Dorothy M. Selzler
In Loving Memory
Dorothy M. Selzler
January 10, 1949, Lewiston, ID
To
April 9, 2019, Yakima, WA
Finally at Peace
Dorothy Selzler was a notable professional multi-media artist, known in the Pacific Northwest and beyond as an “artist’s artist”.
Dorothy easily worked in hand carved and painted ceramic tile – murals and panels – and oil painting, eventually focused on her love of watercolor and acrylic painting.
Dorothy evolved into fantasy and metaphoric styles of her own innovations, and developed “secret” enviable techniques of mixing water, and acrylic, materials along with methods of textural application not found replicable to this day.
Dorothy’s record books are full of the newspaper and professional journal clippings with notices of her art shows, and positive reviews of her works.
For some time Yakima public television came out to her studios in Ravensgate and would video interviews with her while she worked on her paintings. The vids would play throughout the television programing as display of people of interest and unique talents in the Yakima Valleys.
Dorothy was a loyal supporter of Larson Gallery, and qualified to show in many of the grand art shows featuring the best talent of central Washington, and many other prominent Yakima venues and PNW galleries such as in Bellevue, Bremerton, Leavenworth and Richland.
Besides the work of creating, Dorothy was an astute businesswoman, becoming her own best agent and promoter, while managing the rather complex aspects of an art business.
At her zenith, when agents from the designer trade discovered her distinctive style they came from the big cities everywhere, and from as far away as Chicago and New York, to buy her paintings in number. Her work hangs in private collections and prominent interior designs of offices and buildings not only in the Pacific Northwest, but throughout the major art hubs of the East.
Dorothy Marie Dupre was born January 10, 1949 in Lewiston, Idaho, when her mother Geneil (Denham) Dupre, temporarily staying with relatives, had been waiting to give birth, and Dorothy’s father, Fred Drupe Sr., was serving at sea in the U.S. Navy.
Dorothy was the first-born of siblings Fred Jr., Phillis and Lavalla. She spent her formative years in her mother’s hometown of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, and among her maternal family, the Denhams. (Later, her mother would marry Bill Custer an Inland NW baseball star, he becoming a dedicated, loving father to the children. Her grandmother Dorothy would eventually marry Dave Warfield. They would manage the prestigious Ridpath Hotel in Spokane as a team, later becoming managers of the iconic Chinook Tower Hotel complex in Yakima.)
As a young girl, and somewhat a tomboy, Dorothy lived in a neighborhood just a couple of blocks from “Tubs Hill”, a large forested peninsula that juts into Lake Coeur d’ Alene. For some years this would be an idyllic playground for her, siblings, and friends. Adventures in the forests and along shorelines taught her life-long love and respect for wild nature, and instilled independence and self-reliance. Along with this, although generally reserved, she was a first-born, type “A” personality, used to being in charge. With a feisty, competitive spirit, it would not be uncommon for her to apply fierce physical combat, even holding her own with the boys, as circumstances might require.
Dorothy loved animals, of course all dogs, and was part of the phenomenon of girls who adore horses. She would draw all kinds of animals, but horses incessantly from every pose. When she stayed summers with the Warfields in Yakima, her grandmother Dorothy, well versed in the subject, realized her granddaughter’s exceptional aptitude and tutored her in artistic drawing and painting.
This led Dorothy to a never-ending education not only in her love of painting, but also with study courses in multimedia: sculpture, ceramic arts, pottery decoupage, and stencil painting (custom designed boarders and murals painted on walls and ceilings).
So intense was her endeavor for professionalism that she extensively studied anatomy, to know what caused the exact shape of certain animals and so to draw and paint the subjects with precision. Later in life this would lead her to branch off into another successful business.
At age thirteen, Dorothy’s mother and the children moved to a small beach community near Port Townsend, WA, where Geneil managed a popular (to this day) vintage downtown restaurant. Dorothy and the kids learned to quite literally live out of the sea and so provide major support for the family. In this, she and brother Fred had many adventures (and close calls) crabbing, picking oysters, and fishing off of the jetties and ferry docks at night.
By looks and deportment, Dorothy appeared much older than fourteen when she went to work for her mother at the restaurant, where she trained as a server and restaurant hostess; providing her with a practical base while she continued her art studies.
At seventeen, the little family moved to Yakima, where Dorothy would work for her Warfield grandparents in the Chinook Hotel banquet department, and as special server for the hotel’s exclusive club for Yakima executive businessmen.
In Dorothy’s social life, she was drawn to the “Bohemian” society of artists, poets and musicians. So it was that one night at such a gathering she met a young man, who beside his main career work, was a long-established guitarist/singer/songwriter active in the Yakima music scene. As jams were jammed and songs were sung, he played one of his songs for the crowd called “Trees” – conceptually bizarre even for that crowd, with even stranger lyrics and a haunting fusion melody. Dedicated not to marry young, Dorothy knew she had met her ultimate kindred spirit!
Nineteen year-old Dorothy married Robert Selzler in 1968, leaving the next day on their honeymoon planned just for extra weirdness to be on April 1st; and being the official start of an intense love affair they would share for 51 years.
They would also share their artist hearts to become a dynamic design team, and by their complimentary skills of professional consultation, welcomed critique of each other’s separate works with pure objectivity. Or, with similar backgrounds, training and philosophies they could efficiently work complex and innovative concepts as a team.
For a time Dorothy and Bob continued on an extended working honeymoon while following his work; and where his company provided for accommodations: such as a hillside apartment overlooking Bellingham Bay, a vacation resort on the shoreline of Clear Lake, CA, and a dramatic spot in the Columbia Gorge overlooking the river from high vertical cliffs.
Eventually though they would settle back in Yakima with Bob’s family, while commuting to Ocean Shores once or twice a month to be with Dorothy’s family, when the Warfields managed the Polynesian Resort Hotel and Restaurant.
Soon it would come time to start Dorothy’s dream of owning a home. In the ensuing forty or so years, Dorothy would own six “Dream Homes”. Not only in the sense of being of her personal dreams, but also referring to her and husband’s team-work as the designers who would introduce the first three master planned “Street of Dreams” neighborhoods east of the Cascades. Besides her main work as a painter, and using her homes as a “palette” to display her talents for architectural interior design, her homes/studios also would map her life story.
Dorothy’s “Stake House” was built weekends, “barn-raising” style with crews of family and friends contributing help. Besides being part of the crew of wives, mothers and grandmothers preparing and serving the large outdoor, on-site dinners and providing food and drink throughout the day, she worked right along pouring concrete and framing wood walls with the construction crews.
A few years later, the stake house was leveraged into a gem-find three acres a couple blocks south of Summitview Ave, down a rough dirt orchard track that would become N. 76th Ave. As much an investment as home site, the parcel was acquired for its strategic location in West Valley’s main development path.
Dorothy’s house here was tactically located on a predetermined future lot and produced by the Selzler design-build company; on a knoll with a view of Mt. Adams in the distance. As part of the design team, and with the intent of humorous sarcasm, she named it “(no longer politically acceptable)” in reference to its purposely “sacrilegious departure from the Religion of Ranch Style” (which at the time was practically the only architectural style “allowed” in Yakima).
In her years here, with such continuing interests Dorothy would visit horse shows. Where there were horses, there were goats (as calmative stall companions). She became interested in the Toggenburg breed, first as farm pets and eventually as a supplemental and successful business. With her knowledge of animal anatomy, and adding the technical study of genetics and animal husbandry, she built a significant pedigree herd. Of which, besides sale of top show animals, the main business was air-delivery of young breeding stock, in the highest value range, to the large commercial dairies back east. (This also led her and Bob to love Aussies, their best friends over the years, kept as many as three at a time.)
Eventually, the barns and pastures came down. As anticipated, a West Valley sewer trunk came right by the front of their property. Streets were paved and infrastructure built. Farm Country Court became a privately owned cul-de-sac within “The Farm Country Estates”.
Prior to this, Dorothy and Bob would visit the very first annual “Seattle Street of Dreams” shows. For two years they did design studies of the nascent architectural style known as “Northwest Traditional” homes (steep roofed, classic European styles), and developed a market in Seattle’s east side to source the special products to produce special properties.
Dorothy was involved in every home built in The Farm, not only as interior designer but also as a crafter; casting, caving, painting and firing custom ceramic tile panels, working off of scaffolding for ceiling murals and wall stencils, and reviving the use camed stained glass panels, among many other novel details.
Along with the inclusion of Dorothy’s unique parts and contributions, The Farm became a game-changing success in the Yakima real estate market and would become a significant influence on those beyond.
This would leverage her to her girlhood dream of a “fairy tale castle” complete with large professional art studio. She named it “The Granville Blanc”, at 6901 Scenic Drive, Yakima. It was the first home built in their
10-acre super development that she named “Ravensgate” (“And the most honored of the Realm shall enter through The Ravensgate”).
Here she evolved to a regionally known professional painter, also for a time conducting private art classes, and workshops for other professionals, in her studio.
Over the next 18 years, she progressed to two more homes as the interior of their development and their private cul-de-sac, Raven’s Gate Way, was completed. The first “inside” was at 6910. The last was “The Vindage”, at 6821; an architectural metaphor of an Alsatian/Rhineland winery, also intended as a salute to the burgeoning wine industry of the Yakima Valleys.
The Vindage was, and remains, an extraordinary residential design in Central Washington. Purposely (and knowing the personalities, probably provocatively) of a one-off design concept, a main intent was to be a statement of the designers’ independent spirits.
Here Dorothy’s art business thrived. Her studios covered an entire portion of the building, complete with its own exterior balcony, and with accommodations for visiting artists and designers from near and far.
It came time for Dorothy and Bob to “semi-retire” and for them to simplify. The result was Dorothy’s desert home – “The Golden West”, 561 Pioneer Way, Yakima; overlooking the beautiful Cowiche Valley, with Clemen Mountain in the distance. The hillside desert parcel was surrounded by a lush green oasis of apple orchards. Dorothy would see the view from here as a ‘living painting” where the colors and snow covered mountains would change with the seasons, and as place being perfect for their innovative plans.
As frequent winter travelers to the Southland of Santa Fe, Nevada and California, the couple had come to appreciate the organic elegance of modern Southwest Architecture; and they easily recognized it as a design solution on many levels for their objectives.
Their design interpretation fit seamlessly into the “living painting”. With their “Green-Build” philosophies, adopted long before there was such a term in Yakima, the flora and fauna of the desert was vigorously protected and mostly left untouched.
This, along with the studied use of “zeroscape/xeriscape” landscaping, allowed them a relatively maintenance- free home where they could focus intently on retirement projects, or could leave worry free for weeks at a time.
Here, they lived a peaceful, idyllic life for many years, until an event that would change their lives forever. In 2004, Dorothy went for an annual medical exam. Declining at first, she received a “gratuitous” flu shot. 3 days later, she felt full symptoms of flu. 6 days later, she had significant symptoms of paralysis and burning pain in hands and feet. Shortly, she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). (Although not completely understood, in a later private opinion, the vaccine had caused her immune system to “crash” (overreact), causing it to attack and damage her nerve cells).
She struggled with varying degrees of crippling pain and paralysis for years. Her husband quit work completely to become her full time caregiver and personal advocate.
In 2011, she was ambulanced to Memorial Hospital. Eventually diagnosed with “critical relapse” of GBS, she spent two extensive stays in the Emergency Care Unit that year, fully intubated and on life support. She would never return home. Their lives would become a series of recovery and rehab hospitals all over the Northwest.
She would spend two years in a special facility in Seattle, to be close to University of Washington Hospital special emergency services. Damage to her airway had resulted in formation of a stricture, which would randomly collapse with dire rescue required.
In this, finally a miracle-worker cardiac surgeon was convinced to take on the very risky removal of the stricture and resection of her airway. The final decision to accept the risks was Dorothy’s. Always the gutsy fighter she threw the dice and won, and after a long recovery was able to return to Yakima.
Needing 24/7 care for the rest of her life, Dorothy was borderline nursing home or assisted living. For years, Bob would negotiate arrangements to stay with her through the “graveyard” shift at the various facilities, so she could have the extra freedom and privacy of assisted living.
With fifteen years of attrition, medical complications finally released her from her ordeal. During yet another emergency stay, Dorothy died at Memorial Hospital, April 9, 2019, husband by her side.
About a year later, when he thought he could handle it, in some closing matters Bob was sorting through Dorothy’s wallet. In one of the pockets, folded into small squares, was an age-worn sheet of paper. On it, the hand written lyrics of the song “Trees”.
Dorothy dearly loved all of her family. To her, there were no “in-laws”, just family. Dorothy (and husband) naturally assumed the obligations expected by their ancestral cultures. When it came due, they welcomed their time to serve as heads of “the family corporation”, organized to take care of all, especially the young and aged.
Dorothy was predeceased by all of her grandparents, and her parents; step fathers, Bill Custer and Walter B. Kelley; beloved sister, Phillis Dupre; uncle Philip “Buck” Denham, and his sister Wanda Denham; Bob’s parents, Mark and Barbara Selzler; Bob’s sister and Dorothy’s good friend (and “partner in crime”), Sandra (Selzler) Turner.
Dorothy is survived by her husband of fifty-one years, Robert Selzler; Dorothy’s beloved brother and sister, Fred Dupre Jr. (since deceased) and Lavalla (Custer) Trapp; wife of brother Fred Jr. and Dorothy’s good friend, Kay Dupre-Rodriquez, and wife of brother Fred Jr. and Dorothy’s good friend, Wanda Dupre; and husband of Bob’s sister and Dorothy’s good friend, Darrell Turner.
Also surviving Dorothy are the sons of her brother Fred Jr. and his wife Kay: Larry, Michael and Robert; her sister Lavalla’s beloved children: Ted Trapp, Laneil Trapp, Echo Sandefur and young Bill Custer (since deceased), and all of their family members. Also to include respected wife of uncle “Buck” Denham, aunt Darlene Denham (since deceased), and all of their family members.
Also surviving Dorothy are Bob’s much-loved son Dean Selzler and his wife Wendy Selzler, and their children: Tanner and Kaden Zane Selzler, and Dean’s daughter, Jessica.
Some of Dorothy’s Favorites:
Artists/Designers: Monet, Bev Doolittle, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Music: ZZ Top, La Grange; Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love; Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion.
Places: Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM; Ivar’s on Lake Union, Seattle; Sou’wester Historic Lodge and RV Park, Seaview, WA; Leavenworth, WA.
According with Dorothy’s wishes in not wanting to disrupt her families, three separate memorial dinners were held in locations that would not cause them extensive travel.
A cenotaph memorializing Dorothy is being prepared.