I love the Olympia Farmer’s Market — the vendors, the food booths, the entertainment, the quirky art. I especially love it in the summer with everybody in their summer garb. We purchase my daughter’s favorite type of apple and ate at Curry In.
Tacoma is a city full of interesting murals, many of them recent. The mural on the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store Building (5009 South 56th Street) had Christopher Jordan & Kenji Stoll as the lead artists and was installed in the fall of 2010.
Here is an interesting article on some of the new murals. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/09/05/1328964/painted-revival.html
The Fern Hill neighborhood has a wonderful mural that boldly declares Greetings from Fern Hill! The mural is located on the corner of South 84th Street and South Park Avenue on the Foam and Fabric Building. The lead artist for the mural is Kelda Martensen.
This webpage shows the mural as it is being developed.
Ever since I read an article in the Tacoma Weekly about the Lily Fountain by Japanese American artist George Tsutakawa, I’ve wanted to take its photo! It is a lovely, mid sized fountain outside of Chase Bank at the corner of Gravelly Lake Road and 100th Street SW. The sculpture was constructed in 1964 and was originally installed at Pacific First Federal Savings & Loan at 1102-08 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. For the entire article go to:
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/citylife/art/splish_splash/
Information about George Tsutakawa can be found here http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5426
It is farmer’s market season and there is one available for most days of the week. Sunday’s market is the South Tacoma Farmer’s Market, the newest Tacoma market and it is located on the corner of Washington Avenue and South 56th in the Heritage Bank Parking Lot. It is a bustling market, with produce, flower’s, informational booths and art & crafts goods. I especially enjoyed the musicians playing.
http://www.tacomafarmersmarket.com/Markets.aspx
The 21st Street Bridge connects downtown Tacoma with the Port of Tacoma and is part of SR 509. The cable stay bridge was constructed in 1996 to replace the 11th Street Bridge (the Murry Morgan Bridge).
I was under the bridge (on the wrong side in this photo!) to attend an arts gathering which was fire dancers at the featured entertainment. How fun is that? Flair’s website is here:
http://tacomaflair.com/tag/tacoma/
Once in a while I go to two wonderful, new places in one day and I usually decide which one to blog about. But Saturday’s two places are just so wonderful that I’m doing a double entry — Wiener Dogs and Windmills!
We went to Ellensburg for a quick get away and where delighted to find out that it was the 9th anniversary celebration of Dachshunds on Parade. We got there late for the parade (next year!), but made it in time for the pet tricks and races. Apparently Dachshunds have their own thoughts about if they should be racing. There were races in which all of the dogs flew from one end of the track to the other. There were races where the dogs got away from their owners before the ready-set-go and races where none of the dogs went anywhere (except maybe rolling over on their backs!). One race, a dog ran right into the stands! It was really a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours! And I’ve never seen so many Dachshunds at once!
http://www.dachshundsonparade.com/
Afterward, we traveled about 15 miles outside of Ellensburg to the Wild Horse Wind Farm. I’ve always wanted to see the wind turbines up close and they were glorious! It was pretty windy when we got to the information center and the employees explained that they don’t give tours when the wind is over 25 miles per hour. But still we looked all over the information center and got to touch one of the blades that they have at ground level and see the solar panels and hear the wonderful whomp, whomp, whomp of the blades as they turned. The view was wonderful also.
http://www.pse.com/inyourcommunity/kittitas/Pages/Wild-Horse.aspx
All in all, it was a very successful day!
There is a concrete fountain on the corner of Broadway and South 11th Street in Downtown Tacoma. I really like how the fountain is laid out so that it can be climbed. The fountain use to have a salmon (the Peace Salmon) as part of it, but it isn’t there anymore.
This warm and sunny day I stopped at the corner of South 49th and Fawcett Avenue and captured the lovely street art. I don’t know who painted this street mural in the middle of the intersection, but it is really fun. Based on the hand prints there was at least one kid involved in the art. The center says “Be Here” and I think it says Groovy, but its partially faded away. The Google Earth aerial photo below shows the intersection before the art was in place.
In December 2010, Tacoma received a new piece of public art known as the Projecting Drop by artist Jill Anholt. It’s located at 1250 Pacific Avenue and is part of the South Park Plaza Garage, a green facility. The art stands 25′ high and I appreciated it even more when I got close enough to really study it. I love the ripples!
Spaceworks Tacoma says it best, “The soaring wall is covered in 1″ hexagonal, blue and green tiles that cascade from top to base, then ripple outward toward the street. Embedded in the sidewalk tilework is a quote from an 1891 edition of the Tacoma Ledger : “From amidst a sombre forest of firs a city has arisen as by a stroke of an enchanter’s wand. Tacoma looks forth like a new Venice over the glassy waters and prepares to handle the commerce of the world.” The art was installed on the site of a Turkish Bathhouse! For the full story, go here:
http://spaceworkstacoma.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/a-watermark-for-tacoma-art-and-architecture/
