1990s, Kit joined partner, Susan Fahey, in Anacortes, where they lived for over 30 years. He kept his studio on Guemes and made the trip to the island almost every day. He enjoyed hosting art events at his studio. Kit often carried a harmonica in his shirt pocket and jumped at any chance to join fellow musicians on percussion, harp, or vocals. Kit's family and friends, near and far, and his Guemes community will sorely miss his youthful, funny, generous spirit.

Kit is survived by partner Susan Fahey; and by his son Blake Marcinko and daughter-in-law Megan Marcinko, and grandchildren Ella and Luka Marcinko; his nieces and nephews, Lisa Marcinko Hulett, Cassandra, Carissa, and Anton Hulett, and Samantha Marcinko; Susan's children, Anna Fahey (Gustav Moore) and Joseph Fahey (Dominique Vaugeois), and grandchildren, Gabriel and Isaac Fahey; Audrey and Gavin Moore; and by former spouse and friend, Donna Jung.


Glen Veal and Kit Marcinko at the Anacortes Brass Works in 1970 and 2023.
Photo by Chris Eden, Eden Photography

Islander Profile: Kit Marcinko

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