Seattle Art Blog - News, Discussion, and Events

Aug 31, 2006 The Stranger provides a special section this week on all events taking place at this weekend's Bumbershoot Festival. You can find it here. The Seattle Weekly takes a different approach with a column devoted to a guide of the small things that make Bumbershoot great. You can find it here. Another place to point your browser for complete information about all the aspects of Bumbershoot is its website. You can find it here. Frankly, after I visit the visual art exhibits and look around the vendors for funky jewelry, my next priority is to find a Mexican food booth, which just might be the Fajita Express. My husband always winds up at the Ballard Brothers for their blackened salmon. Despite the wide variety of food available, it seems there's always a  line everywhere you go.

Aug 28, 2006 If you want to hear another great hour with the velvety-smooth voice of Portland's Eva Lake, go to Artstar Radio and download her lively conversation with Jim Demetre of Artdish.com.  Listen  to comparisons between the Portland and Seattle art communities as well as some critiques of the art critics in both cities. 

Aug 28, 2006

First Friday
Anacortes Galleries host a gallery walk from 6 - 9pm. Call Kathy at 360/293-6938.

Bainbridge Island Art Walk. 6 - 8pm.

Fremont First Friday from 6 - 9pm. Go here for a great map .

Vashon Island Gallery Cruise. 6 - 9pm. Call the Blue Heron Gallery at 206/463-5131.

First Saturday
Langley on Whidbey Island. Galleries extend their hours to 8pm. Call 360/221-7737

Gig Harbor Art Walk along the harbor. 1 - 5pm.

Port Townsend Gallery Walk. 5-8pm. Call Ancestral Spirits Gallery at 360/385-0078.

August 26 - September 3
Kenmore Annual Art Show 3 - 9pm daily at the Northlake Lutheran Church, 6620 N.E. 185th St., Kenmore. Call 425/486-6050.

August 29
Art Walk in Renton from 4 - 8pm with 60 artists participating. Call Ryan Runge (ryanrunge@hotmail.com)
206-407-8719 or Dan Watson (brokengrounddan@hotmail.com) 206-697-9456 Dan Watson

September 1 - 4
Bumbershoot 2006 -- Seattle Center. Make no mistake about it; this is THE art festival with thousands of artists from every discipline unleashing their creativity. It's a Major Happening! 11am - 11pm. Visit www.bumbershoot.org.

Olympia Harbor Days
Annual festival where tugboats return to the southernmost tip of Puget Sound for three days of entertainment, food, art, history, and a last farewell to the summer. Follow this bolded link to the website. 

Aug 23, 2006 Last week I  told you about Eva Lake, of Portland's Artstar Radio, and her planned interviews with Seattle art personalities. She started out by interviewing M of Visual Codec, and this week she interviewed Steven Vroom of Art Radio Seattle.  Eva has a wonderful voice that was made for radio, and Steven, a former art history professor at  Cornish, is tremendously knowledgable and talkative about the Seattle art scene. Trust me when I  tell you that you will love listening to Steven's responses to Eva's questions. Follow this bolded link to listen, but  don't even think about downloading the archived interview unless you have broadband.

Aug 22, 2006 Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is currently showing an inspiring exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution featuring photographs from the National Archives celebrating a century of American life.  Picturing the Century celebrates the 20th century with images highlighting major events–from the Wright brothers’ first flight to construction of the Empire State Building, from Omaha Beach to the Persian Gulf.  Other images provide historic glimpses of America’s rural and urban landscapes, as well as reflect times of economic or social change.  

Six portfolios in the exhibition present works by individual photographers: Lewis Hine, Walter Lubken, George Ackerman, Charles Fenno Jacobs, Dorothea Lange and Danny Lyon.  The portfolios include photographs that have never before been displayed, and images that have become so famous they are synonymous with the event itself.

The exhibit will be on display at MOHAI through December 17, 2006.

Aug 17, 2006 Guest columist Patricia Szabo writes in the Seattle Times, "Our city should be proud to have an artist of such caliber that he is compared to Salvador Dali, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. It is no secret that Chihuly is a brilliant businessman — and an amazing marketer ["Chihuly Inc." series, Seattle Times, Aug. 6-8]. In fact, one of the reasons he is such a popular artist is because he knows how to get his artwork in front of the people. And his work is beautiful, vibrant and a delight to own. We applaud Chihuly for his marketing prowess and reject the notion that true artists must be starving artists." Read the whole thing.

Ms. Szabo is executive director of Providence O'Christmas Trees, raising funds to support housing, health-care and hospice programs provided by Providence Health & Services' Senior and Community Services in King County. Chihuly donated a glass Christmas tree he personally designed to their November 29 fundraising auction and asked nothing in return.

Aug 17, 2006

Regina Hackett has a few suggestions in this morning's Seattle P.I. for the Bellevue Arts Museum. Finding the museum nearly empty a couple of days ago, apparently made her think what sorts of exhibits might bring more public support.

She says, "I want to see more Northwest craft greats. For starters, where's the Howard Kottler retrospective? BAM took a first stab at one decades ago, after his death, and the Tacoma Art Museum recently featured his decal plates, but that's not nearly enough. We need to write Kottler into art history, not just our regional history, but everybody's history, and he's far from the only Northwest craft artist flying way under the radar.

We have a mother lode of nationally significant ceramic sculptors (many overshadowed by glass, the way American rhythm and blues singers were kicked to the curb by the British invasion). We have plenty of terrific jewelers and fashion designers. Artists who carve, cut and sand wood into glory? We got them. Obviously we've got glass, and BAM needs to let it breathe. Reaching out across the global village is fine, but first, to prove yourself, bloom where you're planted. Let's hear it for "Project Runway" creativity here at home."

Aug 15, 2006 To the tune  of 20 counts. The Seattle Times reports, " According to the charging papers, Lidtke displayed paintings under signed consignment agreements with artists or owners. Though Lidtke was required to notify them when he sold a painting and then forward the payment less his commission, he didn't do so in many cases, police allege. In some cases, when artists would ask where their work was, Lidtke allegedly said the sales were still being finalized when in fact the artworks were long gone."

Lidtke, who owned a gallery in Pioneer Square for ten years called the Kurt Lidtke Gallery, maintains that he is innocent of the charges. A well-liked figure in the business for a number of years, the former Foster/White employee sold paintings by Northwest masters like Mark Tobey and Morris Graves. The gossiping crowd  in Pioneer Square wonders how and why Kidtke let this happen if the charges are true.  A lot of people are also questioning why this case is taking so long to resolve. Adverse publicity about gallery owners doesn't do the legitimate galleries any good.

Aug 15, 2006 According to Regina Hackett at the Seattle P. I., "Scott Wakefield, Rubino's attorney, announced the settlement Monday afternoon through an e-mail. Chihuly dropped his suit, and Rubino dropped his countersuit against Chihuly." The lawsuit against Robert Kaindl remains, however, active with Kaindl refusing to settle.

Sheila Farr and Susan Kelleher, who wrote a series of controversial articles last week about Chihuly's methods, are also reporting a settlement in the Seattle Times. They said, "After a bitter, 10-month legal dispute that's made news across the country, glass artist Dale Chihuly and his former associate Bryan Rubino said Monday that they have settled all of their claims against each other and have agreed to keep the agreement confidential."

Aug 14, 2006

Third Thursday
Tacoma Art Walk. Tacoma's galleries, Museum of Glass, the Washington State History Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum are open from 5 - 8pm. All three museums are free. Info line; 253/272-4258. Click on this bolded link for a map of the participating galleries.

Edmonds Art Walk. 5 - 8pm. Call 425/776-3778.

Art Collective Issaquah. 6 - 9pm. Train Depot, 15 Rainier Blvd. N., Downtown Issaquah.

August 18 - 20
Arts by the Bay. Poulsbo Waterfront Park. All day.

August 19
Uptown Street Arts & Crafts Fair in Port Townsend at Lawrence and Tyler Streets between 10am and 5pm. Arts and crafts made by exhibiting artists. Fun Fair, food, music, parade.

August 19 - 20
Best of Marymoor, Summer Best of the Northwest. "Art made by hands you can shake." 10am - 6pm, Marymoor Park, Redmond. Visit www.nwcraftsalliance.com or call 206/525-5926.

Aug 10, 2006 You can do just that if you make your way down to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma between now and August 13. Chihuly and lots of his former gaffers will be there doing their glass thing. Read all about it in the Tacoma Weekly.

Aug 9, 2006 August 17  at 7:00 p.m. in theTown Hall at Eighth and Seneca,  presents a rare opportunity to meet internationally known Dr. Sheri Speede, founder and director of IDA-Africa. She will show video footage of the chimpanzees at IDA-Africa's Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, all of whom are orphans of the illegal bushmeat trade.  The auction includes: original paintings by chimpanzees at Sanaga-Yong Center, as well artwork by locally and internationally celebrated artists featuring: Berkeley Breathed, Gail Barnfather, Matt Calcavecchia, Joan Delehanty, Mary Anne Nagy, Claudia Riedner, and Jim Robertson. Pictured is a painting by a young chimpanzee named Jantan.

Aug 8, 2006 On view at the Howard/Mandville Gallery in Kirkland through August 20 is Todd Williams who studied painting and illustration at the Kansas City Art Institute where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Although not an abstractionist, he still uses an abstractionist metaphor which is 'to take from.' In his case he has chosen to take his forms from nature and his expression from his heart. This one man exhibition of new works was inspired by Todd’s recent trip to Eastern Europe, where he spent time teaching workshops in both Vienna and Prague. Pictured is Prague at Night.

Aug 6, 2006 The Seattle Times has a huge front-page picture of him accompanied by an in-depth article about his career and methods he uses to promote his work.  Written by Sheila Farr and Susan Kelleher, it's called "Inside the glass empire,." and is the first in a series of three pieces looking behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, down in Tacoma, the News Tribune also has a big picture of Chihuly on the front page and says, "Dale's back in town!" Tribune writer Rosemary Ponnekanti relates, "Glass reunion 'Dale Chihuly is coming to Tacoma.'  In the last few weeks, that phrase has swept across Tacoma’s arts and business community like the news of a million-dollar lottery win.

Chihuly will be here for a week, working in the hot shop at the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art with collaborators and making other appearances around town. But what he’s bringing with him is as big as the man himself."

Aug 5, 2006 Chihuly Week in Tacoma is a week-long celebration of Chihuly and his contributions to the studio glass movement and the City of Tacoma.

Tacoma Art Museum is joining in the Showcase Tacoma/Chihuly in Tacoma festivities that will fill the Museum District in August. Tacoma Art Museum’s permanent display of glass artworks by Tacoma native Dale Chihuly is the premier collection of the artist's work on public long-term display, dating 1977 to present. The collection features examples from many of the artist's major series, including Baskets, Sea Forms, Cylinders, Macchia, Persians, and Venetians. To celebrate Chihuly in Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum has scheduled a series of special events that highlight glass art and glass-inspired art in the community.

The Museum of Glass is featuring Chihuly, with an impressive rotation of Northwest artists who are the regional stars of the Studio Glass Movement, and who will re-create the signature, historic artwork of their original collaborations. The overall residency will be a retrospective of Chihuly’s design and creative process, including Fiori, Seaforms, Persians, Niijima Floats, Piccolo Venetians, Ikebana, Macchia and Baskets.

In conjunction with the city-wide Chihuly in Tacoma event, the William Traver Gallery in Tacoma will present a Solo Exhibition featuring a large selection of major historical works by Dale Chihuly. Also on display will be the gallery’s Third Annual World Glass Exhibition, highlighting individual pieces by well-known artists who have worked on Chihuly’s team throughout the years. The exhibitions will be on view from August 5 – September 10, 2006.