Cindy Arnold works a young audience at a cooperative preschool in Seattle. Photo courtesy of Live Paint

When Live Paint founder Cindy Arnold held her first open-theater workshop on the Hilltop last weekend, she knew she’d chosen the right place for a creative homebase. The informal session not only attracted college students, performers, writers and artists who showed up to talk about their projects and trade feedback, but, “A man who came in, said he was retiring and had always thought about taking up acting.” It was the kind of neighborhood response Arnold was looking for as she undertakes a Spaceworks residency at 1314 Martin Luther King, Jr., Way.

Cindy Arnold at work. Photo courtesy of Live Paint

Starting Feb. 25, Live Paint will offer theater workshops for adults every Sat., 1-3pm, free of charge. Arnold promises a relaxed environment for actors wanting to read for an audience or to perform improv, dancers looking to bounce around ideas, and writers seeking feedback on scripts in progress. As for the soon-to-retire planning engineer who expressed a desire to take the stage, he received information on how to produce and perform a monologue. “We are very committed to it being free,” says Arnold.

Live Space’s founder has combined her twin passions of acting and education (“Everyone in my family is a teacher”) for about 15 years. Following a teaching stint in New York City she traveled to Southeast Asia to explore the emerging field of multiculturalism; working with children in Vietnam and Thailand, “I saw similarities in the human experience.” Teaching, acting, music and travel inform her work in the theater.

“It’s a big step to have a performance space,” she says, and a place “to connect with the community.” Live Paint occupies a building recently vacated by Toy Boat Theatre – a local acting group led by Marilyn Bennett who completely transformed the large property on MLK Way from dead commercial space into a vibrant theater house that successfully staged numerous plays and readings. Arnold, who has organized events at the Tacoma Public Library and will be participating in a live event at KBTC studios in April, is planning a variety of family-friendly activities for the Spaceworks space including a Winter Festival event on Mar. 10, “fairy classes” the week of April 23, and a Spring Festival in May (exact times and dates to be announced). “It’s really an organic experience,” she says of the programming. Live Paint, 1314 Martin Luther King,  Way, 253-756-2169.

Front row: Aaron Stevens; middle row: Emily Peterson, Paul Hirschl; back row: Mikey Bergstrom, Steve Norman. Photo: Drew Shapiro

“Goldfinch is looking for a space to record a new record. It has been four years since our last full-length record was released and we have a lot of new material that we’d like to get out to our friends, family and fans,” declares lead singer, Aaron Stevens. Spaceworks Tacoma is helping move the process along by awarding the band a three-month artists’ residency through March 31, at 1310 Martin Luther King Way.

Birds of a feather (l to r): Hirschl, Bergstrom, Stevens, Peterson and Norman. Photo: Steve Hardin

Seasoned vets of the live music scene, Goldfinch plans to keep a low profile while laying new tracks at the practice space, and the studio will be closed to the public except for Third Thursday gallery walks and possibly other special-event nights. “We will not be selling anything,” says Stevens. But the musicians will not be maintaining a zendo-like purity, either: “I’d like for this record to be primarily recorded live with the full band playing, and then come back and add any additional layers and sounds that we’d like to have on the record.” The band has even considered making the record available free of charge once it is complete: “I believe that Goldfinch’s art is intended to be a gift to our community” – demonstrating one more reason why they are among the area’s best-loved musical artists (believe us, the music is worth the money).

The band – made up of Stevens (vocals/guitar), Emily Peterson (cello/vocals), Paul Hirschl (drums), Steve Norman (pedal steel/trumpet), and Mikey Bergstrom (bass) – will also reach out to its T-town fan base via local videographers and bloggers who will document the project. Ultimately, they aim for a CD release party in a performance space at the Broadway Center, where Stevens is a programming associate.

Goldfinch has been “an active part of the arts community in Tacoma for many years, and I think that using a random space in the city to record in a non-sterile environment makes the most sense,” he says. “After all, we are not a hermetically sealed city, and I don’t believe our art should be, either.” Watch for new music by Goldfinch in early April!

"Atrophied" by Maria Olga Meneses

Disconnected Fragments is a photo documentary about an 88-year-old woman, Livia Maria Escobar, living with the disease of dementia. The photographer, her daughter, Maria Olga Meneses, has recorded her mother’s devastating illness through a series of portraits interspersed with photographs of the natural world that place her (and by extension, all of us) metaphorically within the broadest reaches of the life cycle. This exhibition of streaming images is on view at the Tollbooth Gallery, 11th and Broadway, through Feb. 29.

"Faded Connections" by Maria Olga Meneses

The exhibit includes casual, lifelong snapshots of Escobar in her prime; but it is Meneses’ black-and-white field photographs that provide an unexpectedly harrowing underpinning; sometimes out of focus, or quavering, they articulate a psychological fragility, “How I envision the brain being atrophied through the process of dementia,” she says. “The images depict my interpretation of confusion, loss of language [and] personal withdrawal from social contact.” The camera offers a vehicle by which she can participate in Livia Maria Escobar’s increasingly solitary journey.

"Mama, 1940." Photo courtesy of Maria Olga Meneses

“My mother has been suffering from dementia for about 15 years, and I have been taking care of her for the last five years. I have seen the devastation of a beautiful person [who goes] from begging God to keep her from losing her mind when she first experienced the symptoms of this disease, to the present moment when she hardly knows me.” The artist has not turned away from the hallucinations, violent behavior, delusions, depression, agitation, and feelings of persecution that mark the progression of the illness; on the contrary, with courage and deep compassion she has entered deeply into these final stages of life with her camera.

Meneses bought her first camera at age 14, “And began my best journey ever of living in the moment.” An environmentalist with a degree in education, she finds solace in the beauty and ceaseless processes of nature.

"Mama, 2006" by Maria Olga Meneses

“What pulls me forward in my work is my mother, who has been suffering from this illness for longer than ten years,” she says. “I try to give her back a little portion of what she gave to me. She would be proud to know what I do now; she was always proud of me and expected the most from me.” Disconnected Fragments, at the 24-hr. Tollbooth Gallery, is accompanied by music by Barefoot Barnacle, played by Jorge E. Meneses. Tollbooth Gallery, 11th & Broadway, through Feb. 29, 2012.

The many-faceted world of McCleary and Rothlisberger.

According to artists Lauren McCleary and Mary Rothlisberger, “The world we walk through mirrors the world we build within ourselves.” Now others can peer into that world through The Atlas of Here & There: Making This Day Out of Many, a new installation commissioned by Spaceworks Tacoma. The Atlas, at 912 Broadway, is literally a window into the artists’ internal landscape, a playful yet intricate vision of the things that make their world tick. This teeming work explores ideas of abiding friendship, memory, transience, place, shelter, and environmental sustainability. Packed with visual information, it invites viewers to imagine their own stories about the permeable world embedded within layers and layers of unlikely, yet subtly connected, objects that animate the work.

Visual clues to a passage where ideas bloom.

Rothlisberger and McCleary are frequent collaborators who hail from the Palouse country of eastern Washington. Their art and writing reflect the influence of the wide open, gold-flecked landscape of wheat country: “We believe in intersections where human experiences collide to make mountain ranges that stretch across the spaces between us. The imaginary cartography of everyday interactions makes an atlas out of everyone,” says their artist statement.

By meticulously mapping their own creative wayfinding, they illustrate a more universal story shared by humans. Giant, abstract sheaves of wheat; a herd of tiny mobile-suspended horses; cubist skyscrapers carved of cardboard; and spinning pinwheels (that evoke the wind farms of eastern Washington) are just a few of the elements in this feast-like visual narrative. Low-tech, recyclable materials such as cardboard, paper, yarn and surplus textiles; and hand-construction techniques such as sewing, lashing, weaving and knotting; underline the artists’ respect for basic materials and methods. “Sustainability and reuse are an important part of our collaborative practice. We believe that the creative process should be hinged on an everyday accessibility, [and] within this consumer culture we have an abundance of material that can be reused.

The diorama is the duo’s chosen vehicle for personal storytelling: “Historically, natural history dioramas were used to educate while allowing the audience to independently explore a concept.” Their usage is more contemporary, unleashing playful, idiosyncratic imagery that allows viewers to both interpret and compose their own stories based on the hand-crafted information artfully staged in the window. In past work, the artists’ have updated the form by taking it outside of formal settings, such as museums and galleries, and into open-air environments such as backyards and frozen lakes.

“Telling stories, making stories and sharing stories is how we build relationships,” they point out. “Collaborative fictions and shared imaginaries transform an invisible space into a landscape of thought and visual storytime.” The Atlas of Here & There: Making This Day Out of Many, 912 Broadway, Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 28, 2012. Click here for more information on Mary Rothlisberger and Lauren McCleary.

Now, we know that extravagantly bristly and bewhiskered men saw favor in Brooklyn a few seasons ago – and  in our own fashion-driven region long before that (say, back in the 1850′s). What man hasn’t toyed with the idea of having mutton chops, a thick walrus brush, or a pencil mustache to twirl? “There are few things in life that can cause admiration, envy, laughter and disgust as [readily] as facial hair can,” says Hutcheson. Visitors to the gallery in the Woolworth Building (11th and Broadway) can contemplate a new, more masculine appearance by aligning their face with the little swishes of hair painted on the glass, and peering into one of the multitude of mirrors hung at different heights so the clean-shaven of all ages may participate in trying on hirsute accessories. In addition to being an artist, Hutcheson is an instructor of art and design at Charles Wright Academy, where he is also the gallery coordinator. His skill at creating and hanging shows, shows.

He asserts that as male citizens of Tacoma “wake from their winter slumber and venture outdoors, the Mustache Gallery will allow them to consider the multitude of ways they can sculpt their current full-featured beard into something more hip and weather appropriate [for spring].” The fun isn’t limited to males, either: “The Mustache Gallery [will] empower the women of our city to break down gender barriers and assimilate a symbol of power that men have dominated for centuries.”

You, too, can assume the suave styling of a Salvador Dalì, the unshorn cool of a Fleet Fox, or the mysterious allure of Edgar Allen Poe. Hutcheson himself promises daily documentation of his own experience of growing fancy facial hair to broadcast to the city via Facebook, Twitter and his personal blog. The Mustache Gallery offers the clean-cheeked all the attractiveness of perfect grooming without the daily bother. Mustache Gallery, 11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows), through Feb. 28, 2012.

Artists Lucy Begg and Robert Gay (Thoughtbarn) created this temporary public art installation in Tacoma that was on display from Nov 12 -30 at the University of Washington-Tacoma. This great stop-action video documents their work.

From left: Olivia Seward, Marilyn Bennett, Peter Pendras, Meleesa Wyatt, Matt Shimkus, Trevor Pendras, Aaron Jacobs.

Toy Boat Theatre is presenting That Delicate Light, a special winter solstice event celebrating the season, and the conclusion of their madly successful Spaceworks residency on MLK Way. Directed by Suzy Willhoft, with stage design by Scott Campbell, That Delicate Light features superb local actors Aaron Jacobs, Matt Shimkus, Olivia Seward, Meleesa Wyatt and Marilyn Bennett (Artistic Director of TBT). Guitarists Peter Pendras (“Malibu Manouche”) and Trevor Pendras (“Country Lips”) will offer a collection of poetry, scenes, music and reflections on the season, in an original work that expresses TBT’s credo: “Good acting in a humble house”. Family-friendly fun for children 10 and up. Please be a part of “this special farewell to 2011, and a welcome to all things growing and changing in 2012.”

Dates: December 15 & 16, 8pm; December 17, 2pm and 8pm. Tickets: $10 adults, $5 children 12 and under. www.brownpapertickets.com. Toy Boat Theatre is at 1314 M L King Way, in the Hilltop neighborhood. Contact: marilyn.bennett60@gmail.com

The saturated rays of "Light Escape" seep into the Tacoma night. Photo courtesy of RSVR.

Do you suffer from a touch of SAD-ness (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? Then take a trip downtown and bask in the unearthly glow of Light Escape-Tacoma Array, an installation by the Portland-based design team of RSVR (Ian Campbell and Benjamin Gray) in the Woolworth Building. RSVR’s mission is “to provide the City of  Tacoma with an extended summer” via a dynamic installation of streaming filaments of green-and-violet light. The effect is ghostly, sci-fi – and best viewed at night.

Campbell founded RSVR (“shorthand for reservoir”) in 2008 as a platform for creative cross-disciplinary collaborations. He describes himself and Gray first “as architects producing art, and not [as] artists. I feel this is an important distinction to make as our training as architectural designers often informs our approach, and on a whole, I would describe our collaborations as an attempt to explore the intersection of art, architecture, and industrial design.“

Photo courtesy of RSVR

In the Woolworth installation, the duo creates an elegant, room-size spatial arrangement “that appear(s) to be made of almost no material while maintaining an intense visual presence.” In Light Escape, RSVR sculpts with light, stretching thin rubber membranes over a suspended wooden frame to create an undulating, translucent surface that reacts over time to ultraviolet light emitted from UV dispensers (“light escapes”). As the UV rays gradually break down the rubber membrane, its translucency is altered in a controlled manner.

“As the light of summer begins to fade (every day after June 22 – December 22), the lighting elements will slowly remove entire sections of rubber allowing completely unfiltered light to spill onto the sidewalk, providing any passerby an extended summer,” RSVR explains. “Essentially, we are using light to organically ‘cut’ our way out from behind the stretched rubber membranes.”

In solo projects, Campbell has ventured beyond architecturally-scaled pieces using light as a medium. Second Nature, a monumental, light-centric project he started as an artist-in-residence in the North Cascades National Park, in 2009, was designed with mountain-topping laser projections that could be seen in the night sky “with a visible range of around 40 miles depending on atmospheric conditions.” The eerie light projections blended topographical features with imaginary or personal landscapes. He is currently preparing for a second round of laser projections that will essentially work backwards, transplanting “the light paths recorded while in the national park onto a series of other environments.”

Back to Tacoma, and the huge window with the incorporeal art work that seeps saturated rays into the night, hypnotizing nightowls. “Ben and I enjoy using light in our work because light has an incredible capacity to both impact and inform viewers of any age, education level or economic background. Everyone of us has a unique, highly personal, daily experience with light from our first day on earth to our last,” says Campbell. RSVR’s own response to downtown Tacoma was sensitized by “the unfortunate density of commercial space vacancies” to be found there.

But the idea of an artificially prolonged summer has a playful, psychologically rejuvenating aspect; and as the rubber in Light Escape disintegrates, it will continually affect the viewer’s experience of the installation. “By providing the city of Tacoma with an ever-changing narrative we hope to promote multiple visits to the piece. RSVR also hopes that our work could be a small gesture of the greater revival happening all around Tacoma.” Light Escape – Tacoma Array, the Woolworth Building, 11th & Commerce, Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 28, 2012. www.rs-vr.com

Correction: RSVR has substituted fabric threads for rubber membranes in this installation.

"Reclamation" by Janette Ryan

Janette Ryan‘s photographs of Puget Sound capture an ethereal side hidden behind the hustle of everyday life. Through her lens, the horizon line dividing sky and sea dissolves into nothingness. Docks and pilings become graphic strokes so pure as to resemble a mysterious language of dots and dashes left behind by humans from an indeterminate age. These visual impressions could have emerged from anywhere, or nowhere. Their origins could be post-apocalyptic – or preceding Tacoma’s emergence as a city, when there were no cars, rails or airplanes. Even her images of iconic structures such as the Narrows Bridge refuse to be pinned down – they brim with a dynamism that seems to call back from the future.

"Narrows II" by Janette Ryan

Ryan’s photographs are on exhibit at the Woolworth Building, 11th & Broadway, through Feb. 2012. Her spare, modernist images in black and white attempt to strip away the non-essential to reveal the “beauty and harmony” of nature, she explains. At the same time, they reflect upon “the changing face of Tacoma and the surrounding environment.”

She cites British photographer, Michael Kenna, as an influence. “I love minimalist art and architecture for its clean and simple lines. I was hoping to use those same concepts to photograph our busy urban landscape, with an emphasis on Puget Sound.” Her effects are even more striking when one realizes that the otherworldly landscapes she shoots are mostly popular, well-trafficked sites around Tacoma, such as the Ruston Way waterfront.

"Legato" by Janette Ryan

Though her imagery possesses a zen-like stillness, the weather sometimes pervades it with an emotional quality: silvery skies brood, clouds press down as if ready to burst with violent rain or slanting sunlight. “Most landscape photographers are out on the pretty days with beautiful sunsets or sunrises,” she notes. “I desire storms, clouds, low light, or the moon, for most of my photographs.” The inclement weather often cooperates. “I always watch the sky around the Northwest, and have found that no two days are ever alike….The Sound itself is fascinating to me, and it plays an important role in my work. It changes colors, and with the wind kicking up waves it takes on a personality all its own that changes day to day, throughout the year.”

Humans are conspicuously absent from Ryan’s photographs, with only eloquent traces of activity left behind. “Our cities and waterways are visually choked with congestion and traffic,” she muses, a fact that requires her to sometimes wait for hours in one location for the perfect shot to arise. “I think that my photographs [convey] that sense of time moving on.” And the result is truly timeless. Untitled, 11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows), Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 28, 2012.