All Dressed Up, and Everywhere to Go

Designer Tiffanie Peters and thespian Kristie Worthey

Trick Art Treat kicked off Thursday night with a VIP reception with Mayor Marilyn Strickland at the performance studio of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. While a few partygoers read the Halloween dress code as fast-and-louche – strutting about in sexy black feathered gear, shimmery kimonos or clouds of cotton candy hair – curiously, the Shakespearean actors wore strictly plainclothes. (Or do street clothes qualify as costume for period actors?) Not to be outdone, local artists flashed extravagantly tattooed skin and moved through the crowd like peacocks strolling the aisles of a grocery store.

Mayor Marilyn Strickland, city councilman David Boe and Laura Fox

Mayor Strickland had enthusiastic words for Spaceworks Tacoma, now in its fifth month. “When you have a marriage of business and the arts, it’s a good thing,” she said. “This is a community project,” added Andy Fife, executive director of Shunpike, a sponsoring partner of Spaceworks with the Tacoma Arts Commission and Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber. “You yourselves have become a destination,” City of Tacoma Arts Administrator Amy McBride assured the artists present. Standing near the window under a clever cardboard tree stood a rotund and chipper little piñata man called Live by the Glue, Die by the Bat, by paper artist Cheryl Rux (Nichole Vandever created a piñata jack-o-lantern). We paid our respects to the Spaceworks avatar, then made our way out into the dark and gloomy night.

Spinning out of control at Chiffon

Tacoma Contemporary treasurer Katy Evans

Next door at 915 Pacific Ave., the DJ of the Damned was spinning at Tiffanie Peters‘ ode-to-the-’70s dress shop, Chiffon. We barely escaped the temptation of trying on one, then two, then ten of her slinky creations, and hurried across the street to where more artists were assembled, at the huge workspace at 1114 Pacific Ave. We caught filmmaker Isaac Olsen, director of the noir feature, Quiet Shoes, next to his interesting footage of a beaver. Michael Kaniecki‘s steadily unfurling India ink scroll-in-progress was at this juncture a marvelous 45′ long and still growing. Textile artist Meghan Lancaster displayed an array of fiber art that was mystifying in its soft, woven complexity. Photographer Josh Everson (who also had striking paintings on view) was busy snapping portraits of visitors in scary costumes.

Gamely manning a table of artists’ products was Jennifer Adams, owner of the wonderful indie boutique, fly. How we wish we could turn back the clock for Jennifer, whose shop is temporarily closed due to smoke damage from a fire next door. We sincerely hope this terrific artist-entrepreneur will be pushing full speed ahead again, in no time.

Isaac Olsen and the beaver

Arts administrator Amy McBride and artist Holly Senn

Michael Kaniecki and wife, Freddy

In the window at 950 Pacific Ave., Alyson Piskorowski‘s installation, featuring floor-to-ceiling columns wound with flowing streams of white paper, seemed to emit a light of its own.

At 11th & Commerce, the Woolworth windows offered interesting food for thought (some of it literal). Alexandra Opie‘s sharp, interactive video installation had pedestrians straining to see their own image projected back onto a still life image inside the huge display window. Around the corner, the intriguing collections – make that “obsessions” – of Craig Snyder, Ruth Tomlinson, Tania Kupczak and Jessica Bender were on display for all the world to see. Italian-born photographer Alice di Certo‘s photographs of quintessential American scenes made us do a double-take, for her keen repositioning of the familiar. And Kyle Dillehay‘s stunning inquiry into the quality of our food sources featuring mutated pods, honeycombs and blossoms – some with small, forged copper helmets, each one unique – fascinated us with their repulsive beauty.

Photographer and painter Josh Everson

At 910 Broadway, Scott Huette and Sisy Anderson have carved out a tranquil moment with their dimensional, woodland-inspired installation, Remembrances. Re-Present (908 Broadway) is Holly Senn‘s elegant paean to the Pantages Theater; the classical architectural details that inspired her are actually reflected in the exhibit’s window. A frightening web made of castoff material covers the windows of Barbara De Pirro‘s work, vortex plastica, an inquiry into the catastrophe of waste at 912 Broadway.

We started walking back to 913 Pacific Ave. to see if the piñata man, Live by the Glue, Die by the Bat, had made it through the night, but then we thought the better of it. No matter the occasion, we just didn’t want to see the little guy get smashed.

Piñata artists Cheryl Rux and Nichole Vandever

His hours are numbered: Live by the Glue, Die by the Bat

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Don’t Be a Zombie, Come to Spaceworks Tonight

The Raven, Justin Hillgrove's tribute to Edgar Allen Poe

Check out artist studios, installations, live theater, film and fashion tonight at Trick Art Treat. It’s all part of the Spaceworks Tacoma celebration from 5-7pm (and beyond). Grab a map at 913 Pacific Ave. and take your pick of events:

1114 Pacific Ave.
5pm – Photographer Joshua Everson invites scary visitors to have their Halloween portraits taken
5pm – Live painting by Michael Kaniecki, working on the world’s (okay, Tacoma’s) longest India ink painting
5pm - Meghan Lancaster displays her intricate textile art
5pm – Jennifer Adams with assorted D-I-Y products from fly
5:30pm – Free screening of Isaac Olsen‘s feature film, Quiet Shoes

915 Pacific Ave.
5-11pm – Chiffon Halloween party with live DJ; raffle for Tiffanie Peters jewelry

913 Pacific Ave.
5pm – Cheryl Rux and Nichole Vandever introduce Halloween piñatas created just for Spaceworks Tacoma
8pm – Preview of Titus Andronicus performed by Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

Sadly, a fire in the Subway shop at 11th & Broadway has caused smoke damage at the next-door art boutique, fly, which will be closed until further notice. We wish you a speedy return to Broadway, Jennifer and friends.

The Woolworth Building and new window installations in the theater district will be aglow tonight for your enjoyment! For a schedule of artists and events, click here.

Piñata Fever!

Tacoma Doom, by Cheryl Rux and Nichole Vandever

There are so many reasons why we love a piñata: a piñata is charming, a piñata is retro, a piñata is delicate, a piñata is exotic, a piñata is its own reason to throw a party, a piñata invites us to smash it to the proverbial smithereens, then a piñata showers us with candy and toys in its final, paradoxical glory.

Whew! Why did the piñata ever disappear from the party scene? No matter, there is a master piñata maker in our midst, and her name is Cheryl Rux. How good are her piñatas? They’re such funny and clever and beautiful works of art that lucky recipients absolutely hate destroying them. Rux is the Picasso of Piñatas, and she is spreading the gospel of papier-mâché.

Sullen Seagull, by Nichole Vandever and Cheryl Rux (note the crumpled burger wrapper in its beak).

The Tacoma artist has been designing piñatas for a dozen years, a talent she accurately describes as “sculpture, and also a paper craft.” Two years ago her friend Nichole Vandever also fell under the spell of the Mexican craft, and the two joined forces to create the wittiest, whackable works of art this town has ever seen. Examples include Tacoma Doom (the T-Dome circled with a ring of fire); the Heidelberg brewery tower; a pothole with a tire rolling into it (nature detests a void – quite!); Captain Corpuscle, commissioned for a phlebotemist; and Cherry, Rux’s sweet, crimson piñata strung on a satin ribbon thong, commissioned to support Planned Parenthood.

Das ist gut! A Tacoma icon, the Heidelberg brewery tower

Rux and Vandever are obsessed with perfecting their labor-intensive oeuvre; Vandever has gone so far as to develop specially treated papers for their projects. The only thing they seem to love more than dipping their hands in dripping wet paper is conceptualizing wonderful objets d’art for charity. At this writing, the artists were creating top-secret, papier-mâché works for Trick Art Treat, Oct. 28; see them on display at 913 Pacific Ave. from 5 – 7pm. They are also developing pieces for a holiday benefit and Best of Tacoma cd release party at the New Frontier Lounge, date TBA. If you’ve caught the piñata fever, contact Cheryl and Nichole at Ruxroxalrighty@hotmail.com.

View from the Mayor’s Office

Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland

Mayor Marilyn Strickland conducts business from a 12th-floor suite in the Municipal Building overlooking downtown high-rises and Commencement Bay, but she surveys the burgeoning Tacoma art scene from the ground level. On a recent visit to the mayor’s office we found Strickland, who is a downtown resident, eager to invite citizens from all corners of the city to join her in celebrating Trick Art Treat on Oct. 28, 5 -7pm. “Come down to my rec room!” she smiles, waving her hand toward the streets far below.

Projecting Drop, by Jill Anholt

Trick Art Treat is a showcase event for Spaceworks Tacoma, a program providing selected artists with free exhibition, work or performance space donated for use by retail property owners. “It’s just nice to walk past all these [activated] storefronts – you do a double take,” says Strickland, whose own favorite work of public art is a permanent piece titled  Projecting Drop, by Jill Anholt, on the 12th St. hill climb. Since June, Spaceworks art installations have brightened the windows of the F.W. Woolworth Building, historic buildings in the theater district, and commercial properties on Pacific Ave. Strickland, who covers a lot of ground downtown, observes that art is experienced differently depending on one’s mode of transportation – though one can drive by, “When you walk past it you stop and it looks a different way.” The mayor credits City of Tacoma Arts Administrator Amy McBride with developing the visionary program, which has garnered widespread media attention and even spawned a similar project to the north, Storefronts Seattle. “I’m very pleased with her leadership. I think it’s been a wild success.

“Maybe we can bring it to some other [Tacoma] neighborhood districts,” she enthuses, noting that the project directly benefits artists, who gain exposure and a free place to work for up to six months; landlords, whose vacant properties are energized by the presence of tenants during struggling economic times; and the urban landscape as a whole. So far the program has supported more than 50 artists and arts-related groups.

Installation by Alyson Piskorowski

Tacoma is now almost 200,000 strong, according to 2009 US Census Bureau statistics, and it is recognized as an indie art mecca with a creative culture encompassing grass roots organizations as well as a lively and hyperactive online community. McBride’s office is currently overseeing a number of major public art initiatives which, while impressive individually, verge on extraordinary in their boldness and their cumulative effect of bringing the arts into local communities. In addition to Spaceworks Tacoma, there is Art at Work Month, in November, offering an outstanding showcase for working artists, performers and galleries; a popular open-studio tour; and free workshops and information sessions for the public and those in the creative fields. Tacoma’s innovative, city-wide Murals Project hires professional artists to execute wall-size paintings on blighted buildings; in some cases, fighting graffiti with sanctioned graffiti – a controversial, aikido-style maneuver that has so far proven successful. It is “helping people understand the difference between graffiti and tagging,” says Strickland. The project is supported by the Tacoma Public School District, the Chamber of Commerce and Safe Streets. As local artist (and former graffitist) Jeremy Gregory told the Tacoma News Tribune, “Murals do work….You don’t scribble on something you respect.”

Jeremy Gregory and the Hilltop Mural

Both McBride and Strickland emphasize that there is a social benefit to public art projects. The mayor praises Gregory’s recently completed Hilltop Mural as a fine example of how art can bring about dialogue in a community. Neighborhoods become invested in such mammoth projects as they progress over weeks or months. “What an amazing piece of work that is,” she says of Gregory’s 60′ wall painting, which offers a fantastical narrative of Hilltop history. Its canvas is an empty 1920s brick building belonging to Pastor Ivory Crittendon and his wife, Billie, who plan to turn it into a café and office complex. The Crittendons express a desire to see the adjacent, overgrown lot turned into a community garden – an idea Strickland embraces. Such an idyllic green spot could anchor the Martin Luther King Jr. Way corridor, which is in the early stages of a city-supported revitalization plan, she says.

Strickland, who has lived in Atlanta, Portland and Seattle, believes that Tacoma’s multifaceted and active art scene, as strong as it is, is still “under appreciated and underrated….I challenge anyone who says Tacoma doesn’t support the arts.” She points out that the city’s sectors – in industry, the military, technology, business, and higher education – create an incredibly diverse and vibrant social climate that breeds creativity. A wide range of talent will be on full display during Spaceworks Tacoma’s event on Oct. 28; for a schedule of artists and events, click here.

The War Experience Project

Few people ever experience the crucible of war: the threat of death delivered by IED or rocket-propelled grenade. The terror of sniper fire. The stench and sounds of combat. The stretches of numbing boredom alternating with paroxysms of adrenaline-wired violence. Few see it, but those who do are changed. “In war there are no unwounded soldiers,” said Argentinian writer José Narosky.

Iraq veteran and artist Rick Lawson is no stranger to war’s unseen effects. His first-hand knowledge of how combat duty may subsequently alter the lives of military veterans inspired him to create the War Experience Project, a unique program in which service members paint their stories onto uniforms.

Lawson, a Bellingham resident, was a specialist with the Washington National Guard in Balad, Iraq, from 2004-2005. He says that like many soldiers, upon returning home he had trouble answering the often invasive questions friends and even strangers had about his combat duty. While settling back into civilian life, and seeking direction, he enrolled at Western Washington University – a turning point.

Untitled, by Rick Lawson

During a humanities course on art and social responsibility, students were asked to respond to the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry, a work which portrays the Battle of Hastings. The detailed embroidery is “the storyline of war,” says Lawson, and his reaction to it was visceral. “You don’t really know what you’re asking me to do,” he told instructors. “This isn’t an easy question.”

After some reflection, Lawson took out his Iraq military kit, buried in “the deepest, darkest part of my closet so I wouldn’t have to access it.” The box released a flood of memories: “I could fully embrace it or I could put it away.” Soon he found himself engrossed in four hours of painting on a uniform. “It was a very intense experience to paint on the back of it, and cathartic as well.”

That first painting session was the genesis for the War Experience Project, which seeks to help veterans who have served in any of the world’s conflicts to process their memories through painting. Lawson says that the art workshops, conducted in a private setting, offer an intuitive outlet for soldiers who find it difficult to verbalize their experience. Spaceworks Tacoma is supporting the project with a three-month residency at 906 Broadway; the exhibition will open on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, with a full day of activities from 10am – 6pm.

Lawson says that Tacoma’s proximity to Fort Lewis and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, in Bremerton, gives this exhibition special relevance, and he encourages military service members to participate. His personal, war-related art has been shown in Canada and the UK; the pieces compiled for the War Experience Project may travel the world. The War Experience Project, 906 Broadway, opening Nov. 11, 2010.

Luminescence

The silvery light of an October day floods Alyson Piskorowski’s installation at 950 Pacific Ave. The ambient light makes this color photo appear to be black and white. Photo: Lisa Kinoshita

 

Schnelluloid Film Screening, October 28

If Tacoma were a woman she would be a burlesque queen with a dark past and a heart of gold – no wonder Isaac Olsen cast her for his film noir detective thriller, Quiet Shoes. Olsen will screen the movie, which was released earlier this year, during Spaceworks Tacoma’s Trick Art Treat event on Thursday, Oct. 28, at 5:30. Get yourself downtown for some awesome cinema starring Dale Phillips and Kurt Kendall of the band, Girl Trouble; with a score by Kendall, Sam Olsen of Red Hex and Dick Rossetti of Twink the Wonder Kid.

Olsen’s company, Schnelluloid Film, Inc., was awarded a six-month Spaceworks residency at 1114 Pacific Ave. which enables him to continue work on a number of animated and live-action shorts, and to finish post-production on a new feature, I Hunger. The filmmaker describes I Hunger as a German Expressionistic tale, “the simple story of a wild creature/boy who lives in the German forest. Oh – and he eats people….” Olsen says that aside from the company of actors, he has worked in “monk-like” solitariness “on every aspect of the movie.” The ordeal has paid off: “It’s the best photography I’ve achieved thus far, and amazingly, has some first-class performances. Andre Mazloom, the only authentic German to be found….wrote all his own lines and monologues. Ordinary folks have been prodded and provoked into greatness.”

Shooting is completed and the movie is now being edited and expanded upon. “In the last few months I have been drawing and photographing cell-animated ‘forest spirits’ which appear throughout. Later this month, I will begin filming additional ‘spirits’ in a miniature water tank using fabric rod puppets. Meghan Lancaster, my Artspace mate, is helping me construct them.” It’s a far cry from film noir, and we can’t wait to see it.

The Quiet Shoes dvd, posters, tees and other Schnelluloid swag will be available for purchase at the Oct. 28 art event, at 1114 Pacific Ave. Information: www.schnelluloid.com

Michael Kaniecki’s Semi-Automatic

One of the more waggish notices ever posted in a gallery window is, “Please don’t feed the artists.” This admonition to keep hands back from the railings might be humorously applied to artist Michael Kaniecki, who is taking up a three-month residency at 1114 Pacific Ave. Not that the experienced painter is easily riled; nonetheless, his every creative decision will be on full display before passersby on most weekdays from 10am – 2pm, as well as on Sundays, as he brushes his large-scale, black-and-white India ink paintings.

Why paint before an audience? “It’s motivating for me,” he says. “The whole thing is very spontaneous.” Kaniecki’s largest work will be on a roll of paper 44″ wide and of indeterminate length. “My intention is to just keep drawing and drape the scroll in the available space in front of the window.” The residency project, supported by Spaceworks Tacoma, is entitled Semi-automatic: a drawing project. Kaniecki describes it as a “slow drawing performance piece” entailing a gradual accumulation of abstract lines and markings. Over time, “Viewers, including myself, will enjoy interpreting the shapes as recognizable forms or situations.” The artist structures his works on grids in which markings emerge and repeat themselves with a staccato beat: “It’s always a big surprise what comes out.” Semi-automatic: a drawing project, 1114 Pacific Ave., Oct. 28, 2010 – Jan. 5, 2011 (hours vary). michaelkaniecki@gmail.com

Trick Art Treat on October 28

Illustration by Chris Sharp

The new round of Spaceworks Tacoma art installations is up and running, and downtown looks smokin’! We’re celebrating with Trick Art Treat, on Thursday, Oct. 28, 5 – 7pm. You can stop by each of our participating sites for a full serving of art. Attend a screening of Isaac Olsen‘s full-length feature, Quiet Shoes, starring local actors – and a noirish T-town. Take an open-air tour of the fantastic  exhibits at the F.W. Woolworth Building and adjacent installation sites. Up your culture quotient with a performance by Tacoma’s own Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Take a whack at a witty, gritty Tacoma piñata by Cheryl Rux and Nichole Vandever (you really won’t want to destroy it). Lust over renegade crafts, exquisite letterpress stationery, indie fashion and statement jewelry at fly and Chiffon. Find out what our Northwest creative talents are doing in music, film and photography. Our Facebook page has a complete listing of events and locations. More news coming soon!

Spaceworks Tacoma is a joint initiative of the City of Tacoma, Shunpike, and Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

Hilltop Mural Unveiling, Saturday, October 16 at 4pm

Jeremy Gregory's preliminary drawings for the Hilltop Mural

Like a graphic novel in the unfolding, the 60-ft. mural at 2143 Martin Luther King Jr. Way depicts neighborhood characters held aloft by futuristic flying machines, car-size yellow daisies, and at its core, a dreamy-eyed African-American girl gazing at a friendly cartoon slug. It took Tacoma artist Jeremy Gregory and his team of three muralists five weeks to transform the wall of the abandoned building into a work of public art, and an energizing symbol for the Hilltop neighborhood.

Gregory (right) and painter Marlin Peterson hang out at work.

The work is part of an innovative City of Tacoma mural project aimed at reclaiming neglected and illegally tagged buildings across the city with art created by professional artists and their “student teams” (team leaders are paid; the latter receive a stipend and free on-the-job training).

Community input to discuss ideas for the massive Hilltop work was encouraged, but only Gregory and a local businessman, Eric Crittendon, attended the kick-off meeting. The sparse turnout was both “awesome – and it sucks!” laughs Gregory, explaining that while the situation allowed him unexpected artistic freedom, he had anticipated more local support. Over time though, he says, the community thoroughly endorsed the project, including kids, homeowners, businesses, and people of every age who followed progress with visits to the site. And Crittendon, vice-president of the Upper Tacoma Business Association, did express his opinion about the proposed art: “We just didn’t want another Mt. Rainier or a streetcar,”  but a work that was specific to the neighborhood, and not a cliché. He says he is impressed with the result.

In the 1920s, Tacoma’s Hilltop district was a thriving business area, with a streetcar running along K St. (now MLK Way) to S. 23rd St. Neighborhood enterprises included a car dealership, drug store, meat market, shoe repair, bakery and barbershop – not to mention 17 small groceries and ethnic food shops between S. 11th & S. 23rd streets alone. Times change, and the area fell into hard times, but it has seen new development in recent years. The Tacoma Community and Economic Development Department is including the MLK corridor in its master plan for creating eight new, mixed-use centers around the city. The Hilltop Mural may be a rallying point for revitalization.

Jeremy Gregory is a full-time artist, and he draws a darkly humorous monthly column for City Arts Magazine (Tacoma edition) called True Grit. Follow this multi-talented artist’s work and find out about upcoming events on his blog.