Category Archives: Art

A look at local, regional, and global art – and of course, the art I create too!

July 28, 2012 · 11:05 pm

The Fashion Truck and SOWA Market

One of the highlights of my trip to Boston was finding The Fashion Truck, a mobile store on wheels that shows up in different parts of the city. Think food truck with clothes!

fashion truck

I’d heard of the truck and vowed to track it down if I was ever in Beantown. When Donna and I visited in June, we walked from our hotel to the SOWA Open Market and found the truck there too.

fashion truck and more

I introduced myself to Emily, the owner of The Fashion truck, and perused the space. The back of the truck has neat spaces for clothes and accessories–and a tent and tables outside, showcased even more cute dresses, tops, and jewelry.

accessories in the truck

I bought a cool pair of aviators, which you can see perched on my head in the following shot, and a couple of wrap bracelets. Emily was great and explained her vision for the store. She curates it with hand-picked pieces and packs a lot into a small space without it feeling cramped. Theres even a fitting room. And yes, an online store.

inside SOWA's artist lofts

Top: Thrifted
Shorts: Lulu’s
Sunglasses: The Fashion Truck
Bag: Nine West via thrifted
Bracelets: Gifted
Shoes: Timberland

But the truck was just the beginning. The SOWA is an open market featuring food, art, vintage clothing and goods, and a host of other fun things. I bought a necklace from the Pearl Shop, and Donna snagged a fantastic gray and rose skirt from the indoor vintage mall. We had cool gaspacho from a food truck, and got lost in an array of jewelry and knick knacks. We even found a cool vintage shop in a retro silver trailer: Haberdash Vintage. Loved their bags, shoes, and jewelry.

sowa collage

Have you been to SOWA or other markets? What do you like shopping for?

4 Comments

Filed under Art, Crafts, Events, Fashion, Travel

Tagged as Boston, fashion, fashion truck, SOWA market, style

June 22, 2012 · 6:29 am

Visiting Vancouver

You might remember the girls’ trip I took with my friends last year. Well, we did it again. This time we chose Vancouver, British Columbia. It was out first international trip, even though it was probably the closest we’ve stayed to home.

The first thing we did when we arrived was check out the view from our hotel. We stayed at The Westin and it was wonderful. We were steps from Stanley Park (Cheryl ran its 6-mile perimeter during the trip), and we were only a few blocks from Robson Street, a popular shopping destination.

The second thing we did was find a patio and get drinks and food. I loved being able to order a rye and ginger and have the waitress know exactly what I wanted (rye whiskey–like Crown Royal–and ginger ale). The brews were local and the food was spicy. Yum.

After sustenance comes shopping. We hit Granville Street (we were saving Robson till Saturday) and looked around stores like Bedo, Plum, and Spank. We found a store that was promoting the Beagle Freedom Project in the windows display but the shop itself was closed.

Boboli had a unique stone entrance. They are a high-end boutique that carries Armani, Robert Cavalli, La Perla, and more. We thought just being near such designers made us more sophisticated.

The second day of our trip was also shopping-focused (which is why Autumn chose to visit Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium–sorry Autumn!). We fought through the crowds at Brandy Melville (one of the only non-Canadian stores we visited).

We visited the oldest commercial corporation in North America: The Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in 1670, and began as a fur trading operation. The Bay, and its quintessential striped logo are part of my childhood. Cheryl was going to buy some perfume but thought it might not fit in her suitcase.

Cheryl's perfume

Laura found great things at Bedo. Cheryl wasn’t as lucky. You can see her in the background, walking back to the hotel, empty-handed.

Vancouver is a true metropolis and has a great mix of old and new buildings. We enjoyed the architecture and public art. Every time I visit Vancouver I vow to go to the Vancouver Art Gallery but the weather’s always too nice to justify going indoors.

We got all dolled up for dinner and an improv show. On our way out, the valet offered to take our picture. I have three posed shots, but a funny comment from a passerby cracked us up and this last, candid photo shows us looking more genuine and happy. Can you believe we didn’t plan our outfits. Total fluke.

On our third day we explored more along the waterfront. Vancouver is a beautiful city, and a lot of fun. People rode bikes, picnicked, and played games. The towering condos offer a luxe life for those with a lot of money. It’s an expensive city too.

The public art brightened up an already fabulous day.

We even stumbled across the sculpture from the 2010 Winter olympics. I remember this piece from the opening and closing ceremonies. The flame is out now but it burned for the duration of the games.

The trip to Vancouver was so fun, but much too short. I’ll be back again soon. North Vancouver, Kitsilano, and Granville Island await.

4 Comments

Filed under Architecture, Art, Fashion, Photography, Travel

Tagged as fashion, style, travel, vancouver

May 25, 2012 · 12:14 pm

My Three Husbands

Today’s post is short. A picture says a thousand words, they say. I had a bit of fun with my patient husband, my camera, and the photostitch feature of Windows Live Photo Gallery. I did something similar for one of my outfit posts last summer. Only that time I copied two photos and lined them up in Windows Paint. Low tech but it worked.

Do you have fun with photos? What’s your favorite technique?

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Filed under Art, Fashion, Technology

Tagged as Paint, Photo Gallery, photography

April 23, 2012 · 6:24 am

Outdoor Living Room in Ballard

When my friend Suzanne and I took Frankie to Equal Exchange Espresso to try Slayer-made Lattés, we made a detour to this neat little park. It’s the only park I’ve been to with a cement living room in it.

We sat on the cold, hard, overstuffed chairs and sipped our lattés. It was better than it sounded. Rain and sun won’t damage this furniture. And Frankie won’t wreck it either. A+ for durability and creativity.

Suzanne wore a dove-gray jacket that she got as a Christmas gift. As cute as it is, she admitted that it wasn’t a good cold-weather coat.

I wore my tartan rain boots and a jacket I got at a consignment shop. I was also ready for rain, but not cold. Only Frankie, in his black and white knitted sweater, was prepared for the elements.

Luckily the coffee warmed us up on the walk home.

The Slayer Serves Espresso

Deep in the heart of Ballard, Washington lies a dark, rich, heavily caffeinated secret: The Slayer.

The Slayer is an espresso machine made by hand, right here in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. It’s the Ferrari of espresso machines–in craftmanship and price. It’s not cheap, and I wanted to see if it was worth the hype.

So what does $14,000 get you? The best espresso ever. Seriously. This is an industrial machine. It’s not going up against the $30 coffee maker in your kitchen (that wouldn’t be fair).Your local coffee shop spent a few grand on its machine, making the Slayer not as exorbitant as it first appears.

I first heard about the Slayer on TV. It’s been featured on a lot of shows, as you can see on their website. I heard there are nine in the US (Europe is their biggest market), with three of the nine right here in the Puget Sound area.

I drove past countless other coffee shops and headed over to Equal Exchange Espresso Bar in the Ballard Market, where a Slayer is working overtime to satisfy locals and visitors alike. I met my friend Suzanne at her place and we walked over with my dog, Frankie. I had to tie up poor Frankie, who wasn’t too happy to be left out of the action.

Equal Exchange is a co-op that focuses on fair trade, and environmental sustainability. Whether it’s coffee, tea, chocolate or snacks, you can support global farmers when you buy Equal Exchange products at your local grocery store. We were lucky to have an Equal Exchange retail store nearby so we could drink fair trade coffee from the Slayer.

The Slayer looks sexy but it’s styled to work. It’s a work of art too. The walnut paddles change the pressure of the water. Start slow and get the oils from the bean. Speed up and make an espresso that will knock your socks off. If I had the money, I’d have one of these beasts at home.

I’m a frequent coffee drinker but true aficionados will be sad to hear I ordered my shots for a latté–diluted with soy! Oh my. The drink I had was smooth, rich and strong without being bitter. I will buy more and I’ll definitely go out of my way to buy a latté with shots pulled from the Slayer.

I love Ballard but it’s about 15 miles from my house. I heard the best news today. Remember how I said there were three Slayers in this area? The other is at Vovito Coffee in Bellevue. I’ll be paying them a visit tomorrow. Until then, I’ll remember this drink fondly.

11 Comments

Filed under Art, General

Tagged as art, coffee, Equal Exchange, espresso, latte, Seattle, Slayer Espresso, style

April 7, 2012 · 11:47 am

Shadow Shot: Eye Spy

Time for another Shadow Shot Sunday (it’s Sunday in Australia, home of the shadow shots). Today I gathered a few images related to eyes and spying.

Theses first two pictures were experimental shots taken through the peep-hole on my front door. They’re both quite different. I like the shadows cascading onto my doorstep and the fish-eye distortion.

This eyeball sculpture was in a downtown Pittsburgh park. I shot it when I visited Steeltown in 2010. Oddly, Seattle has a few eyeballs like this too. I don’t know who the artist is, but I will try to find out. I’d like to compile shot of these eyeballs in many cities.

Finally, closer to home (or rather in my home): I walked into my kitchen a few months ago and saw a pair of spooky eyes staring at me. They were reflections from the metal lids of two canisters I keep on my counter. Who’s watching you?

Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s Shadow Shots!

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Filed under Art, Photography

Tagged as art, eyeballs, eyes, photography, shadow shot sunday, shadows, style

April 1, 2012 · 2:03 am

Beautiful Bats and Venus Fly Traps

When I found out that this month’s theme post at Sophistique Noir was floral, I knew exactly what to write about. Last spring I participated in EBEW’s floral group post, and I wore florals in Florida, so I’m not against wearing pretty patterns. But I didn’t want to showcase another floral outfit. This time, I want to show you an amazing find: Purple and black bat-and-floral wallpaper!

When my group at work moved into a different building one of the first things I did was explore the area. I’m in a cube but there are a few offices in the building. In one of the swankier offices I found an entire wall of this amazing wallpaper. I don’t know whose space it used to be, but he or she sure knew how to decorate! I love how the office is currently a contractor bay and the paper remains.

I snapped photos and showed my friends my amazing find. I didn’t have a blog when I found this wallpaper but I’m happy to share the photos with you now. I did a web search for “bat wallpaper” and had page after page of desktop wallpaper links. I kept hitting dead ends until my colleague and friend Pleiades found the source: Flavor Paper.

Flavor Paper has a wallpaper section with amazing patterns. Some of my favorites are Flower Pedal, Flower of Love, City Park, and Iris. But nothing is better than Elysian Fields. I prefer the black and purple, but check out the other colors too. In fact, the colors change the look of the paper so much! It might seem obvious, but the same print in antique pink has a totally different effect.

pattern

I’d put this up on one wall of a home office or paper the entire bathroom! I think an oval mirror with a silver frame would pop against this background. I love that this paper is pretty with a dark side. Even the plants are dangerous!

What would you do with this paper? Do you have any others that you like?

9 Comments

Filed under Art, Decor

Tagged as bats, decor, goth, style, venus fly trap, wallpaper

January 28, 2012 · 11:53 am

Shadow Shot: Florida Palms

It’s been a while since I took part in a Shadow Shot group post. Maybe because Seattle hasn’t seen sun in so long and without sun, it’s hard to find shadows. Lucky for me, I was recently in Florida: The Sunshine State. Here are a few photos that are distinctly tropical–and shadowy.

For me, anything Thunderbird is such a throwback to the America of yesteryear. I picture a stylish, early 60s-era couple–she’s wearing cat-eye sunglasses, a pretty dress and white gloves; he has on a tailored suit with a narrow tie. They’re rolling into the drive-in in a 1963 Cadillac convertible. It probably never happened, but I like to think it did. This is the back of a drive-in screen in Fort Lauderdale.

These trees were growing outside the entrance to a condo complex in Pompano Beach. To residents, they’re probably nothing special, but they’re so foreign and different to a cold-weather gal like myself. I love how they represent warmth and sunshine to me.

The sunsets in Florida were picture-perfect. Every night the sky lit up with gorgeous shades of pink and blue. I love the pastel painted buildings in Florida but they paled in comparison to the sunsets.

Make sure to check out the other shadow shots on The Shadow Shot Sunday blog.

20 Comments

Filed under Art, Photography

Tagged as Florida, palm trees, photography, shadow shot sunday, shadows, style

January 13, 2012 · 7:35 pm

PhoDOGraphy: Frankie Visits Marymoor Park

My dog Frankie first tried out his new camera last winter. You can see the pictures he took in his previous post. At the end of summer, we tried the pet camera again. You can see it attached to his collar, below.

Following Jean down the gravel path. La-dee-da, la-dee-da…

Ooh, a fence. Gotta claim it as my own.

Dang it’s hot. I hope my tongue isn’t covering the lens. How embarrassing would that be? Gotta get some water outta the river…

This really is a beautiful park. Lotsa trees and bushes…My whisker is itchy!

Hey, look at that cute schnauzer…

I wonder what’s behind the blackberry bushes?

It’s so bright, but I love being in nature!

I’ll get out with Frankie again. This time the temperature will be lower and his tongue will hopefully stay in his mouth!

3 Comments

Filed under Art

Tagged as art, dog park, dogs, pet camera, photography, style

January 7, 2012 · 3:35 pm

Seattle Art Walk

First Thursdays are synonymous with art in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. My friend, Autumn, invited me to join her and her friend, Amy, this past Thursday. It was cold so we went straight to the Tashiro Kaplan artist lofts. The entire triangular-shaped block is devoted to artists’ spaces and the lower levels are galleries. We got to stay inside and visit dozens of galleries. When the weather is nicer (for two weeks in July) walking around outside is fun. A lot of artists set up booths in Occidental square.

We saw a wonderful installation that filled an entire room.

Cut paper was the medium for this intricate piece.

This installation caught my eye because artist Ellen Hochberg used women’s garments as her canvas. The leaf motif represents the female form. Here, we see the form on garments that span a woman’s life–from infancy and childhood to womanhood. Check out her website for other amazing work in ink and oil.

We used out smartphones to learn about encaustic. These two pieces showing skeletons of a leaf and bird were ethereal. The layered way technique created an otherworld-ness to these pieces.

They say smoking kills, and these paintings, show the subject smoking during a gruesome and violent situation (granted, the cigarettes are hard to see at this scale). I don’t know if that’s the message intended by the artist, but we noticed the cigarette theme and decided to take our pictures next to various paintings in this series. I was trying to juxtapose joy and pain (hence my silly smile). Autumn was far more stoic, and Amy was pretending not to look.

The Seattle Freeze was the theme of this installation. I met artist Troy Gua and chatting with him for a moment about the “cool distance” people who move to seattle encounter when meeting people here. But like the protective exterior of the duct-taped teddy bears, under all that toughness is a soft, cuddly toy. So too, perhaps, are Seattleites.

Autumn and I said goodbye to Amy and then we wandered to Occidental Square, where we found more yarn bombing! This is the same set of work that I wrote about a couple of months ago. This time, I found out who the artist is: Suzanne Tidwell created it.

No art trip is complete without a drink so we popped in at Merchant’s Café, Seattle’s oldest restaurant. It’s hard to imagine that in 1890, it was full of men on their way to the gold rush. The bar is gorgeous, carved wood and stained glass ceiling lamps illuminate the room. It’s a real piece of history.

Other neighborhoods have art walks throughout the month too: West Seattle, Fremont, Capitol Hill, Belltown, Georgetown, to name a few. For artists like Amy, Autumn, and me, art walks are inspiring. They’re also a great way to get out, socialize, and support the local arts community. Before you buy a mass-produced reproduction at a department store, consider an original piece from a local artist. Many are very affordable and there are so many mediums to choose from: paintings, lithographs, photographs, sculptures, and more.

Have you been to an art walk recently? Do you buy art? Make it?