As many of you may already know, Nick and I will be moving back to the east coast in just 2 short weeks. We are moving to the Washington, DC area, specifically Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Even though this has been in the works for quite a while, it hit me like a ton of bricks during our last Seattle Symphony concert Friday night. I’m going to miss Seattle more than any other place I’ve been, but I can’t wait for all the new adventures with my wonderful east coast family and friends.

I’m not ready to write paragraph after paragraph detailing my thoughts on the changes that are about to happen, so instead I will make two lists:

10 Things I Will Miss About Seattle
(in no particular order)

1. Sunsets over the water and mountains, particularly watching them from the apartment balcony in the summer with a cool glass of white wine
2. Pike Place Market and all the amazingly fresh fruit, veggies, flowers, and fish
3. Seattle Art Museum and all their fantastic events
4. Espresso Vivace Cappuccino
5. The Mountain. Rainier is the most invigorating place I’ve ever been
6. Weekend trips to Portland, OR, Vancouver, BC, Olympic Peninsula
7. Being walking distance to  both work and nearly everything I want to do in the city on the weekends
8. Lavender used in restaurants and bakeries
9. Summer
10. Perfect hair due to low humidity

10 Things I Will Love About DC
(also in no particular order)

1. Spring and Fall with sunshine
2. The Smithsonian
3. Weekend trips to NC, NYC, Philadelphia, and sandy beaches
4. Not having to count ahead 3 hours before calling my friends and family
5. All the amazing cultural events
6. Friends visiting from up and down the east coast
7. Exploring new restaurants
8. Hosting parties and seeing old friends more often
9. Being home in NC for birthdays, holidays, and mother’s/father’s day.
10. Appalachian Mountains in the fall

In the past few months I have encountered more and more situations that get me thinking about left brain vs. right brain thinking. One of the first things that got me thinking about this subject was reading the book My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist who had a stroke in the left side of her brain at age 37, but was able to fully recover after 8 long years. I read the book because I wanted to get some insight into what my grandmother is going through since her stroke last year. I highly recommend the book to anyone who has a friend or family member who has suffered from any form of brain injury. If you would like a short introduction to the subject, you can watch Dr. Taylor’s TED speech here.

What I didn’t expect to get from the book was insight into the two different parts of my own brain, and how I can recognize and control which one is taking over at any given time. This knowledge has made me realize more and more things about myself, and especially how much I’ve changed in the past 10 to 15 years.

I have always been fairly middle-of-the-road on the various tests and quizzes, flipping from “left brain thinker” to “right brain feeler” depending on my mood at the time. I have chosen a creative career path, but I am the more analytical and organized than most designers I know. This has positives and negatives, I can help left brain business people understand art/design issues because I understand how they think, but I also don’t identify as much with fellow creatives at times.

I’ve always thought of myself as a bridge between the art and business worlds because of my ability to think both creatively and analytically. However, since reading more about left brain / right brain thinking, I’m realizing that in the past 10 to 15 years my personality and everyday thoughts and feelings have gone from very right brain too much more left brain, which could be described as going from emotional thinking to practical thinking, or perhaps teenager thinking to adult thinking?

One recent activity where this was very obvious was while watching the Ken Burns Jazz Documentary on Netflix. It was a wonderful 10 part documentary on the history of Jazz, I highly recommend it. When I was listening to the musicians describe their playing, or the feeling of improvising with the group and just knowing what each other is thinking, or using flowery emotional metaphors to describe their connection to the music… I just… sort of laughed. Back in high school or college I would have eaten that stuff up, I would have loved it, I would have written poems about it, I would have put on some jazz music and starting painting, probably dancing and crying all at the same time. But it seems that over the years my left brain has taken over, because when I heard these emotional comments, I first thought “Wow, that’s a bit much isn’t it? I like the music, but I don’t get all that from it.” Then I realized “Oh, I used to get that emotional about things, I used to BE like that… what happened?”

One theory is that I chose graphic design as a career, and after being “creative” all day long at work, I don’t really feel like being creative anymore. I’m not sure how well that theory holds up because, after all, most of my graphic design jobs have been very corporate left brain jobs. Maybe it’s just a sign of getting older, that emotional teenager is long gone, and in her place is a more practical adult.

Is this change a bad thing? I don’t know. I’m certainly not as dramatic as I used to be, that’s probably a good thing. I’m not as sad as I used to be either, and I think I’m as happy if not happier than I was in my more right-brain-thinking days.  But I’m also not coming up with new creative ideas as much as I used to, and I see that as a bad thing. I crave more creativity and new ideas, but they aren’t coming to me like they did before.

So, what’s next? I’ve been thinking about this a lot, weighing my options (how left-brained of me!), and I finally took a small step forward – I signed up for a drawing and sketching class that starts at the end of June. I have no idea what will come out of this class, I haven’t tried to draw anything in nearly 10 years! I’m hoping it might bring back some right-brained creative energy into my life.

I recently subscribed to Netflix and have been checking out some of the “watch it now” selections. I watched the entire first season of Party Down, which was hilarious (thanks for the suggestion, Lauren!). Nick and I watched an A&E show about the Hearst Castle, which we visited on our honeymoon. We also watched two food related movies, No Impact Man and Food, Inc. These two movies got me thinking about food even more than usual, and that’s saying something.

Eastern Washington Apples

Ever since we moved to Seattle I have been learning more and more about the importance of eating locally. Having access to fresh local fruits and veggies has vastly improved my health. The farmers markets, grocery stores, and even the restaurants in Seattle offer mostly local, seasonal menus year round, so I’m never stuck with a salad consisting of bagged lettuce that has already turned limp and brown after traveling thousands of miles. Several times I’ve purchased veggies at Pike Place Market, a few blocks from my apartment, and the farmer said to me “It’s great, isn’t it? It looked so wonderful when we pulled it up this morning.”

After watching Food, Inc. last night, Nick and I did some quick research on the sources of the food currently in our apartment. Many of the veggies are from Washington, but a lot of things are also from California, some things like citrus fruit just don’t grow in Washington, and other things (like Washington asparagus!!!) are just not ripe yet.

Here’s a list of some of the things currently stocking the fridge/pantry:
This list is not comprehensive, though it does include most of the items in the fridge, along with a few other things we thought to look up last night.

• Alfalfa Sprouts from Kent, Washington.
• Almond Milk, by Almond Breeze, which is owned by Blue Diamond – an almond growers cooperative in California.
• Apples from Eastern Washington.
• Bananas – perhaps the worse offender – are from Ecuador.
• Cream Cheese by Philadelphia – owned by Kraft. I feel super guilty about this one because the other brand of cream cheese that I often purchase is Western Family which is based in Portland, Oregon and sources its ingredients from small local farms. I will always buy Western Family Cream Cheese in the future.
• English Muffins from Franz Bakery based in Seattle.
• Garlic from California.
• Lemons from California.
• Milk by Darigold, from Washington. Darigold is an agricultural cooperative owned by over 500 farmers in Washington State.
• Mushrooms from Washington.
• Onions from Walla Walla, Washington.
• Peanut Butter from Tacoma, Washington. I love Adams Peanut Butter because of the ingredients list on the jar: “Ingredients: Peanuts.” (OK, so Adams was bought by Smuckers, but the original company is from Tacoma, and you gotta love that ingredients list!)
• Pineapple from Hawaii – OK, this is kinda far, but it’s probably one of the closest sources of Pineapple.
• Rhubarb from Fife, Washington – about 30 miles south of Seattle.
• Strawberries from California. (Strawberries+Rhubarb made an excellent pie last night!)
• Yogurt by Tillamook, an agricultural cooperative smaller than Darigold and based in Oregon.

Rhubarb seen from the Amtrak Window between Seattle and Tacoma in May 2009

Of course I’m not including things like coffee, sugar, flour, etc which come from far far away, I’m focusing more on the perishable foods for the purposes of eating locally to improve health. I think our apartment is stocked with reasonably local foods, but I also think there is some room for improvement. Either way, it is light years ahead of the way I used to eat.

I feel like my diet is already pretty healthy, and I’m not ready to make any statement about huge changes for the future, but I am thinking about eating local and about the differences between small local farms and huge industrial companies.

Several different organizations in Seattle have been doing a great job lately of making Art accessible to everyone. I’d like to highlight a few of those organizations/events in this post.

Seattle Art Museum November ReMix

Friday, November 6th was the first SAM ReMix since the one at the Sculpture Park in August which was included in my Mobile Photo Essay. I enjoyed the ReMix at the Sculpture Park because it included a lot more art than previous ReMix Events. They had musicians, poets, break dancers, and a room set up for anyone to come and make art.

The event this month was at the Seattle Art Museum Downtown. This is the first ReMix downtown that opened up the entire museum and really used all of the space.  The lobby area included three bars, a DJ, temporary tatoo parlor with tatoos inspired by the Michaelangelo exhibit, and a craft station to make paper lanterns for Day of the Dead. Various performers in costumes were wandering through the crowd as well. Drinks were of course only allowed in the lobby, but that didn’t stop people from taking the escalator up to see what was going on in the galleries. The upper galleries hosted a sculpture contest and tours given by SAM staff of their favorite works on display. Another unique event involved an artist currently exhibiting at SAM discussing her work, followed by a poet who read a response to that artists work.

SAM ReMix November 2009

The best part of the evening for me was when I was walking through the upper galleries and people watching. The museum was buzzing with activity and noise, that’s right, it was LOUD! This is WONDERFUL. People were not just standing silently in front of paintings or quietly whipsering to their friend. No, they were talking… about ART! A few friends would be discussing what they like or don’t like about a painting, and more people – total strangers – would walk by and engage in the lively conversation. This interaction was wonderful to see, and I’m so glad SAM has created an event that encourages discussion of art in such a fun atmosphere.

City Hostel Seattle

Another example of fantastic accessible art is the City Hostel in Belltown. As I described in my post about the Opening of City Hostel, over 40 artists were invited to come in and paint each of the rooms however they want. In addition to the great artwork in the rooms, City Hostel continues to participate in the Belltown Art Walks, exhibiting local artwork in the lobby.

Obi Kaufmann Show at Bedlam Coffee

One of my favorite coffee shops, Bedlam Coffee, had a show of artwork by artist Obi Kaufmann during the Belltown Art Walk on Friday, November 13th. The artist brought over 100 pieces which were priced at $50 or less. By the time I got there (around 8pm) I heard someone say over half the pieces had already sold – so I didn’t get to see the whole show. Sitting at a table with my coffee and dessert I enjoyed seeing couples come through the door, walk around and discuss which ones they liked most, talk to the artist about the different works, and then purchase something right then and there. This is not usually an experience that everyone can afford – but Kaufmann and Bedlam made it happen for those of us who enjoy art, but also have to keep in mind a realistic budget.

I can’t wait to see what these organizations come up with next! It’s sure to be something creative, new, and exciting.

 

This past weekend Nick and I took our last camping trip of the season. This was our second trip to the Sunrise side of Mount Rainier, our third trip to the mountain overall.

Mount Rainier and First Burroughs Mountain

Every time I see the mountain up close I am amazed beyond words. When you first enter the park all you really see is the road and the tall evergreens around you. Once you get through the gate you start driving up the twisty mountain road. The road is shallow at first, but starts to get steeper, and then, all of the sudden, you turn on one of the switch-backs and boom, there it is – the huge snow covered summit of Mount Rainier, sticking so high into the sky that you don’t see any of the other surrounding mountains, and you wonder how on earth you didn’t see it before now because it is so close to you!

On Saturday we hiked to the top of First Burroughs Mountain which gave us an even closer view of the top of Rainier. The hike up First Burroughs was very windy and part of the climb was on narrow rocky paths. I was thankful for my hiking books because the last time we hiked through a rocky field that looks more like the surface of the moon than a lush evergreen forest I was wearing running shoes.

After our hike we returned to the camp site for dinner and an early bedtime. Temperatures dipped into the 40′s and I was thankful for the beautiful fire Nick started. We were up before the sun packing up the campsite and driving up the road to get a view of the mountain at sunrise. The view of the mountain in the warm morning sunlight was certainly worth getting up in the pitch black darkness and tripping over a tree root that I did not see. We took some photos, but mostly sat together admiring the view while enjoying our homemade oatmeal muffins and hot coffee.

Sunrise at Mount Rainier

Perfectly timed with our trip to Mount Rainier is a series on PBS about national parks. It is airing this week on PBS, but it is also available on the PBS website through October 9th. I have watched the first two episodes, and can’t wait to see the rest. The personal stories and history are facinating, and the cinematography is breathtaking. I highly recommend you check it out here: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/watch-video/#872

Until next year, Mountain, I can hardly wait to see you again.

The old Lorraine Hotel in my neighborhood of Belltown in Seattle has been turned in to the City Hostel Seattle. The new owner has beautifully restored and renovated the building, including inviting over 40 artists to come in and paint each of the rooms however they want. In addition to the artwork painted directly on the walls (floors and ceilings), the lobby and hallways are a gallery space for local artists to sell their work.

Below are photos of the artwork from opening night of the City Hostel Seattle. Enjoy!

Cherry Street Coffe with Saxophone Player Outside

Crowd at Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park for SAM Remix

DJ at SAM Remix

Artists Drawing Comics at SAM Remix

KEXP Concert at the Mural & Summer BBQ Festival

Supplies for the Beer Tent at the KEXP Concert/BBQ

A Bright Yellow Mini for the Day

Seward Park on Lake Washington

Seward Park Lily Pads on Lake Washington

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcake from Cupcake Royale in West Seattle

Jazz Music at the West Seattle Farmer's Market

West Seattle Farmer's Market Bread

West Seattle Farmer's Market Veggies

West Seattle Farmer's Market Veggies #2

Fitting a 4 Foot Wide Shelf into the Mini

Smith Pub in Capitol Hill

Smith Pub Golden Beet Salad and Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon

Cappuccino at 15th Ave Coffee and Tea - New Concept Store by Starbucks

Atmosphere of 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea on Capitol Hill

Seattle’s new Link Light Rail service began on July 18th. Yesterday was my first opportunity to check it out. Nick and I walked from our Belltown apartment to the Westlake Station which is the end of the line downtown. We took the light rail to Columbia City for lunch at Tutta Bella, with a stop at Mount Baker after lunch to purchase goodies from Borracchini’s Market before heading home.

My observations:

Public Art

In addition to some nice sculptures at the stations, there was a great in-tunnel piece of public art. Inside part of the underground tunnel between SoDo and Beacon Hill there is a set of 5 lighted displays of playing cards. The screens change over time, so you can effectively play a hand of poker each time you go between these two stations. This is the most innovative interactive public art I have seen in a while. I hope that Sound Transit will incorporate more light-based public art inside the actual tunnels between stations.

Usability

Our trip was effortless. Everything ran smoothly, the ride was comfortable even when we were packed in with Mariner’s fans headed to the afternoon baseball game. The Columbia City station is an easy walk through the neighborhood to get to the main street with all the shops and restaurants. The Mount Baker station is in more of a suburban shopping area with strip malls, but it was an easy walk to the Italian Market where I love to pick up fresh pasta and pastries. The trip was very time efficient as well. Door to door was only 3 hours, including all the walking and eating lunch. I’m not sure we could have driven it that fast, and public transportation is always less stressful than driving.

Payment System

All of the public transportation in King County and the surrounding counties is slowly changing over to the ORCA system. It will be nice when everything (buses, light rail, monorail, ferries, etc) is on one system. However, I’m not too sure how well ORCA will work the way they have it set up for the light rail. On the bus system, you pass by the driver and swipe your card. That is simple enough. But at the light rail stations the ORCA card readers are small devices discretely placed out of the way. They are only about 3 feet tall, and there is no door or turnstile preventing you from getting on the light rail unless you use your card. Currently they have Metro employees in each train car manually counting the number of people entering and exiting, to see if the automated passenger count system is working correctly. They also have police officers who perform random checks to make sure you have your card, and to ask if you swiped it before you got on the train. Wouldn’t it be easier and more effective if your card is what let you into the light rail station in the first place? Even an honest person could easily forget to swipe their card on the tiny out-of-the-way machines. I will be interested to see the ridership statistics they come up with after the first month or so of service, and if they change the payment procedure at some point.

Conclusions

I’m happy to see Light Rail in Seattle. I only wish the next few lines would be up and running faster – current projections are for 2016 and later. In any case, it is a step in the right direction, making Seattle one of the most livable cities of its size in the USA.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Seattle Art Museum to check out the new exhibits on view since the last time I visited. I love having a museum membership so that I can go in any afternoon after work and spend as much or as little time as I like, knowing I can always come back another day.

I enjoyed the Andrew Wyeth: Remembrance exhibit, particularly a landscape of his wife sleeping in a grassy field after picking blueberries. It looked like a perfect way to spend an afternoon. Another new exhibit since the last time I visited SAM is Target Practice: Paintings Under Attack 1949-1978. I will discuss one particular work I saw in this exhibit, but first a bit of background from the SAM website.

Target Practice is an international, historical survey of the attacks that painting endured in the years following World War II. For the artists in the show, painting had become a trap, and they devised numerous ways to escape the conventions and break the traditions that had been passed down to them over hundreds of years. This phenomenon occurred in all parts of the world, and the exhibition documents why artists felt compelled to shoot, rip, tear, burn, erase, nail, unzip and deconstruct painting in order to usher in a new way of thinking.

The exhibition shows how well-known artists like Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, as well as lesser-known peers around the globe, worked to undermine the supremacy and sanctity of painting.

I will leave the discussion of “What is Art?” for another post, and just say that while I try to appreciate all forms of art, I am certainly drawn to some artforms more than others. This exhibition was comprised of a variety of modern art, canvases with nails stuck into them creating interesting shadows, ripped canvas, plywood with bullet holes, paint smeared directly onto gallery walls, canvases turned to face the wall so that the viewer only sees the back.

The work that most intrigued me was Theory of Painting by Mel Bochner.

Theory of Painting by Mel Bochner

The text on the wall explains the meaning of the 4 groupings of newspaper and blue spray paint. Clockwise from top left they are “COHERE|DISPERSE”, “COHERE|COHERE”, “DISPERSE|DISPERSE”, “DISPERSE|COHERE”

Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American Conceptual Artist with a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught at numerous highly regarded universities and his work is in the permanent collections of some of the most celebrated art museums.

I have limited knowledge of the Conceptual Art movement, and I had not heard of Bochner until yesterday, but this piece caught my eye for a particular reason, starting with the label copy explaining the piece.

Mel Bochner
b. 1940
Theory of Painting 1969-1970
Newspaper & Spraypaint
Museum of Modern Art, New York City – acquired 1997

This piece was created by the artist in 1969-1970, and acquired by MoMA in 1997. I noticed that the room in the Seattle Art Museum where it was displayed had blue spray paint marks all over the floor as if it had been created right there in that room. Then I noticed the newsprint itself – was it from 1969 or 1970? Perhaps from 1997 when it was acquired by the MoMa? No. It was the Seattle Times newspaper from June of 2009!

Upon further research, I have found copyright notices for this piece on the MoMa website, Bochner’s own website, and a few other sites, listing it’s copyright date as 2006, 2008, and 2009. I did not find a copyright notice from 1969 or 1970.

Bochner created this concept of order and chaos as a Theory of Painting in 1969, demonstrating the concept through the use of newspaper and spraypaint. The Museum of Modern Art acquired the work in 1997, but what exactly did they get? Did Bochner come in and re-create his original piece for the museum, or did museum staff create it themselves? If the museum staff created it, did Bochner oversee the creation and installation? The piece in the MoMa archives says “not currently on view”. Does this mean the newsprint is stored away somewhere in the MoMa archives, or does the staff throw it away each time they take it down, and re-create it later? Is it not currently on view at the MoMa because it is on view in Seattle, even though the Seattle piece was obviously not shipped from NYC? If this work is copyrighted by both Bochner and the MoMa from multiple years, who really owns the rights to it? Who did the Seattle Art Museum pay in order to exhibit the piece? How is it “on loan” from the MoMa if it was made from a 2009 copy of the Seattle Times?

I stood in front of this piece for a good 10 minutes with all of these questions spinning through my mind. After doing quite a bit of research last night and this morning, I still don’t have any answers, and I’m still thinking about it.

Welcome to my personal blog. I hope to use my little piece of the internet to learn about the wide range of topics that intrest me. I will post information I learn, research I gather, thoughts that come to mind, and questions I have. I hope this will become a place for me to interact with friends and family near and far.