CAPITOL HILL: Cake, Love & Cupcakes

There's an art Blitz every 2nd Thursday on Capitol Hill! 

This evening I'm on a mission to explore the south side of the art walk, but I still absolutely have to begin at CakeSpy. I'm accompanied by jewelry artist Grace Wood, a long-time friend and fellow arts, crafts and tasty treats enthusiast. CakeSpy is featuring its familiar delightful dessert-themed display, but this month their very own Jessie Oleson a.k.a. "CakeSpy," owner and operator of the CakeSpy retail space has a new series of paintings and a shiney new cookbook! Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life includes 60 recipes and hundreds of illustrations designed to make every afternoon of baking an adventure. Try the "S'moreos" on page 25; they're decadent, delicious (and microwave friendly)!

Jessie Oleson "CakeSpy" @ CakeSpy

"S'moreos" @ CakeSpy

Bauhaus Books & Coffee has a new artist this month as well - Corey "Reyyy" Lewis, comic artist and creator of the graphic novels "Sharknife" and "Peng." You can see his work at the 2012 Emeral City Comic Con this month as well.

Corey "Reyyy" Lewis @ Bauhaus

Just up the hill from CakeSpy and Bauhaus is True Love Art Gallery, a tattoo parlour and soon-to-be retail shop for toy, books, clothes, and mags. To-night's artists are Nico Lund, and David and Carolina Enriquez. I am immediately drawn to Carolina's cupcake display, her tiny felt fuzzy critter pins, and her playful, sweet themed characatures in gouache.

Carolina Enriquez @ True Love Art Gallery

Frame Central on the corner of Broadway & Pike is one of my favourite places for custom framing, pre-made frames, and matting and wiring materials. Their excellent selection is surpassed only by their fantastic customer service. They've let me use their power tools on a couple of occasions when I've been in a bind. I've never been here for art walk before, but this evening their upstairs gallery is showcasing the pinup paintings of Suzy Todd, a painter and ink artist at Two Birds Tattoo. I especially dig her watercolour series of playing card queens.

Suzy Todd @ Frame Central

Our last stop of the evening is Cupcake Royale. This month's artist is Joey Veltkamp, a self-taught artist interested in transforming every day objects into an artistic experience. "The Blanket Show" features close to 50 pen and pencil drawings of blankets. 

From blitzcapitolhill.com: "Blankets are charged with residual energy from our daily lives. We sleep with them and make love in them. They collect our dreams and our nightmares, our dirt and our tears. We cling to them when we're sick, when we're tired, when we're at our most vulnerable. Even the names we attach, "comforter" and "security blanket," reveal their importance."

"The Blanket Show" @ Cupcake Royale

Joey Veltkamp @ Cupcake Royale

Cupcake Royale is of Seattle's more delicious cupcake joints, and this week's featured cupcake is an "Irish Cake Bomb" - chocolate No Doubt Stout cake with Jameson Whiskey buttercream filling and Irish Cream whipped frosting.

It's a sugar bomb of epic proportions (well, actually it has the proportions of a standard cupcake, it just seems more impressive somehow because of the whiskey... and the chocolate... and the nom nom nom...) Luckily, I can afford to indulge since the Capitol Hill Art Walk only happens once a month.

Headed home with the CakeSpy cookbook, a tiny felted rat pin, and licking the remnants of cupcake from my fingers, I feel that my sweet tooth is happily satisfied. My craving for innovative art and inspiration, on the other hand, is an ongoing odyssey. There are still at least 20 art spaces on Capitol Hill that I haven't had the chance to see yet, but that's what next month's art walk is for! And the one after that... and the one after that...

Support your local art scene! Cheers!

~ BCDuncan