Artscapes

Artscapes temporarily places visual art installations in interior window storefronts. In exchange for creatively activating unused spaces, artists are provided a $500 stipend and exposure to Tacoma residents and visitors. Click here to learn how to apply.

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CURRENT INSTALLATIONS

May 16, 2013 - August 15, 2013

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Bed Dress
Women’s size 3/4 functional bed dress on wheels for ease of movement
Twin mattress / box spring, fabric, casters
39″ x 75″ x 63″

Jennifer Zwick / Bed Dress
11th & Commerce  (Woolworth Windows)
May 16 – August 15, 2013
“As though life weren’t anxious enough, we’re expected to get out of bed every single morning.  But it’s so safe here!  No one judging us, a place of comfort; the morning, when our day is unmarred, uniquely filled with the potential of all we might accomplish.  Wouldn’t it be easier to avoid the transition from bed to daily life?  To simply stand up, already elegantly clothed, and roll away on casters, safe in the knowledge that when our shortcomings grow too tall and our expectations fall, we can just lie back down again, wherever we are. You can’t judge me – I’m still in bed.”
- Jennifer Zwick‘s artist statement

Artist’s sketch for Window #2

Rachael Dotson / Untitled
11th & Broadway  (Woolworth Windows)
May 16 – August 15, 2013
“I found myself wanting to create a response to the ever-increasing, self-imposed requirement that we use each spare second to be checking our phones, or busying ourselves with information that may, or may not, even have value to us personally. As a person who grew up in a rural environment without much TV or gadgets, I spent a lot of time just looking at the things which were around me; the light, the ground, the plants, and I remember being amazed how the environment I inhabited seemed to be different every day; becoming now, what I reflect on its own source of “quick-cycle news” about what was going on with the planet in my particular corner.
“As a city-dwelling adult I find even more excitement in seeing how precious bits of nature and air interact with our architecture and urban planning. We can’t forget to look around us, to see how each day is different, how our environment and the places we have set aside for nature can become markers of quiet and reflection in our short lives. A common cliché’ but so very true; don’t forget to stop and the smell the roses, as those can be the moments to hold on to in our fast-paced lives. Moments to stop time, clear the internal noise, and see the color of the light.” – Rachael Dotson‘s artist statement

Amy McBride drove the steamroller to create this print by Charles Wright Academy Printmaking.

Tacoma Wayzgoose 2013 / Curated by Jessica Spring
11th & Broadway  (Woolworth Windows)
May 16 – August 15, 2013
 Wayzgoose is one of Tacoma’s most popular art festivals, a printmaking and book arts showcase named after a medieval guild celebration – but with plenty of fun for moderns. This installation showcases giant linoleum prints produced by steamroller during the ninth annual Wayzgoose. Featured prints by: Stadium High School Printmaking, Maggie Roberts, Audra Laymon, Beautiful Angle, Chris Sharp, CLAW, Ric Matthies, Chandler O’Leary & Jessica Spring, Charles Wright Academy Printmaking, Pacific Lutheran University Printmaking.

One of Beth Johnson’s paper Mache dragons.

Beth Johnson / Dragons
11th & Broadway  (Woolworth Windows)
May 16 – August 15, 2013
Beth Johnson’s piece Red Dragon won “Best of Show” in the 2011 National Arts Program* (NAP) exhibit. She has worked for the City of Tacoma Public Works Department for 36 years. Beth’s only formal art training was in public school, from elementary through high school. She considers herself a closet artist, only sharing her work with family and friends. Her downstairs closet is full of years of acrylic and watercolor paintings and pen and ink drawings. Her other artistic endeavors include: floral design, having done over 30 weddings through the years; acting in the Performing Arts department of the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire; and creating cloth mache pieces for various productions in the area. After winning the NAP Best of Show Award, Beth said, “Winning that award really knocked my socks off and made me think for the first time in my life that I might just be a real artist after all!”

*The NAP exhibit is open to all City of Tacoma employees, retirees, volunteers, and their family members – from amateur to professional.
2013 Tacoma NAP deadline: May 20, 2013

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PAST PROJECTS

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Jennifer Robbins
11th & Commerce  (Woolworth Windows)
December 31, 2012 – April 18, 2013
“It’s a work in progress,” says Jennifer Robbins of her new installation, in the Woolworth Windows on the corner of 11th and Commerce. Robbins a florist here in Tacoma, works with plants everyday. Her botanical scene is naturalistic, it gives a sense of straight forwardness and realism. When her exhibit is finished she says, “details will be revealed and implied, fostering a sense of mystery; the familiar and unknown existing simultaneously.”

Adele Eustis / The Need To Reinvent
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
December 31, 2012 – April 18, 2013
The overlaying theme of this alluring installation in the Woolworth windows on 11th and Brodway seems to be exactly what  the artist Adele Eustis intends it to be, “The Need to Reinvent.” What look like some form of Japanese lanterns are what Eustis is calling scrolls or ‘glo-nests’. The scroll’s large wax paper like exterior is actually made of sheets from a 1930′s Webster dictionary that have been painted over with wax and sumi-ink until the words are blurred, then fused with rice paper. Eustis’ piece is a prime example of the fact that “things aren’t always what they seem”.

RSVR / The Light Rack 
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
December 31, 2012 – April 18, 2013
Inspired by a study on Native American fish drying structures, RSVR set out to recreate the fish racks into something comepletely new. ”By using monochromatic light and the louver structure “Light Rack” is an attempt at reorganizing the fabric of the everyday into the unusual to produce a heightened sense of the present,” says Ian Campbell of RSVR. The structure really interacts with the play of outside lighting. When asked about how the outside light affects the piece Campbell stated,  ”some of the moments I find most interesting about the project are the transition times during the evening or early morning. In the evening when day lighting diminishes the project starts to offer the area more light and then in the morning the warm yellow glow is easily washed out by the morning sunrise. All this transfer of light is happening through the plaster louvers which serve as both a filter and recording surface light and shadow.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Adam & Rosalynn Rothenstein / Untitled Project
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
December 31, 2012 – April 15, 2013
Untitled Project is a series of tasks: step one- create an object, step two- use the object, step three- store the object. These tasks are showcased in the installation, each task owning a separate section in the space provided.  “We want to focus on these tasks in order to learn what it is to do a task ‘without thinking about it.’ ” says Rosalynn Rothenstein. The installation invites the public to walk through the tasks and imagine performing the tasks as well.

Sculpture by Randy Cezan.

Randy Cezan / Large Interacting…
950 Pacific Avenue
Through February 2013
“Images of colliding galaxies were the direct forms that I have attempted to represent with these sculptural forms,” says Randy Cezan of his new installation, Large Interacting…on exhibit in the windows at 950 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma. Cezan’s artwork captures the elegant clockwork and dynamism of the universe – but conjures up a myriad of forms found in nature as well. His sculptures are informed by investigations of the environment in which he discovered “micro and/or macro examples of repeating patterns in nature.”

Laura Foster /  strawcloud/parlour
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
July 8 – December 16, 2012
Laura Foster‘s work explores the juxtaposition and convergence of the interior and the exterior. “I am interested in the murky areas of domesticity, when the dust forever creeps in under the front door, and the moss grows, insistent and patient, up the sides of the house.” This particular installation probes the intersection of the feral and the domestic through the use of hay to create a suspended sculpture (impressive, both in size and scope) and 1950′s wallpaper.

Janet Marcavage / Untitled
11th & Broadway
(Woolworth Windows)
July 14 – December 16, 2012
Textiles aren’t used just for tablecloths, towels, or button down shirts. Janet Marcavage proves how these everyday items can create a complex art display that celebrates the topography of textile patterns. Lines make all the difference: “I enjoy the way that lines can render fabric’s mutable form, shifting at the folds of everyday life. This installation also stems from my long-term investigation of printmaking’s visual language, particularly the use of line hatching in prints dating back several hundred years.”

Kenji Stoll / Untitled
11th & Broadway
(Woolworth Windows)
July – December 16,2012

Jennifer Renee Adams / Equus Cirrus
11th & Broadway
(Woolworth Windows)
July – December 16, 2012
With clouds as a backdrop, and placing horses in the foreground, artist Jennifer Adams has created a quiet meditation on the loss of a canine companion in her installation, Equus Cirrus, on view at the Woolworth Building through December 15, 2012. “My installation consists of horses and cloud photos. [But] what had started as a suggestion of lazy, sunshiney afternoons, had a transformation,” she says, when her beloved 13 year-old dog passed away. A beautiful, meditative artwork is the result.

Lance Kagey /
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 30 – June 31, 2012
Lance Kagey is one-half the design team (with Tom Llewellyn) of Beautiful Angle, and a letterpress genius. For the Woolworth windows he has designed “a faithful recreation of the aesthetic of my studio space. My kids say I’m one tragedy away from being featured on the Hoarders show. My space is very full of visual stimulus. It’s organized chaos. It inspires me as I create.” You’ll be inspired, too, by Kagey’s art, found objects and vintage printing equipment.

Cast-iron sculpture by Kyle Dillehay.

Kyle Dillehay / Sacred Balance
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 30 – June 31, 2012
Kyle Dillehay’s work explores the issues around genetically modified food. In his new installation, suspended, cast-iron web-pods are planted with genetically-modified grass seed that has been engineered to germinate and grow with limited sunlight. The pods at first appear lifeless, then release an explosion of vibrant green to dominate the space. This work reflects on the genetic alterations “performed on even the most basic of plants for human convenience,” says Dillehay.

It can’t sleep: a Phoebe Moore video installation.

Phoebe Moore / Argus Panoptes
950 Pacific Ave.
Through June 31, 2012
Big Sister is watching you – at the corner of 950 Pacific Ave. where artist Phoebe Moore has installed two video monitors with huge roving eyes, “to create the illusion that the building [has] a face. I practiced this project on my own home last year and the effect is striking. It looks a bit like a giant is trapped inside the building.” Especially at night. In addition to the staring, blinking video peepers (which are her own), Moore has made and installed crude papier-mâché eyeballs – too many to count – to observe passersby.

Watercolor by Chandler O’Leary

Chandler O’Leary / Hillside Sketchbook
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 30 – June 31, 2012
Hillside Sketchbook is Chandler O’Leary’s “time-based” installation in which the artist will create a sweeping panorama of Tacoma made up of dozens of smaller sketches of the hillside view. This work will develop gradually over the three-month period it is on exhibition in the Woolworth Building, as O’Leary continually adds ink drawings and watercolors to fill in the vista.

Elise Richman / Spring Mascot
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 30 – June 31, 2012 
Spring Mascot explores perpetual states of becoming.  The birds express yearning for a sense of innocence and a state of wonder that is often lost and sometimes regained.  In a culture that champions industry, ambition, professionalism, and efficiency, these birds are mascots for countercultural values such as vulnerability, openness, and authenticity.  Their awkward amiability expresses complex emotions through an approachable playfulness.  The mascots act as emotional personifications that simultaneously expose and protect.  Their very postures, round forms, and extended wings convey a striving for receptivity and goodwill.  The flowers, yarn, and ribbon provide celebratory decorations, conjuring forms of embellishment that are meant to make rites, rituals, and events special.

Diane Hansen / Ethiopia Revisited
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
Following travels to Ethiopia in September, Tacoma artist Diane Hansen was inspired “to create a monumental sampling of Ethiopian artifacts” which would stimulate viewers “on a primal level.” She succeeds with a new installation at the Woolworth Building of stunning, window-size jewels. Hansen, a noted glass artist, integrates a variety of techniques to create two necklaces that suggest both feminine power and a spiritual focus. www.dianehansen.com

“Light Escape” by RSVR

RSVR / Light Escape
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
Do you have a touch of SAD-ness (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? With their intriguing new work at the Woolworth Building, Light Escape, the design team of RSVR (Ian Campbell and Benjamin Gray) vows “to provide the City of  Tacoma with an extended summer” via a luminous installation of streaming filaments of lime and violet light. The amount of light emitted by the art work will gradually increase as winter’s nights lengthen. The effect is space age, safer than a tanning bed – and best viewed after dark!

Janette Ryan / Photographs
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
Janette Ryan‘s photographs of Puget Sound capture an ethereal side not often seen in photos of our seaside environment. Her spare, modernist images in black and white strip away the non-essential to reveal the “beauty and harmony” of nature, while reflecting upon “the changing face of Tacoma and the surrounding environment.”

“Scattered” by Maria Meneses

Maria Olga Meneses / Disconnected Fragments
Tollbooth Gallery, 11th & Broadway
Early Dec., 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
Urged by the need to understand the mind of a person suffering from the effects of dementia, Maria Olga Meneses shot the black-and-white photographs in this exhibition. It is “how I envision the brain being atrophied through the process of dementia,” filtered through the metaphor of nature, she says. “The images depict my interpretation of confusion, loss of language [and] personal withdrawal from social contact” experienced by a woman with this devastating condition.

Installation by Mary Rothlisberger and Lauren McCleary

Mary Rothlisberger and Lauren McCleary / Atlas of Here & There: Making This Day Out of Many
910 Broadway
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
According to artists Lauren McCleary and Mary Rothlisberger, “The world we walk through mirrors the world we build within ourselves.” For Spaceworks Tacoma, the two have built “a window into the internal human landscape,” a playful, contemporary diorama of the things that make their world tick. Packed with visual information, this site-specific installation invites viewers to create their own stories about the fantasy world embedded within layers and layers of unlikely, yet subtly connected, objects that animate the work. Click here for information on Mary Rothlisberger and Lauren McCleary.

Brian Hutcheson / Mustache Gallery
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
Dec. 1, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
Ready for a makeover? Then visit the Mustache Gallery, Brian Hutcheson‘s clever installation that allows Tacomans the whimsical activity “of test-driving their future facial hair” by trying on different mustaches through the device of strategically placed displays and mirrors. “There are few things in life that can cause admiration, envy, laughter and disgust as [readily] as facial hair can,” says Hutcheson. 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.”

Tacoma Metro Parks Portland Ave. Community Center /
Chinese Dragon
912 Broadway
Nov. 15 – Feb. 29, 2011
According to ancient Chinese tradition, the celestial dragon was symbolic of the emperor and his imperial power. Today, it is a symbol of good fortune for ringing in the New Year. A community effort involving creative kids across Tacoma has given birth to a 35′ Chinese Dragon to parade on First Night Tacoma! According to lead artist, Allison Morse, the cobalt blue and jade green serpent resembles the traditional mythological creature, but with a twist: It “incorporate[s] the train component, a reference to Tacoma railroads,” and has a boxy physique “to accomplish the ‘feel’ of a locomotive.” The dragon’s lair is at 912 Broadway until Dec. 31.

Paper sculpture by Jessica Spring

Greater Tacoma Community Foundation / Foundation of Art Award Exhibit
11th St. & Pacific Ave.
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
This exhibition spotlights the work of 2011 Foundation of Art Award recipient, Jessica Spring, and that of each of this year’s nominees. Spring will unveil her new, commissioned art piece for the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation on Nov. 30. Also showcased are works by others of Tacoma’s finest: Jennifer Adams, Sean Alexander, Nick Butler, Lynn Di Nino, Oliver Doriss, Kristin Giordano, Ellen Ito, Matt Johnson, Rick Lawson, Nicholas Nyland, Elise Richman, and Peter Serko. Works by the three previous award winners, Chris Sharp, Jeremy Mangan and Lisa Kinoshita, will also be on display.

 

Kelly June Mitchell / Infringing Forest
908 Broadway
Nov. 15, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012
A triptych of trees printed on sheer fabric looms over the small figures of a woman, a bear, a wolf, a crow and a vole in this installation. If the air around the figures is disturbed, the whole “forest” appears to move. “Drawing nature into our lives is something people of the Pacific Northwest are especially adept at doing,” says artist Kelly June Mitchell. The figures inhabiting the sun circle at the center of the work seem to draw in the wilderness around them, and the animals are of near-equal size, symbolizing “equal importance in the environment.”

Ariel Brice & Jeannine Shinoda / Untitled
950 Pacific Avenue
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Portland, OR-based artists Ariel Brice and Jeannine Shinoda make art that demands a double take. Their mission is to create an “urban intervention” via an interactive art piece in downtown T-town, “a contextual installation on a site rich with potential.” www.aribrice.com

Lisa Kinoshita / CODA 11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
July 15 – October 31, 2011
In CODA, an installation by Lisa Kinoshita, a herd of animals crashes through the field of consciousness, juxtaposing the relentless vitality of nature with the poignant, individual fact of human mortality. Themes of memory, displacement and loss permeate this mysterious scene.

Amy Bay/ Untitled
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Artist Amy Bay pits the forces of capitalism (represented by an empty storefront) against insidious nature (embodied by encroaching blackberry bushes) in her installation at the Woolworth Building. Which force will prevail? www.amybay.com

Tacoma Wayzgoose/ 2011 Prints
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Wayzgoose is one of Tacoma’s most popular art festivals, a printmaking and book arts showcase named after a medieval guild celebration – but with plenty of fun for moderns. This installation showcases some of the Best of Wayzgoose – giant prints produced by steamroller over seven years of celebrations. www.kingsbookstore.com/wayzgoose

Jennifer Renee Adams/ Landscapes
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Artist and photographer Jennifer Renee Adams finds compelling subject matter in her hometown of Tacoma, a place with “analog” character and time-worn edges, and whose famous “grit” may mask unvarnished moments awaiting discovery. For her photo installation, Landscapes, Adams used a plastic toy camera called a Holga that she favors for its soft, dream-like effects.

Michiko Tanaka / MODblog
The Tollbooth Gallery (11th & Broadway)
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Michiko Tanaka has studied art the world over, but currently the artist’s creative universe is contained within the walls of a computer. Her video installation, MODblog, offers a visual stream of pop culture iconography. www.yellowlaboratories.com

Julia Barbee / Untitled
912 Broadway
July 15 – October 31, 2011
For Artscapes, Julia Barbee creates an installation that is at once static and changing. Hanging sculptures made of silk create a site-specific network within the space. Throughout the course of the installation, salt crystals will grow up and around the sculptures, subtly changing the work and creating a piece that truly could not exist in another space or set of circumstances. www.juliabarbee.com

Anette Lusher / Form within Forms
910 Broadway
July 15 – October 31, 2011
Anette Lusher‘s latest sculptural explorations are an homage to the humble drinking straw, and to recycling as a tenet of modern life. Her playful and provocative free-hanging sculpture, Form within Forms, is hand constructed of more than 200,000 mesh-supported, multicolor straws. www.anettelusher.com

Rebecca Maxim / Marriage of Inconvenience
908 Broadway
July 15 – October 31, 2011
The worlds of fashion, art and AIDS activism are intimately connected, and they collide in the ebullient couture art of Rebecca Maxim. Her Marriage of Inconvenience is a monumental gown that is the product of “the copious medications required to maintain relative health in [the] HIV/AIDS population.” The dress is made from medical paraphernalia and pill wrappers.

Acataphasia Grey /
Tea for Short Expectations
708  Opera Alley
March 15 – June 30, 2011
The surrealist artist Acataphasia Grey has an air of twisted opulence that tinges everything from her formal way of speaking, to her complicated name, from “a medical Latin term that basically means, ‘Being able to form complete sentences in your head but not say them out loud.’” See Cat’s unique brand of taxonomy in a new installation, Tea for Short Expectations.

Holly A. Senn / Composites
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 15 – June 30, 2011
Artist Holly Senn creates botanical sculptures that “explore the life cycle of ideas – the organic, non-linear process in which thoughts have a genesis and then are disseminated, adopted or refuted, forgotten or referenced.” In her world, pages from discarded library books provide the rich mulch (raw material) from which art arises. In Composites, she combines photography with her paper sculptures to create one-of-a-kind botanical dioramas.

Nicole Linde / The Crystalline Garden
908 Broadway
March 15 – June 30, 2011
When Portland-based artist Nicole Linde took an artist’s residency in northern Iceland, “There were only two hours of daylight in January and about the same amount of darkness in July.” The elongated Icelandic winter provided the time and motivation to stay inside and create. Linde embarked on a series of crystal-themed pieces inspired by the ice-encrusted landscape; a new work, The Crystalline Garden, is on view in Tacoma starting March 17.

Julie M.  Jansen /  Abscission
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
March 15 – June 30, 2011
Every object in Julie Jansen’s new installation, Abscission, has two things in common: Each item was hand-collected by herself, and each is deemed unnecessary or unwanted by most people. There’s torn up cardboard, blue masking tape, remnant paint and, somewhat creepily, invasive plant species (collected from nurseries in her hometown of Portland). In Jansen’s hands, this lineup of undesirables is assembled into a larger-than-life collage; one that speaks to the idea of a life cycle for every item we mindlessly insert into the consumer chain. Unfortunately, we lose control over such objects once they leave our hands, with untold consequences.

Monoprints by Jessica Spring and Catherine Michaelis.

Jessica Spring / Bit Map
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)

March 15 – June 30, 2011
Jessica Spring creates exquisite letterpress art using vintage foundry type, mechanical presses and Old World printing techniques. But she brings a clean, modern sensibility to a body of work that on the surface appears nostalgic, thanks to the tactile richness of its imprinted images, and the use of luxurious papers that exalt the printed word.

Amy Oates
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)

March 15 – June 30, 2011
A fragile crowd of paper silhouettes makes up the human drama in Amy Oates’ new work. “My current work has to do with everyday people moving, merging and fading into each other as individuality is lost and something completely other-than emerges,” she says. “The uncertainty of forms….raises the idea that what is seen, reasoned and sensed may not be the ultimate in reality.”

Pacific Park fawn.

Cheryl Rux and Nichole Vandever / Watch Tacoma Grow: Pacific Park
950 Pacific Avenue
March 15 – June 30, 2011
Nichole Vandever and Cheryl Rux put a spin on the adage, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When life handed them more than 1,500 cardboard toilet paper rolls, they turned them into the basis for a fantasy “park” for Spaceworks Tacoma. Watch Tacoma Grow: Pacific Park is a mini-wonderland where wide-eyed woodland creatures, birds and bees, and flowering trees inhabit a contemporary landscape of I-wish: all made from reclaimed and recycled materials with the help of local schoolkids.

Gabriel Brown / Great Tasting Goodness!
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
March 15 – June 30, 2011
Satirist Gabriel Brown has mounted an exuberant installation at the Woolworth Building fashioned from a massive accumulation of junk packaging. The art will have viewers (especially baby boomers) wracking their brains for the iconic ad slogans they grew up with: Trix are for kids! We try harder! A little dab’ll do ya! Finger lickin’ good! Once you start playing that game, it’s hard to stop.

Rachel Hibbard /  meyouus&them
910 Broadway
March 15 – June 30, 2011
“My fascination with small environments grows out of childhood play,” says Rachel Hibbard, an artist who stages dramatic vignettes using 4″-high paper cutouts. “A miniature possesses the dual qualities of being both mysterious and controllable.” In her installation, meyouus&them, Hibbard juxtaposes people from Tacoma’s past, her own lineage – and world history – in unexpected arrangements that unfold with a strange, beautiful, almost operatic vibrancy.

Celeste Cooning / The Golden Hour
912 Broadway
March 15 – June 30, 2011
Celeste Cooning creates magical, 3-D environments out of paper. For Spaceworks Tacoma she created The Golden Hour, an installation that evokes the overblown lushness of a Jurassic garden in luscious colors of pink and gold. Huge tree fronds, fluttery botanical forms and a honeycombed heart are incised with intricate patterns that allow the warm light to pass through. Using stencils, Cooning cuts all the patterns by hand from 4-5 ft. sections of paper or tear-resistant Tyvek.

Barbara DePirro / vortex plastica
912 Broadway
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
One person’s castoffs are another person’s treasure in the world of artist Barbara De Pirro. In vortex plastica she takes recycled and re-imagined materials to create a multi-dimensional universe where a web-like form, a whirling tornado, a spun nest and a solar system fill the void. www.depirro.com

Sisy Anderson & Scott Huette /  Remembrances
910 Broadway
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
Trees and slow-turning “leaf mobiles” become metaphorical containers for human memory in the site-specific work, Remembrances. This multi-layered piece suggests that by our ability to shade memories and to shed those that do not serve us (”as a leaf falls from a tree in autumn”), human beings create the psychological space needed to generate life anew. www.studiocartouche.com, www.studioyugen.com

Holly A. Senn /  Re-Present
908 Broadway
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
In this work, Holly Senn draws inspiration from the exhibition space location, which mirrors the Pantages Theater across the street. Theaters present the ideas of playwrights, composers and choreographers – later generations recompose or reenact some of those performances. In this installation she reinterprets architectural details from the exterior of the theater in paper forms. This theme of re-presentation is related to her interest in the lifecycle of ideas and how knowledge is transformed over time. www.ryksenn.com

Lines of the Earth, by Kyle Dillehay

Kyle Dillehay /
Lines of the Earth
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
A sterile white cubicle is transformed into a mysteriously fecund earthwork in Lines of the Earth. Kyle Dillehay employs the root systems of heirloom plants to illuminate the way natural systems echo one another, and how similar designs support seemingly disparate systems – of the body (lymphatic, circulatory, reproductive) and Earth (plant vascular and root systems). www.sculpture.org/portfolio/sculptorPage.php?sculptor_id=1001643

My America, an exhibition by Alice di Certo

Alice DiCerto /
My America
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
In this collection of gelatin silver prints, My America, Italian-born photographer Alice Di Certo offers a visual exploration of her adopted country that will fascinate viewers who were born and raised here. Seen through Di Certo’s lens, familiar scenes of American life become open to new and sometimes amusing interpretation. adicerto@tacomacc.edu

Jessica Bender, Tania Kupczak, Craig Snyder and Ruth Marie Tomlinson / wait, where am i?
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
Inheriting a collection of objects that is evidence of someone’s obsession can be a gift, a burden, a responsibility. Ultimately, one might ask if the obsession itself has become an inheritance. In this three-staged installation, four artists come together, each with an inherited collection and the desire to re-catalog. In the process they address questions about their own obsessions. www.ruthmarietomlinson.com

Alexandra Opie /
Still Life in Motion: The Street
11th & Commerce
(Woolworth Windows)
October 10, 2010 – February 28, 2011
Salem, OR-based, artist Alexandra Opie is intrigued by both the composed richness of still life imagery and the immediacy of live, interactive video. In this site-specific work she combines the two: Viewers will experience the aesthetic pleasure of contemplating still life coupled with the urgency of watching live video – meanwhile being monitored on a flatscreen t.v. www.alexandraopie.com, aopie@willamette.edu

Alyson Piskorowski /  Unititled
950 Pacific Avenue
October 9, 2010 – February 28, 2011
Alyson Piskorowski investigates our daily environments – the marks we leave, the history we unconsciously create – in an attempt to draw out the stories embedded within. The results of her inquiry appear in this installation, which evokes in symbolic language “the tension between the everyday and the ecstatic.” alyson.piskorowski@gmail.com

Monika Proffitt /  Forest of Souls
Tollefson Plaza (17th & Pacific)
December 21 – March 21
Especially mesmerizing at night, this installation’s soothing and serene “braids of light” illuminate the water feature in Tollefson Plaza . The luminous light sculpture is designed from fiber optic cable to create volumes of light that reflect and respond to the environment. www.monikaproffitt.com

ROUND 1 ARTSCAPES INSTALLATIONS

Ben Hirschkoff /
Untitled
912 Broadway
June 30 – Oct. 1, 2010
For the last five years, Seattle-based artist Ben Hirschkoff has been working with the cloud motif, as seen in the installation here. Deconstructed into fragments and reconstructed with wire, pipe, or other familiar building materials, the archetypal cloud forms reflect the fragmented way in which we often see nature: as both resource and utility. http://www.benhirschkoff.com

Michelle Acuff /  Surrogate
910 Broadway
June 30 – October 1, 2010
In this work, Michelle Acuff explores our tenuous liaison to the natural world by juxtaposing objects of nature, such as forest animals, with materials that are grossly synthetic and manmade. A surreal restaging of our relationship to the planet and its habitants. http://www.michelleacuff.com

Tory Franklin /  The Firebird
908 Broadway
June 30 – October 1, 2010
Tory Franklin creates works of operatic intensity and this site-specific piece, based on a classic Russian fairytale, is no exception. The ornate, layered and colorful vignette illustrates a scene from The Firebird, the story of a royal prince’s epic quest to capture a magical bird. http://www.toryfranklin.com

Bloodlines fills the windows at 950 Pacific Avenue

June Sekiguchi, Mary Coss & Pamela Hom /  Bloodlines
950 Pacific Avenue
July 26 – October 1, 2010
Bloodlines addresses issues of cultural and creative inheritance and how they manifest in art work.  Three sculptors worked independently to produce a cohesive installation based on intersecting themes: the hidden world of the unconscious, the grief following a parent’s death, and the oft times “fierce” maternal instinct.
 http://www.junesekiguchi.com; roadsidestudio@fidalgo.net;
mary@witvisuals.com

meadow starts with p /  Ackawacko meeting
11th & Commerce
 (Woolworth Windows)
June 15 – October 1, 2010
The group of artists known as “meadow starts with p” is composed of a dad and his two young kids. This unique collaborative makes a spirited inquiry into the relationship between play and art, establishing that the two are fundamentally linked. Ackawacko meeting sets the stage for an encounter with a mysterious, horned creature using Play-doh, finger puppets and riotous decoration. http://www.andrew-j-peterson.com

Photograph by Joseph Songco

Joseph Songco /  Storefronts
11th & Broadway (Woolworth Windows)
June 15 – October 1, 2010
“Storefronts are in many ways a cultural commentary of a society’s dreams….a doorway to a society’s inner workings,” says Seattle-based photographer Joseph Songco. This series of photographs, shot in New York City, reveals the unexpected ways in which fashion advertising exposes the economic and cultural divergences between communities. http://www.josephsongco.com
Gretchen Bennett /  Window #4: Tacoma
11th & Broadway
 (Woolworth Windows)
June 15 – October 1, 2010
Gretchen Bennett’s installation, Window #4: Tacoma, was inspired by “the overcast, dreamy light” and “the varied histories and architecture” of Tacoma. This enigmatic piece centers around a Hudson’s Bay blanket and an arrangement of strange relics, and unfolds in the moment when “the business day is done and the streets are empty or transforming as the nightlife begins.” http://www.gretchenbennett.com

Lisa Kinoshita /  

Jack’s Epitaph
11th & Broadway
 (Woolworth Windows)
June 15 – October 1, 2010
Jack, “the Tacoma bear,” was a pet bruin owned by the Tacoma Hotel in the 1890s. Jack was known to roam untethered about the city’s streets and enjoyed favored status with the citizenry – until the day he was shot. Jack’s Epitaph is about loss and the shifting, provisional relationship of humans to nature. http://www.lisakinoshita.com

Scott McGee, Bil Fleming, Eric Holdener /  Zeit-Bike 2010:
Kinetic Interventions
11th & Commerce (Woolworth Windows)
July 10 – October 1, 2010
Kinetic Interventions showcases the winners of the 4th Annual Zeit-Bike Competition, sponsored by the Tacoma Art Museum and the City of Tacoma. Functional art and eco-friendly transportation come together in these kinetic bike sculptures that are operated by human power. http://www.bilfleming.com; http://www.eric-holdener.com; scott.mcgee.art@gmail.com

James Sinding /  Letters
Tollefson Plaza, South 17th & Pacific Avenue
July 31 – August 31, 2010
Inspiration for this open-air installation at Tollefson Plaza comes from the “letter” magnets people place on their refrigerators – magnified to the 10th power. A pile of 5 sq. yards of 12-in. painted, wooden letters extends an open invitation for passersby to write a poem, to read the thoughts of others, or to add their own. http://www.jamesgraysonsinding.blogspot.com

Alexander Keyes /  Wave
Tollefson Plaza, South 17th & Pacific Avenue
July 15 – September 15, 2010
A giant blue erector set playfully energizes an urban gathering place in this outdoor work by Alexander Keyes. As if strewn by a behemoth child, the giant beams scattered across Tollefson Plaza create interesting nooks that invite passersby to look and explore. http://www.alexanderkeyes.weebly.com

Janet Marcavage /  Untitled
Tollefson Plaza, South 17th & Pacific Avenue
July 31 – September 15, 2010
An outdoor installation of big, bold Pop Art flowers activates an overlooked city space. The artist’s eye-popping, modernistic blossoms, meticulously cut out from Tyvek, make Tollefson Plaza come alive. A fresh draw for art lovers and the brown bag crowd. 
www.janetmarcavage.com

AK Mimi Allin /  Seaside Opera
Tollefson Plaza, South 17th & Pacific Avenue
August 16 – 23, 2010
An aging wooden lifeguard chair stands sentinel as Tollefson Plaza turns into a beach for AK Mimi Allin’s Seaside Opera. The artist performs to a mesmerizing audio of ocean-inspired operas and carnival sounds. Viewers may be enticed to participate by the toy-strewn water pools. http://www.thepoetessatgreenlake.blogspot.com

Carla Barragán /  Thick
Tollefson Plaza, South 17th & Pacific Avenue
September 16, 2010
Thick is an original performance choreographed by Carla Barragán and Bqdanza members, with musical soundscapes by Nelson García. This site-specific work, a response to the oil spill on the Gulf Coast, mourns the environmental disaster while celebrating the grace and beauty of the region’s birds, sea creatures and other habitants. http://www.bqdance.com
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