August Happenings

Blue Angels

Last year at about this time I warned everyone to dig out those earplugs and doggie tranquilizers—and the same advice applies this year. As everyone who’s lived in the Park during Seafair knows, it gets a bid loud down here when those boys do the flyovers. The Blue Angels’ schedule for this year has them practicing on Thursday, August 5, from 10 am until 12 pm and again from 1:30 until 2:30 pm. They will be performing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1:30 until 2:30 pm. Note that there will be I-90 bridge closures related to this schedule. For more information, click here.

MadArt in the Park

Following up on the successful installation of original artworks in the windows of Madison Park shops last summer, MadArt has changed focus this year and moved the venue to Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. The brainchild of Madison Park resident Alison Milliman, MadArt seeks to “support emerging artists in our community, to bring art into our lives in unexpected ways, and to create community involvement in the arts.” The unexpected art will be produced this time by six “emerging” sculptors, who will create the art in the park during the next week and a half, with a kickoff event celebrating the installations happening on August 12, beginning at 7 pm. As part of the kickoff, Madison Park's own IndieFlix will be presenting an outdoor screening of four short films ("a film Festival in a Box") at 9 pm. Cal Anderson Park is located at 1635 11th Avenue. Additional information on the sculptors and the event is available here.

New Photography Exhibit

Madison Park photographers Noreen Frink and Morgan Davidson will be among seven “luminary photographers” to be featured this month in a new exhibit at the Gallery at Maison Michel (1928 43rd Avenue E.). Also among the exhibitors will be blind photographer William Madison, whose interesting story is available here. The exhibit will open with a (public invited) reception on August 5 (4-8 pm) and run through the start of Madison Park Art Walk (which begins on September 11).

Swim for Life

The 13th annual Puget Sound Blood Center Swim for Life from Medina to Madison Park will happen on Wednesday, August 18th, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The 2.5-mile swim is an individual event as well as a team event, with each team involving four swimmers and a kayaker. This year’s swim benefits the Center’s Bone Marrow Registry. Registration ends August 11, and you may register here. Swim for Life’s fans are on Facebook.

“Pushing Up the Sky”

The UW Botanic Gardens, Friends of Yesler Swamp, and the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) will be putting on a fun event for kids (ages 3 and up) at MOHAI on August 22 (1-3 pm). It will be a series of audience-participation plays for children based on Snohomish tribal legends and folktales from around the world. The plays will be followed by a naturalist-guided nature walk. MOHAI is located at 2700 24th Avenue East. The suggested donation is $10 per family. Proceeds go to the restoration and preservation of Yesler Swamp, “a unique piece of nature in the heart of Seattle.” More information is available at YeslerSwampTrail.wordpress.com.
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[Photo from www.pdphoto.org.]

MadArt wows

If the goal was to showcase artistic talent and bring people to Madison Park, then the organizers of MadArt certainly scored on both points last night. The evening reception at Starbuck’s was packed, and the art walk that followed drew crowds of people, many of whom lingered on Madison well into night. Indeed, those who stayed late benefited from getting to see a different art show from what transpired during the daylight. Most of the art on display in the shop windows took on a whole new aspect when lit from above or behind and viewed from the dark of the street.

MadArt founder Alison Wyckoff Milliman told me she was “thrilled to see these artists prove themselves by rising to the challenge and coming through as they did.” She noted that the response to the art by viewers seemed to be “overwhelmingly positive.” That was certainly my impression as my wife and I made the rounds, starting with Anne Marie Lingerie and ending at Spa Del Lago (the installation there, shown below, is by artist Jen T. Mills and was one of the highlights of the show).
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MadArt Director Bryan Ohno spent the morning today recovering from last night and trolling the Madison Park shops listening to people coming upon the art unawares. He said it was fun to watch “people walking around in their normal way--maybe walking their dog--and then suddenly seeing art in a shop window and reacting.” It’s exactly what the MadArt organizers were looking for, he said, “a lot of interaction between people and the art.”

I’m excited to be able to break a bit of news here on the blog. Based on the success of the artists in creating installations for this event, Ohno reports that the venerable Foster/White Gallery will be featuring the MadArt artists in a special show in February 2010. All in line with what Milliman originally envisioned for the project: helping new artists get to the next level. Obviously, MadArt has given these artists some momentum.

The show here in the Park, meanwhile, continues in the windows of 18 Madison Shops on the north side of Madison through October 4. In particular check out my favorites, which certainly include George Rodriguez’s magnificent ceramic figures at Red Wagon Toys (shown below) and Kinu Watanabe’s inspired clay grouping at Martha E. Harris (shown in the photo at the top of this posting).

For more information on each the 22 artists displayed, visit MadArt’s website.

[Photos courtesy of Bryan Ohno, MadArt, except for the George Rodriguez installation, photographed by Alan Smithee.]

MadArt will accost you

When it arrives on the Madison Park scene next month, MadArt is certainly not going to be anything like a typical “art walk.” No staid galleries, no specially designed and repainted spaces for these works of art. No, this will be art in the public domain. Like literally in the neighborhood hardware store. Not expected. Surprising. Shocking even.

MadArt is designed to shake things up and get people talking art down here in the Park, and there’s no doubt it’s going to have impact. Beginning with an opening event on September 12 and continuing for the next 23 days, 21 emerging Seattle-area artists will have their works displayed in the windows of 18 Madison Park merchants. Each piece of art will have been specially produced by the artist to work in the space in which it appears.

The idea of MadArt is the brainchild of Madison Park resident Alison Wyckoff Milliman, who while living with her family in Melbourne, Australia several years ago was one day confronted by art in an unlikely place: the window of a village shoe store. “It was there to be art,” she said, “not there to sell shoes. It stopped me in my tracks because it was so unexpected.” And it got her thinking both about how people normally get to see art and about how artists might benefit from having their art exposed in a different way.

“We’re used to seeing art in prescribed places,” she told me. “And if you don’t go there, you’re going to miss out.” She reflected on the great job the Australians were doing of encouraging young artists and helping them get their work seen. “I thought to myself: ‘We could do this in Madison Park!’ I literally envisioned walking down the street in Madison Park and seeing art in the shop windows.” Her epiphany, after a couple years of effort, has resulted in MadArt.

Milliman is no stranger to the art world, having graduated from the UW as an art history major, worked in the antique-appraisal business for many years, and served on the Board of the UW’s School of Art. She says she’s always been interested in artists and their process, and she was particularly concerned about how new artists might learn the “business of art,” which is just not part of an artist’s training. MadArt has been designed not only to get exposure for the artists involved but to help them think about their art in a business-like way. Artists were required to go through a bit of a drill, for example, in order to participate in MadArt.

First of all, 200 local artists or so were considered for the project. This initial list was whittled down to about 40 artists, whose studios were then visited. Many of those artists were asked to make proposals for inclusion in the project. “We gave them a challenge,” said Milliman. “Visit the sites, talk to the store owners, and propose a design for a site-specific installation piece.” With 18 merchants agreeing to participate, 21 artists were chosen to fill the spaces (some of the artists are working together on an installation).

Among the emerging artists chosen for MadArt is Tamara Codor, whose untitled painting I used above as a teaser for this story. Here she is in her studio with the actual piece she is working on for MadArt, which will be displayed in the Bank of America branch:

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‘Art is supposed to activate’

Bryan Ohno, who has a long history on the Seattle Art scene, bought into Milliman’s vision and joined MadArt as its director early in the process. He defines the spirit of MadArt as having two principal objectives: “to give a new opportunity to emerging contemporary artists to show their work, and to reactivate Madison Park through art.”

Although art is most often seen in a prestige setting such as a gallery, studio, or even a restaurant, “ultimately it disseminates into our everyday lives,” he told me. “Why not have the art start there? Why not have it happen this way in Madison Park?” So, for a period of almost a month, MadArt will give us our chance to see art as part of our quotidian lives: art at the vets, art at the bank, art in the drug store, and art in the real estate office, among other venues.

MadArt presents an opportunity for new artists to help us “see the endless possibilities of visual creativity,” to quote Milliman. The effort will be a success, she says, if it brings people to Madison Park to see the art and if it gets us all talking about what we’ve seen.

Here’s another artist, Cameron Anne Mason, who is lending her talents to MadArt (her hand dyed and sewn silk vessels will be displayed at Anne Marie Lingerie):

For a complete listing of the participating artists, with links to their websites and pictures of their MadArt installations as works in progress, click here.

The fun begins September 12 with a 6:00pm opening reception at Starbuck’s (4000 E. Madison Street), followed by a walk around the various MadArt installations, beginning at Anne Marie Lingerie and ending at Spa Del Lago. As we get nearer the event I will post another story about MadArt with additional pictures.

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[Tamara Codor art photos courtesy of the artist. Cameron Anne Mason photo courtesy of MadArt. Photos of the artists by Bryan Ohno.]