*WARNING - Mature Content*
Art Up! The art walk in
the Greenwood-Phinney Ridge neighbourhood spans over 20 blocks and
includes more than 40 galleries, studios, and cafes. I'd love to hit
them all, but that's a tall order for a single night.
I'm wandering with friends this eve, and one of them has work in a couple different art spaces, so our mission begins with
Tasty,
a gallery of 'delectable collectibles'. Regularly featured are
selections of crazy-beautiful creations by local artists and craft
masters. This month the collection is "Girls Gone Wild", cutting-edge
art by inventive women artists.
Redd Walitzki's
new work is an ethereal melding of watercolour and sparkle dreams. She
captures waif-like figures emerging from delicate bits of foliage, and
bugs made somehow adorable.
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| Redd Walitzki @ Tasty |
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| Redd Walitzki @ Tasty |
The sparkle stencil pop art paintings of
Glitter Mortis glimmer from across the room, and the surreal stylings of
Patricia Ariel intrigue and beguile.
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| Patricia Ariel @ Tasty |
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| Glitter Mortis @ Tasty |
Would
that I could spend the entire evening sipping champagne surrounded by
cupcake clocks, fuzzy monster puppets and tiny top hats, but there is
yet more art to see!
Tasty has teamed up with
Bherd Studios
for their second annual joint art walk exhibition. "Pretty, Sexy,
Dirty, Girly" is a collection of works by female artists portraying
aspects of feminine sexuality. This month the Bherd Studios boast a wide
variety of media and performance art - dance, burlesque and a live DJ
flavour this evening with awesome! The exhibit challenges viewers to
consider not only their initial reaction to the subject matter, but also
the ways in which it affects their interaction with the work, the
artists, and the performers.
I've always been
intrigued by the many facets of the human form. Finding myself suddenly confronted with and surrounded by femininity is both fascinating and inspiring. My paint brushes are going to get a work out to-night.
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| Crystal Barbre @ Bherd Studios |
In her series "Magnetisme Animal",
Crystal Barbre
depicts provocative forms of human-animal fusion. Deftly rendered, her oils contain a hint of humour and a healthy dose of symbolism.
Siolo Thompson,
curator of the "Pretty, Sexy, Dirty, Girly" exhibit, is displaying her
"Naked Alphabet" drawings, deliciously scintillating with a Victorian
flair.
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| Siolo Thompson @ Bherd Studios |
Bherd Studios is part of the Greenwood Collective, an art space shared with Echo Echo, Home Suite Home, and Urban Light Studios.
As a nod to the upcoming romantic holiday, "Sadie Hawkins" at Home
Suite Home features collaborative works by female and male artists.
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| "Sadie Hawkins" @ Home Suite Home |
Redd Walitzki and
Carl Faulkner co-created a piece that speaks to both of their styles:
Redd's muted watercolour palette and distinctive otherworldly figures,
and Carl's colourfully abject 'visual taffy', in this case, bits of
string ooze from the model's mouth.
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| Redd Walitzki (collaboration with Carl Faulkner) & her model Fox @ Home Suite Home |
Next door to the Sadie Hawkins show, oil painter
Iris Scott
is exhibiting some of her newest works. Her impressionistic pieces are
vibrant, textural, and painted by hand. Literally. Eschewing traditional
technique, Iris prefers to paint with her finger tips. When I ask her
about her process, she laughs and replies that finger painting is far
more fun than cleaning brushes.
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| Iris Scott @ Greenwood Collective |
Other notable art nooks in the Greenwood Collective include the spray paint/acrylic steampunk birds of CASH (Curtis Ashby), the
MantisArt grafitti wall, and
Nicole Dinardo's custom couture kitchen mixers.
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| CASH @ Greenwood Collective |
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| MantisArt @ Greenwood Collective |
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| Nicole Dinardo @ Greenwood Collective |
The community of artists at the Greenwood Collective is imaginative,
controversial, and compelling. The only down-side to the evening is that
by the time I've finished exploring Bherd, Echo Echo, Home Suite Home,
and Urban Light, the majority of the studios along the Greenwood-Phinney
art walk have closed. I'll have to work on being in multiple places at once next time around...
I'll definitely be back next month for Bherd Studios' five-year anniversary show. "Look Up Here" celebrates five years of Northwest urban and contemporary art, and features artists who have made an impact in the Seattle art community by promoting and supporting other artists.
Come out and support your local art scene! Cheers.
~ BCDuncan
