...That Is What We Are is the outstanding object in the show Gray Area, which has a number of local artists exploring the identity of the region through various mediums. The work is a coffee table in a concrete cave whose walls are covered with paper clouds. Potted pine trees are also in the cave; their shadows fall upon the coffee table, which the artist, Bree Nichols, shaped to mimic the San Juan Islands. The table looks cheap and on it rests a SuperSonics mug of cold coffee. But the rich meaning of this installation is not to be found in the mug's logo or the mug's contents or in the surrounding baby pines. What is strange and historical is the name of the San Juan Islands, which is Spanish for "Saint John." We expect the cities and isles of the sunny Caribbean to have sunny Spanish names. But not so of the islands here, so far north, so far from even San Francisco. Though the islands received their name from Spanish explorers in 1791, it would have been practical, when the islands were later settled by Americans and Brits, to rename them Saint John Islands. In English the saint sounds colder.