Category Archives: Art — there is art here!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like …

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

Dear daughter and I were tired of being stuck in the house and I offered her lunch out. She wanted to go to Panera Bread and while I prefer the Lakewood Panera Bread, the Tacoma Mall was closer and the roads still aren’t all that great. I’ve already used the Tacoma Panera Bread as a new place of the day, so I thought I’d venture into the Tacoma Mall a bit and use that. The mall is setting up for the holidays with a spot for Santa (see photo).

Instead of going back to the mall, I plan to shop at the Gritty City Gift Fair!

http://www.cityartsmagazine.com/blog/2010/11/gritty-city-gift-fair-relief-mall-shopping

 

Pink Elephant Through the Link’s Window on New Year’s Eve

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

Usually I take my new place of the day photos after work, but today I stayed late and found a wind storm outside when I left. So the new place of the day is an older photo, though I did check in today.

This shot of the Elephant Car Wash was taken on New Year’s Eve 2010 through the window of the light rail system in Tacoma, the Link.

There are nine Elephant Car Washes in the Puget Sound area and this one is in Tacoma and was built in 1963.

http://elephantcarwash.com/website/?page=about

Tacoma Little Theater Mural

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Tacoma Little Theater Mural

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

This is an older photo (when it wasn’t raining) of today’s new place. The mural of a stage with famous characters and scenes is on the side of the Tacoma Little Theatre Building. The property is at 210 N. I Street in the Stadium District and had originally been an auto repair shop. It was sold to the Tacoma Drama League in 1940 and became a theater.

Per information from Tacoma Public Library the Tacoma Little Theatre is one of the oldest community theaters in existence in the United States. A photo of the building from 1960 can be found here.

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=2&pg=1&krequest=Tacoma+Little+Theatre&stemming=On&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=5000

Information about the theater is at http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

The mural was created by Mary Mann, who also did the mural on Stadium Thriftway. Check out her website, she does lovely work!
http://www.marycmann.com/about.html

Vertical Garden

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

 

To continue the art theme for the month of November, today’s new place is Goodwill’s Milgard Work Opportunity Center at 714 S. 27th St. In particular, the Living Wall or Vertical Garden at the Center is spectacular! It was designed by Patrick Blanc and has nealry 100 plant species. As you can see by the photo, the garden is really large at 20’x40′.  These sites explain it better than I could!

http://www.vegitecture.net/2009/09/tacoma-goodwill-green-wall.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2010642515_pacificplife10.html?cmpid=2628

The Milgard Center itself, which opened in September 2009, is pretty spectacular. I was taken out for lunch there by a dear friend and the food was wonderful and very reasonable. The public Neighborhood Bistro Restaurant is open M-F, 11 – 1:30.  http://tacomagoodwill.org/about/mwoc/

The Hand of God, the Youth For Christ Mural

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Today I drove past the Youth for Christ mural on the Alliant Continuum Care Building at 201 N. I Street in Tacoma. The City of Tacoma Public Art Tour site describes the mural as “Two joining hands are rendered by the inclusion of small religious symbols”. It is, of course, a variation of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam which is a fresco on the Sistine Chapel.

The website for Alliant Continuum Care is here http://www.alliantcare.com/ , but I went to the property to see the mural. Part of my effort to see new places with art as part of Tacoma Arts Month.

http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/resource/ArtAtWorkTacoma/web/Default.htm

Hilltop-McCarver Mural

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

 

Today I stopped at one of Tacoma’s newest installations of public art, the 60 foot long Hilltop-McCarver Mural at 2143 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Since this mural was dedicated recently on October 16th, I had seen a couple of photos. The mural itself is bold, whimsical and very well done. But I guess I had been assuming that it was the background for a park or public space and it is really just the background for a vacant lot that was pretty muddy when I took the photo. So lingering isn’t encouraged, which is a shame because there is so much detail to examine. The building that provides the wall space for the mural is vacant.

For two great sites that discuss the mural, go here:

http://marlinpeterson.com/mural-unveiling-in-tacoma/

http://spaceworkstacoma.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/hilltop-mural-unveiling-saturday-october-16-at-4pm/

People’s Park Mural

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

I was thinking that since November is Tacoma Art Month, that I’d try to do most of my new place of the days with an art theme. First up is the mural in Peoples Park at 924 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I cleverly took this photo yesterday when it wasn’t raining and then drove past again today so that I could say I’d been there! I love this mural which depicts the area as it use to be including a trolley and a farmer’s market. At first I thought the trees were in the way of the mural, but now I think they add to the photo 🙂

For more information on Art Month, check out the Art at Work site http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/resource/ArtAtWorkTacoma/web/Default.htm

And for a great overview of art in Tacoma go to http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/art/splash2.htm

For more info on People’s Park, go here http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=620

http://wspdsmap.ci.tacoma.wa.us/website/art/splash2.htm

Halloween House

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Well, we were going to go to a haunted house at Freighthouse Square, but the teens bagged out on me. So instead we went to a private home that celebrates Halloween in a big way! In fact, they celebrate each holiday in a big way! Our timing couldn’t have been better! A bicycle group had just pulled up and one of them was convincingly dressed as a witch. The property owner kindly gave permission for her to enter the gated yard to take this photo! The property is at the corner of South 9th and RIdgewood Avenue (just off Sprague). You can’t miss it!

Here is an article the local paper ran on how to decorate on the cheap for Halloween. http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/18/1386517/how-to-decorate-your-yard-for.html 

I recieved the FourSquare Halloween Badge 🙂  http://foursquare.com/user/2007467/badges/4cce4e10063a721ef3b0999a

  

 

Paper Zone

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Today I ran into the Paper Zone in Tacoma Central Shopping Center off of Union and South 23rd. There is just something so inspiring about all those stamps, art paper and crafts! There are six Paper Zone locations in Washington State and three more in Oregon.

General information about the stores can be found here

http://www.paperzone.com/

And their blog, with some fun craft ideas, is located here

http://paperzoneblog.blogspot.com/

Update: 5.6.2011  I’ve heard that the Tacoma Paper Zone is closing the door at the end of May 2011.  Makes me sad.

Tacoma Art Museum

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Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
 
 
 

 

It’s always a pleasure to have an interesting new place of the day and 9/18/2010 qualifies! My AAUW group went to the Tacoma Art Museum and were treated to a talk and tour by the director, Stephanie Stebich. The larger photo is of LeRoy, the dog and the smaller photo is of one of my favorite sculptures at the museum, the Stone Wave (untitled) by Richard Rhodes.

http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/page.aspx?hid=80

Here is an interesting youtube of the instillation of the Dale Chihuly’s floats in the sculpture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGZkD9ORN_M

The link for Tacoma AAUW is http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/AAUW-Tacoma-Branch/131879520756?ref=ts

or http://www.aauw-tacoma.org/