Tag Archives: artist

Artist & Craftsman Supply Tacoma

The Artist & Craftsman Supply Store at 612 St. Helens in the Antique Row area of Tacoma opened in November 2016. Dear husband and I finally made our way down there and really we were very impressed. Dear husband has been in many an art supply store, but he declared this to be the best stocked that he has ever seen. We picked up some Easter basket stuffers, a book, some paint and some photo-transfer sheets. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable and I’m positive we’ll be back.

Artists & Craftsman is an employee owned company with  many stores, mostly along the country’s coasts. There is a website for the company. The Tacoma Artist & Craftsman store has a Facebook Page with information on upcoming events and sales. Educators receive a 10% discount.

The building, constructed in 1928, was originally the Wagner Motors Building with Silas E. Nelsen as the architect. It was the dealership for Studebaker – Erskine. It continued to have an automobile orientation until 1949 when it became a carpet distributor. I remember it being the Mandarin Antiques Store. Artist and Craftsman occupies most of the lower level of the building.

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Update one week later. It finally stopped raining for a few minutes and I got a photo of the outside of the building.

 

“Colored” Art Exhibit

I read about the “Colored” art exhibit located in the Carpenters Building at 1328 Fawcett Avenue, Tacoma, on the King 5 News Website. Dear daughter, her friend and I arrived around 4, which apparently was well after it had closed for the day. When I mentioned that dear daughter was returning to college and that this was her only chance to see the exhibit, they kindly allowed us to go through. It was a great exhibit and I plan to go back and spend more time. The murals, by Chris Jordan, were painted in inverted colors. We looked at them normally and then with our iPhones set to reverse colors and the difference was amazing. Chris Jordan even spared us a moment to visit with us about his art.  When I go back I’ll be sure to spend more time and to appreciate the other artists as well.

My understanding is that the exhibit has been extended to run an extra few weeks.

The exhibition space is in the Carpenters Building which had been the Carpenter’s Union Hall which was designed by McGuire and Muri, architects and was constructed in 1955. The Kiro article said “The inside ones (murals) will soon be hidden by the upcoming Carpenters hall renovation“.

#colored2017

 

 

Concrete Fantasia, Spanaway

I really admire those folks with passion and commitment to their art. This roadside attraction at 18212-18414 22nd Avenue, Tacoma (Spanaway) is an example of such personal drive. It is on a private residence with good visibility from the street. The property fronts on both 22nd Avenue (the rose) and 183rd Street Court East and my Roadside America App tells me the work is called Concrete Fantasia.

Cabrillo Amarillo

 

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The brightly colored Cabrillo Amarillo by Paul Kuniholm Pauper is part of the Percival Landing Plinth Project, an initiative involving 15 pieces of art. The public is invited to visit Percival Landing, view all of the pieces and then vote for their favorite. The winning art piece is then purchased by the City of Olympia and the are available for sale.  More information about the project can be found here and more information about the artist is here.

(Looks like) Chihuly Art at McDonalds

I wandered out on this rainy, rainy night to take a photo of Tacoma’s McDonald’s at 802 Tacoma Avenue South, which has a hanging Dale Chihuly glass art piece. I’m not finding much information about this piece and the restaurant was busy enough that I didn’t want to bother the servers.

Dale Chihuly is a Tacoma native and I have seen him about town at art functions on occasion. He was born here in 1941 and attended Wilson High School and the University of Washington. His website can be found here http://www.chihuly.com/

Update: It ends up its not Chihuly art! Just very similar looking.