Category Archives: Art — there is art here!

Toadilly Scappin’

My friend took me and dear daughter to Toadilly Scappin’ at 6820 Kimball Dr., Ste 7, in Gig Harbor for a card making workshop. I was a tad worried about it since I am not especially good at things like this. But each of the five cards came in its own little baggie and there was a picture of how it should look and the great teacher was upbeat and great at guiding us through the steps, especially considering the students were at all different levels. Besides being pretty much useless at tying bows, I did alright. There are all kinds of wonderful papers and other scrap-booking supplies at the store and we walked away with less than we wanted and more than we planned

http://toadillyscrappin.com/

Fulcrum Gallery

The Fulcrum Gallery at 1301 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Tacoma, is a small gallery featuring quality artists and this evening they had a reception for their new exhibit “Dawn of 2012”. There was a wide breath of different types of art. My dear daughter and I especially liked the lovely drawings by Meghan Mitchell and cloud floating houses of Gabriel Brow.

http://www.fulcrumtacoma.com/

 

Photo taken later

Great mural at Tacoma’s Fire Station #16

Fire Station No. 16 at 7216 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, WA, 98406, is the site of art by Bob Henry titled Wilson Rams. The Tacoma-Pierce Co. Public Art Tour site (http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/Art2/viewer.htm) says that the medium is Paint on canvas and the size is 10′ x 30′.

I love the bright colors and the fact that it is a local artist and a local scene! What I don’t like is that it is primarily visible from a small side street that leads to the driveway of the firestation and a small apartment complex. It would be great if more people could enjoy it!


Satellite Coffee on Division

“Coffee in Tacoma that doesn’t suck” is the motto of Satellite Coffee at 817 Division Ave., Tacoma, WA 98438. I stopped in today for coffee and a cookie and they were both unusual. The coffee was French Press and really good and the chocolate chip cookie had raisins. The cookie was good to, just not what I expected. There are two Satellite Coffees and this one is located up a short flight of stairs. Inside there was some catchy music and a funky, pleasant atmosphere.

There website is here:  http://www.coffeetacoma.com/

The write up of their other location is here: http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=2237

Happy New Year at the Pythian Temple

 

As we usually do, dear daughter and I celebrated New Year’s Eve at Tacoma’s First Night in Downtown Tacoma. We drove to the Dome Transit Center and caught the Link to the theater district and then we kicked up our heals! It is really a top notch event. The weather was cold, but not frigid and there was no rain (a small miracle). I ran into a bunch of folks that I knew, but dear daughter seemed to know almost everybody! She declared that her schoolmates owned the downtown domain!

The new place for the day is the Pythian Temple at 924-926 1/2 Broadway, Tacoma. The building was constructed in 1906 for the Commencement Lodge No. 7 of the Knights of the Pythias. On August 23, 1985, Pythian Temple was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The meeting room is upstairs and is amazing, with dark carved woods and lovely frescoes and a huge organ.

For more on the Temple, including some historic photos, go to here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythian_Temple_%28Tacoma,_Washington%29

This is my sixth building that was designed by Frederick Heath, architect and named after the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley. The others are:

http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=2012 Oakland School

http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=1961 Urban Grace

http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=1335 Titlow Lodge

http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=2370 Tacoma Public School’s CAB

http://blog.firsttries.com/?p=2374 McKinley School

City Blocks for Serious Fun

Yesterday I stopped at Freighthouse Square for dinner before I went off to a class. While there I stopped at City Blocks, which is at 440 East 25th Street, Suite 46, Tacoma WA 98402. Their facebook page says that they are the “The world’s only public LEGO Commercial Art Studio”. Indeed when I visited they were happy to show me the Lego custom pieces they were working on and they were pretty cool! More info can be found on their Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/cityblocks

 

Gandy Dancer

At the corner of East Main and 3rd Street just off of the downtown area of Puyallup is Gandy Dancer by sculpture Jim Mattern. In doing a little research, it appears that the art piece had been in Port Orchard or that there are two of them. I’m betting on it having been moved. It is part of the Arts Downtown project. The sculpture features a rail worker and is well placed next to a rail line.

Wild Wilderness Under the I-705

Tacoma has a temporary art exhibit called the Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line Project. There are several sites that are part of this instillation. and today I stopped at the Wild Wilderness. It’s located next to the entrance to the Tacoma Art Museum’s parking lot and under the I-705 Overpass in an area of vegetation.  There were several animal cutouts including a sloth, a squirrel and a fox. There was one near the concrete support piece, but my husband suggested that I let the man in the sleeping bag alone.

The website for the project provides the following information:


SITE 3: Under I-705
Title: Wild Wilderness
Artists:  Jennifer Adams, Kristin Giordano, Kenji Stoll

This work comments on the diminishing open spaces in our world and the impact on animal habitat.  In addition, it calls attention to the wild spaces that exist within our urban midst. A variety of animals that would be hard pressed to co-exist inhabit this newly created environment.”

Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line

 

 

The Brick House Gallery

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Studio Tour 2011, a set on Flickr.

Today we did a couple of stops on the Tacoma’s Studio Tour, with the new place of the day being The Brick House Gallery at 1123 South Fawcett Avenue. The gallery had an amazing collection of photographic images. It was a great space and the light was lovely. I’ve also thrown in some other images that I stumbled upon today.

Pertinent websites include:

http://www.thebrickhousegallery.com/

http://gabrielbrown.net/

http://ndybevik.com/N._Dybevik/News_and_Shows/Entries/2011/7/25_Sing_Us_a_Song%2C_Piano_Man_From__Spaceworks_Blog.html

http://www.idsignlight.com/

 

Transpire

Lakewood Transit Center has this dramatic piece of public art known as Transpire by Mark Calderon. The website for the center http://projects.soundtransit.org/Projects-Home/STart-Public-Art-Program/Public-Art-Projects/Lakewood-Station.xml states the following:

Three intertwining spires create a radiant and elegant design inspired by the early history of settlement in the Lakewood area. Speaking of his inspiration, artist Mark Calderon said, “To me [the campfire] represents the center for food, warmth and community – in a way, the hub of the settler’s existence. I want my sculpture to be attractive in the same way—a place that is comfortable and enlivening where people may gather and where community forms.”