[Susan Robb, I Am A Land Animal]
“Eco-macho…taps into that old and apparently endlessly rich metaphor of the Northwest as a place rooted in the interpenetration between the urban and the rural, a place that’s both somehow ahead of the mainstream and off the grid. The idea has been cultivated by Northwest artists and writers from time immemorial. Just to name a few recent examples: Charlie Krafft, with his Mystic Sons of Morris Graves crew and his weapon ceramics; Gretchen Bennett, with her Native American blankets, street stickers in the form of Mount Rainier, and colored-pencil adaptations of Kurt Cobain on YouTube (not to mention the Aberdeen native himself); Claude Zervas, with his Eva Hesse–like Northwest rivers and passages made in thin, white cold-cathode fluorescents with their dangling wires; Susan Robb, with her both hopeful and dark insistence on humans as animals. This is the current Northwest School.”
I just read this article by Jen Graves this morning, though it was written last April. It is so directly pertinent to our conversation about Regionalism. Talk about forgetting our own art history; even one that was articulated just one year ago! Or, in my case–rather than forgetting–just now learning our art history. For various reasons of life and cliff-hanging tumult, my attendance to all things art-related in my three years here has been spotty, at best.
I am very excited to be becoming a part of this art community, but I don’t really know that much about it, yet. It is with this confession that I named this blog; I started writing as a way to get to know the artists and spaces in my city. Also, my baby was taking twenty minute naps (which, to any babies reading this, DOES NOT REALLY COUNT as a nap) and blogging was a way to do something creative, at home, in a short amount of time. This medium is ripe for someone with a rather impulsive personality. I get all excited and worked up about something and make some seemingly-confident statements, click “Publish” and proceed to be overcome by the urge to run and hide under the nearest pile of dirt. Maybe this is just another extension of what it means to try to make your life as an artist — sticking your neck out; submitting to likely rejection; passionately, unknowingly, reinventing the wheel.
[Gretchen Bennett, Mountain of Dirt Sticker]
Sometimes the abundance of what I don’t know hits me like a sack of glass bricks, and I’m humbled by people that really do know a lot.
Seattle’s art-writing media are changing in nature, and I wonder how this will change the content. We are losing the model of the few people (i.e. “critics” that are invested full-time, employed, and published on real live paper) that know everything, and we’re gaining many voices (many of them artists who are already spread thinly across many projects, with time to write only in the wee hours of the morning) that know some things about some things. It is mind-boggling to me that I, for example, now have a platform not too different from that of some people who are much more entitled to it. Despite this fact, the seasoned critics have been nothing but gracious and welcoming to us renegade blogging artists. They could have relegated us as cocky, hapless, new-sheriffs-in-town; instead they’ve added us to their blogrolls with open arms, declaring that if people aren’t reading our blogs, they’re not reading about art in this town.
[Claude Zervas, La Bûche]
Likewise with some of the art spaces here. In the spirit of exercising my rights as the gushy, why-not-lay-it-all-on-the-line artist, I wrote my letter of (intentionally unrequited) love to the Henry, never thinking they’d entertain my ideas. (It simply felt necessary go through the motions of asking the question, if that makes any sense.) Now Betsey Brock wants to meet me for coffee and help me with an exhibition proposal.
So, in light of our collective examination of what’s missing in the Seattle art scene, this here is a gleaming representation of what we’ve got. Instead of an art establishment that turns up its nose at artists challenging the foundation, Seattle has one that joins in.
[Charles Krafft, porcelain firearm]
This has been my main experience with art culture in the city of Seattle– that it tends to be mind-bogglingly inclusive and supportive (in relative terms) for those who are willing to engage it earnestly. Earnestness= cousin to sincerity?
Aw, it’s amazing how gracious & supportive everyone has been!
Love this post, Susanna!
Susanna, I’m joining you in your admiration, relief, and happiness that people in Seattle’s art scene have been so welcoming. Here’s to further engagement and conversation!
Holy cow! A meeting on an exhibition proposal? That is incredible. Folks can ridicule blogging all they want but this is testament to the communicative strength of the medium.
I should say: the Henry thing is still just an idea, and by no means a sure thing; but it is really wonderful that Betsey wants to talk about it with me!
Susanna, it may just be an idea but conversations are where everything starts, in my opinion.
And Ken, I can attest to the strength of blogging – it’s how I’ve met quite a few people in Seattle and it even led to my last curating gig. You never know what may come of things, but it’s really the idea that throwing yourself out there and asking questions is important!
Damn. I’m so glad you are writing. You were one of the inspirations to start my own blog. I too was surprised by the openness to blogging about art in Seattle. I have been met with warm comments and I think that is because of a lack of good coverage in Seattle.
There are far more artists than art promoters. You and others, as artists AND promoters, are doing what 1,2 even 12 paid art critics could never do for the city: relevant, extensive and diverse voicings on local art from local artists.
Thank you for what you do Susanna