Art: Wordle creates images from words

Wordle

You can make your own word art at www.wordle.net. Paste in any text, website address, or rss feed and go. After the image is generated you can play with options such as shape, colors, orientation, number of words to use, and fonts.

The fonts (typefaces) have funny names: Gunplay, Telephoto, Boopee, Sweater School Rg, Duality, Kenyan Coffee, Sexsmith, Owned, Silentina Movie, Tank, Scheme, Loved by the King, Alphabet Fridge Magnets All Caps, King Typewriter, plus more.

I made this Wordle from my Twitter posts. You can get a text file archive of all of your tweets on Twitter from TweetScan.

A luxe date night on the cheap tonight

Tonight is the opening of a new art show hanging at Vermillion with local singer/songwriter PWRFL Power performing for the opening event. The art opening and performance tonight are free, so being broke is not an excuse to stay in. Get out and get on some art, music, and night air tonight.

This month's show at Vermillion, An Unfinished Edge, is about ambiguity, the spaces between, and what can happen when the observer is not supplied with the critical information of a story. Concerned with ideas of habitat, the work addresses conflicts and comparisons between the natural and human worlds.

Vermillion is an unpretentious space on Capitol Hill with art in the front and a comfortable, hip, and inexpensive wine and beer bar in the back. It's a great pre-func or meet up spot any time you're on the hill. The design of the space is lovely; the board games and 45s jukebox encourage lingering and hanging out. Although wi-fi isn't provided by Vermillion, I've been able to jump on neighboring networks easily enough.

Peeps are passionate about tonight's performer PWRFL Power: it's love or hate, with no middle ground. (More.) If you haven't heard him before, tonight's a no-risk chance to form an opinion.

Even if you aren't into the music, your trek to the hill is not a waste. There's lots of art to check out in the neighborhood: it's the monthly Capitol Hill Art Walk tonight. Capitol Hill Seattle created a handy walking map of participating businesses.

Vermillion
1508 11th Ave
Capitol Hill, between Pike and Pine

An Unfinished Edge, opening Thursday, February 12, 2009
Live Music by PWRFL Power And Guest DJs
6pm - Late, Free

O is for Obama

new shirt saved for today
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Happy day! I ordered this shirt back in November and saved it for today. It is designed by Alex Ross.
Yeah, I know Obama will not be perfect and he is not a superhero, but hell, I am happy he's of new generation who GETS today, the future and the opportunities ahead of us. And not afraid to call b-shit on b-shit. Hope. Engagement. Passion. Many are waking up from hibernation induced by despair.

Suite 100 Gallery to Move Next to Roq La Rue

Suite 100 Gallery is moving 1 block north and next to Roq La Rue Gallery, in the space lately vacated by BLVD Gallery. The first show in the new space will open January 9th, as part of the monthly Belltown artwalk.

Even though it is only a one block move, it's a good one. No longer will we need to weave our way through clusters of smokers and clumps of pan handlers which gather on the sidewalk one block south -- a block with Mama's Mexican Kitchen, Lava Lounge, Bad Juju Bar, Noodle Ranch, Shorty's, and Buddha Bar between Roq La Rue and the starter location for the Suite 100 gallery.

The new gallery space is two to three times larger in square footage than the old Suite 100 space, so curators will need to step up their game to use it to their advantage. I hope they consider creating a few dividers to break up the wide open space; the BLVD gallery always felt a little too open. (Picture a large living room where all the furniture is anchored against a wall. Would you want to stay very long? )

The first show in the new space looks promising. "Local Aesthetic" will feature artwork from three local artists: Greg Boudreau, Ryan Molenkamp and Troy Gua.

Starter location, buh-bye


New space, hello-o-o-o

(Not a great picture, but the only exterior shot I have.)

Belltown gets a Sloth Bear for the Holidays

Check out Free Sheep Foundation during the month of December to visit a sloth bear. This is not a prank. A living, breathing sloth bear is staying in Belltown before taking up permanent residence at Woodland Park zoo.

Pedestrians and animal enthusiasts to the corner of 3rd and Battery in Belltown can view Toshi, a four year old, 1,200 pound Japanese sloth bear from Hokkaido Island, Japan. Toshi was raised in captivity and is very comfortable around humans. Safe inside an adapted storefront, Toshi can be viewed throughout the day as she eats, plays and slumbers with her favorite toy doll Benji.

Toshi comes to Seattle from the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, Japan. I trust the bear experts at Kushiro are sure about Toshi's gender, unlike these polar bears.

This exhibit is brought to you by Zoo to You Foundation, Woodland Park Zoo, Free Sheep Foundation and PDL.

This painting pissed me off

More specifically, an art writer's catalog description of the work pissed me off. The painting itself only made me uncomfortable. And curious.

Temma on Earth (Tim Lowly, 1999) hit me hard. My impression of the work and my emotional reaction was disconcerting and uncomfortable: This is a crime scene. This child is a victim. Good god, who would paint such a thing, and why?



The work hanging opposite of Temma only reinforced my impression. Robert McGurdy's untitled work is a large photorealistic oil-on-canvas portrait of an expressionless man and woman, looking straight on - - as if to bear witness to the crime across the room.

I was uncomfortable enough with Temma to later research it on teh internets. Temma is a portrait of the artist's child, physically and mentally disabled since birth. This backstory fits my initial impression of the work and what was visually communicated: a tragedy, a child who isn't living the life we wish for her. Deep sorrow. Inability to change the outcome. Ok. Get it.

My irritation is not with Temma or the artist. Rather, it is with a catalog description of Temma in which the writer completely recasts the work as something uplifting and even "peaceful." In a 2001 essay, John Brunetti describes the piece using words such as poetic expression, calmly rests, peaceful, free of the earth's gravity, luminously celestial, lighter than air, transcend. Are. you. f*cking. crazy? Are we looking at the same painting?

The hubris and I'm-smarter-than-you attitude of many art critics and writers is what turns off ordinary people from the art world. I honestly and truly do appreciate backstory and context of a work: it deepens an understanding of the piece and of the artist. However, at the end of the day a painting is a visual communication medium and a good one must be able to stand on its own visually, without reliance on context to explain, nor require backstory to help a viewer get 'the point."

Should art critics and art writers to use context and backstory to completely recolor an art work's visual message?

Hell no. By doing so, the art establishment creates a self-serving barrier between the artist and the viewer, as in: "You little ordinary people can't understand or appreciate a work unless one of us important and much more knowledgeable people interpret it for you."

To that I say, "F*ck you."

Art on Broadway: artist reception & guided tour tonight

You can view the STart on Broadway art installations anytime through November 15th, however tonight is the only opportunity to meet the artists and have a guided tour of the works staged in empty retail spaces.

The reception is tonight from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the Artist Trust office (1835 12th Ave), followed by an hour-long guided tour on Broadway.

untitled, Jason Puccinelli


If you can't make it tonight, plan your own walking tour when it is dark; many of the works are washouts during daylight.

Look for one of my favorites, Sky Dance. It's like a mashup of the Nutcracker with Disney's Haunted Mansion.

Parasol, by Webster Crowell

Now at Blvd Gallery: Gremlins and Mogwai Terror by 179

JeanineAnderson

The eclectic collection of works at the Blvd Gallery this month include this asian-influenced piece by artist OneSevenNine (179).

I first saw 179's work on the Seattle Georgetown graffiti wall in December, 2007. OneSevenNine's style is consistent, but also showing good artistic development: compare this Gremins piece to the koi on the Georgetown wall. OneSevenNine's flair for the asian style and color palette creates images which take common asian architectural elements and turns them into gently affectionate figures. The Gremlin's piece is a cleaner image and more mature understanding of line, without loss of faint irony seen in earlier work.

Several other pieces at Blvd Gallery are worth a look-see if you are in the Belltown neighborhood. I particularly liked Julio Guerrero's collage "Día de los Muertos," located in the back left corner of the gallery. This is Julio's first gallery show.

The Fanatic show runs through November 8th.

Art of Mathematics

This rainbow cauliflower image is a visual representation of a mathematical theory known as dynamical systems.


the University of Liverpool has an exhibit of images based on dynamical systems expressions and formulas. Check out additional images and learn more about dynamical systems at the BBC website, which offers a 90-second slide show with narrative.

The dynamical system formula which produced the cauliflower is the deceptively simple x squared plus one quarter.

These are pretty interesting, yet similar to fractals we've seen around for quite a while.

Roq La Rue launches new show and new website

After taking a month off to remodel the gallery, re-work the website, and travel to Europe, Roq La Rue's Kristen Anderson is once again bringing Pop Surrealism art to Belltown. The September show opens tonight and features new work by robot-loving Brian Despain and by visually-apocalyptic social commentator Victor Castillo.

September 2008 Opening:
Friday, September 12
6pm - 9pm
Detail of Detpain's "They Talked of Tin" (image from Roq La Rue)

Seattle Dorkbots Focus on Burning Man Art Tonight

Hand of Man photo by Jeanine Anderson

Seattle's Dorkbot group ("people doing strange things with electricity") is hosting a free gathering tonight on Dorkish Art at Burning Man 2008.

Shelly Farnam of Seattle Dorkbot says, "Tonight's events start with a general overview and report on some of the Dork art seen at Burning Man; then a local artist, Tanjent, will talk about his project Applecore; and we'll screen video interviews of burning man artists, including the creators of Tantalus and The Hand of Man."

What: September 2008 Dorkbot: Reporting on dorkish art at Burning Man 2008
When: Wenesday, Sept 10th, 7:00 - 10:00pm (7:30 start time for slides and movie shorts)
Where: 911 Media, 402 9th Ave N.

New Screen Tees

I picked up a couple of new hand-printed tees this weekend, direct from makers Revival Ink and Bherd Studios.

I love this new Twisted Tree design from Revival Ink.


Revival Ink is run by Tara Smith out of Seattle. (My very first Revival Ink shirt was this, purchased last December.) You can find Revival Ink's ready-mades at Atlas Clothing, Pretty Parlour, and a handful of other stores in the area.

Additionally, Revival Ink is a regular at the Fremont Market and I Heart Rummage. Check the Revival Ink website for more locations and upcoming shows, or to order online. Tara's also creates rad one-of-a-kind vintage wear customized with hand-screened designs, available through Etsy.


I cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die swear I had no plans to buy another shirt this weekend. And then I saw this Icarus tee at Bherd Studios. I've always had an affinity for the Icarus story, perhaps because of a recurring dream since a young age that I can fly.



Bherd Studios is an art gallery, clothing store, and workspace with an urban edge. The storefront studio is in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle and features artist-in-residence John Osgood. I went to the opening night of the "Spray It Don't Say It" show Saturday night and fell (groan) in love with the Icarus design. And these cutie pie boy shorts with wings on the bum were just too precious to pass up.

All are hand-printed pieces; check the other styles on the Bherd website. Stop into the shop for more designs and colors. You'll also find Bherd at the 2008 Urban Craft Uprising.

I plan to order a pair of these custom kicks from John this fall. These beauties were first unveiled at the Georgetown Artopia event last month and I haven't forgotten about them. If you like 'em too, check with John and Michelle -- they may have your size in stock.

Robert Zverina's Autobioanthropolography

Get yourself to the McLeod Residence and check out Robert Zverina's show "memory (w)hole." Trust me: it is fascinating, and you'll want to go back again to see more. What is so compelling?

Autobioanthropology is a word made up by Robert Z: autobiography + anthropology.

Robert Zverina's been creating mini-films with a digital pocket camera since Feb 2003. He's compiled the best of the short clips into 24 hours of video documentary of ordinary life. Clips range from 4 seconds to 30 seconds, the equipment's maximum recording time. The word autobioanthropolograhy is apt.

The video compilation is mesmerizing: you don't know how long each clip lasts and you have no idea what the next subject will be. A cat? A street scene? Making a purchase? Riding a train?
The briefness of each segment, punctuated with a 5-second empty interval between each, leaves you wanting just a little bit more -- yet also happily anticipating the next segment. Channel surfing ordinary life, if you will.

I watched about 20 minutes of the compilation at the show's opening last Friday. I plan to return to see more, and I'll likely also buy the DVD ($30) and play it on the TV when guests are over.

The second installation by Robert Zverina at the McLeod is 572 Pictures of the Day, which wallpapers the front gallery room. These are prints of online photo/text postings, from pre-blog time to present. He's been blogging before there was such a thing as blogging. No fancy blog s/w for this fella. Every page is hand-coded. (Hard core geek.)

The artist's statement on the memory (w)hole show:
In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, history is constantly rewritten, with the old versions being tossed into the "memory hole"--an incinerator. memory (w)hole is a play on words that implies we inhabit a space between total recall and utter amnesia. This exhibit presents the largest compilation of Robert Zverina Short Films to date, with more than 24 hours of non-repeating microdocumentaries cycling chronologically in a comfortable cinema setting. In an adjacent gallery, 572 Picture of the Day web page printouts line the walls from floor to ceiling to form an "exploded book," a grand gesture in the futile struggle against forgetting.

Just for reading this far, I'll throw in a few fun facts about Robert Z:

• He's a low-fi DJ: he plays 45s on a portable turntable


• He's getting married in August in the country. Back country. He and the wife are having a block party/reception in the Fremont neighborhood to celebrate nups the following week.

Memory w(hole) runs at the McLeod Residence through the end of September.

Here's the dude himself taking a picture of me taking his picture. Hmmm. Maybe I'll be in something.

a few line drawings for me

Creative and sweet Starhead made a few simple line drawings for me last week. (Some of you may have an idea of why I asked for this subject in particular! Just you wait.)

When we met up last week for beers and artwork pickup, Starhead told me the story of his [brave little] toaster.

Last year Starhead joined up with Static Invasion to install big-ass static clings around the city. The clings were mobile: people could remove them and install them in new places around town. (peel and stick. over and over.) Starhead's contribution to the project was a toaster. Months later the toaster was spotted in an apartment window in a south city neighborhood. When Starhead learned of its location, he created a bunch of small toaster stickers. He placed them on the block where the big toaster cling was installed so it wouldn't be so lonely.

Starhead didn't hang around to see what the toaster's caretakers thought of his follow up. He hopes they found it entertaining that the artist randomly located the mobile artwork and then added to it for quiet public amusement.

Good times!

Five Belltown Gallery Openings on Friday 7/11

I am SO looking forward to hitting Belltown Friday night and catching the opening of five new gallery shows. I am particularly excited about the shows at the Roq, the BLVD, and the new Free Sheep Foundation space. All spaces open at 6 pm and have varying closing hours (as early as 9 pm at the Roq.)

Roq La Rue: 10th Anniversary Group Show
Showing work from 24 artists, including Mark Ryden, Femke Hiemstra, Brian Despain, Travis Louis, Scott Musgrove, Liz McGrath and Shag. I'm curious to see who will show up at this anniversary show. The sport of people-watching can get interesting here. Of course the art is always mad fab interesting too.

BLVD Gallery: “Pneumonia, Isolation, and Disorder” by Deuce 7
Deuce 7 is a graffiti artist from Minneapolis who is also part of a burgeoning underground subculture of Freight train hoppers. In 2007 Deuce7 made a trip to NYC to do graffiti and experience the Mecca of Street Art. After 2 short weeks he had taken the city by storm and was profiled in the Village Voice with the tagline “Is a guy from Minnesota the new king of New York street art?” A very impressive achievement for a previously unknown graffiti artist from the midwest in a city renowned for it’s dislike of intruding outsiders.This will be his first solo show of drawings and paintings on the West Coast.

Stylus Salon and Gallery: Group Art Show curated by Ghost Gallery
2321 Second Avenue
Five local artists are showing works here. I am not familiar with this space or any of the artists, so I can't vouch for whether this will be worth crossing the street from an art appreciation standpoint. However, the announcement for Friday's show opening promises a full bar, food, and music so if the art isn't great you can at least get a little somethin' somethin' (nosh or drink) while you stroll around the salon.

Free Sheep Foundation
3rd and Battery (24oo 3rd ave)
Friday is the first opening of this temporary space leased by the Free Sheep Foundation. The FSF(?) is headed up by the mastermind behind the Bridge Motel project and The Belmont wake: D.K Pan.

The show includes installations from ntg, garek druss, dk pan, static invasion & scntfc, karn junkinsmith, and nko, as well as a collection of "exquisite corpse" works created during a collaborative art-in of street artists and their peeps. Friday's show opening will also include musical performances by Aubrey Birdwell, Locate, and Heavy Teeth. ( Sorry, I have no idea what style of tunes to expect.)

Suite 100 Gallery: Oceanic
Suite 100 Gallery specializes in themed group shows. Expect to see a variety of artists and styles and media when you check out their monthly show. July's Oceanic show is subtitled "nautical adventures and underwater realms" and is curated by the popular artist Ninjagrl.

This gallery stays open late so I usually make it my last Belltown gallery stop of the evening before eating some yummy goodness at the Buddha Bar Thai restaurant next door. However, now that the McLeod Residence is open to all, their lounge may be the new final stop in Belltown before tripping and skipping my way home.

Pimp Your Power Tool for Drag Racing

There's still time to get your MAKE on and create a vehicle for the Power Tool Drag Races. Races will be held Saturday June 28 in Georgetown. The races are part of Artopia, an annual event for innovative art and emerging talent.

Although speedy locomotion is a primary factor to winning a typical race, local-whiz-goes-to-NY-to-MAKE-it Bre Pettis reminds us that "an important part of power tool racing is style: making your power tool look cool."

Learn How to Make a Power Tool Drag Racer


(The chicken assisted starting device at 3:40 is f*cking brilliant.)

Word on the street is that Mr. DIY himself will be present with entrant in hand. You didn't hear it from me.

The Power Tool Drag Races races are organized by Hazard Factory. Motto: Don't run with scissors, commute.

Artist HiIary Harkness: "The world is known in its detail"

NY artist Hilary Harkness creates narrative artwork which makes me want to write a story or ten. There's plenty to be seen in her Escher-like compositions heavily populated with female figures in all sorts of, um, questionable situations and activities.

Jerry Saltz, critic for The Village Voice, wrote about her figures, "Whatever they're involved in, they ooze a bitchy demonic kinkiness, which makes looking at these paintings slippery fun." (#)

Hilary Harkness has been criticized for her representation of women, however this 2004 interview illuminates her approach and viewpoint on the subject matter, composition, and style of her body of work.

"I use sex and power to pull the viewer in; from there, I explore the issues in more detail, sometimes in twists-and-turns and sometimes to the point of their own banality. I also think the manner in which I paint them is important: slow, small, detailed. This allows me to investigate these issues of sex and power in a more detailed, articulated, and maybe thoughtful manner. I hope to infuse these issues with meanings deeper and more idiosyncratic than typically found in the culture at large. I cannot separate how I paint from what I paint, the paintings are not just about one or the other, and hopefully the how and what contrast and combine in a way that creates something interesting, charged."

I would love to see Hilary Harkness' art in person and up close. Roq La Rue in 2009? (I'm dreaming, I know. )

Hilary Harkness is represented by Mary Boone Gallery in NYC, where you can find her work hanging through June 28th. Report back if you go!

happy street art in the guest room

Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Robot Boy, Lucky, and Penguin waited patiently for me to find the laser level. I bought these three pieces from artist Dave Bloomfield last fall and finally hung them in the guest room today. I love the sweet goodness that permeates much of Dave's work and I'd like to think the positive and playful vibe will influence the dreams of all who sleep in this room.

Framing these was a little tricky due to the non-standard size. Fortunately, I found double-glass frames at Fred Meyer for not very much money. Result: perfection on a budget!

If you'd like to get your own Dave Bloomfield art, make your way to 619 Western building on the first Thursday of the month. 619 Western is an old warehouse space with 6 floors of artist studios. It is open to the public once a month and there is always something new to see. Dave typically has some stuff available for $5. He makes sure everyone can afford a little art in their life!

Not so Innocent: Fuco Ueda artwork

Japanese artist Fuco Ueda produces beautiful images of Japanese girls that are innocent, sexy, and dangerous all at once. You can view several original works at the Roq La Rue Gallery this month.

Fuco paints using acrylic and powdered mineral pigments, and finishes her work with shell powder. The result is simultaneously soft and crisp, like her subjects.

"The heroines of Fuco Ueda’s paintings are often on the brink of danger. These beauties are at once victims and agents. But whether the threats are self-inflicted or not, they make for fierce and beautiful narratives." [#]




Is she smelling the chrystanthemum, or metaphorically tasting the flower?
Fierce indeed!

The Roq was lucky enough to get a show commitment from Fuco before she signed on with Tomoko Kogure, of Tokyo's Gallery Kogure. I chatted with Tomoko on Friday but she didn't reveal much of her plan for Fuco. Here's hoping Fuco doesn't end up in an artist stable and just one of many. Fuco's work is too good to be sidelined. All of the her pieces for the Roq show have been purchased.

I talked with Fuco Ueda for a few minutes through her friend who translated for us. Nice. Shy. Surprised that I knew of her work from a year ago and that I had been eagerly anticipating her show in Seattle.

Get yourself down to the Roq La Rue in the next couple of weeks to see this work in person. It is lovely, lively, and a bit sexy-dangerous -- in a metaphoric way.

p.s. It is safe for kids: the sexy-dangerous vibe will go right over their innocent little heads.

Have you seen my glasses?

a worktable
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

This particular studio isn't usually open on first Thursdays at the 619 Western building. I was so struck by the worktable and wondering how the artist found anything that I can't recall what his work looked like.

There's a tendency in my family to let counter spaces clutter up just like this. I have to be diligent daily (ok, weekly. or semi-weekly) to make sure I don't accidentally get to this point due to inattention. I wonder if this tendency I fight is an inherited trait or the result of environmental patterning.