capitol hill wall project

Otters Holding Hands

2012-01-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

"Sea otters float through life; they smash open shells on their chest, eat off of their bellies and nurse their babies, all while serenely lying on their backs.

These paintings were inspired by the youtube video, 'otters holding hands', which has had over 17,000,000 views. If an otter is napping, a buddy will hold onto its' paw in order to keep it from floating adrift. Upon watching it is impossible not to smile. My goal was to bring this same effect out onto the street. I hope that passersby can feel the otter vibe and it will make them feel better. Otters are native to the NW, so maybe they can teach us to cope with these long winters." -Vida

2011 STars on Broadway

2012-01-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row, the STars are up on the Red Wall surrounding the Capitol Hill light rail construction site. Sound Transit is partnering with the Capitol Hill Chamber to shine a light on neighborhood non-profits who make life brighter for everyone on Capitol Hill.
The STars will be on view through February. The Stars:

Top row (left to right): 2010 Rosehedge/Multifaith Works, Michiko Tanaka; 2010 Cal Anderson Park Alliance, Rob Zverina; 2011 Friends of the Conservatory, Volunteer Park, Joanna Lepore; 2010 Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, Jesse Brown; 2010 Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Alliance, Sam Trout.

Bottom row (left to right): 2011 Entre Hermanos, Joey Veltkamp; 2011 Ingersoll Gender Center, ilvs strauss (lowercase correct); 2010 Gay City Health Project, NKO; 2011 Reel Grrls, Kelly Lyles; 2011 Youthcare, Ferdous Ahmed. Special thanks to JCM Construction for hanging and powering the STars.

Tess Martin - "THE WHALE STORY" - WALLRUS Project by SEAT

2011-11-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

SEAT
Presents
Tess Martin
THE WHALE STORY
Aug 2011 - March 2012
www.filmandscissors.com

Kristen Ramirez - "Spin a Tale, Emerald City"

2011-09-30T04:48:00.000-07:00

Kristen Ramirez has spent last few months with six of her Cornish College of the Arts students to plan, design and fabricate this latest project for the Red Wall. On September 23, 24, the panels were painted and installed. A collection of words and images, framed in a playful equation, seeks to engender participatory dialogue from the public, as they engage with the work. Opening a street level space for commentary through utilization of the offered vocabulary.

From her Artist Statement:

I am an artist who makes work about place. Responding to the urban environment, I enjoy excavating how messages get layered on top of one another to create a noisy collision of stylistic and cultural contrasts, textures, and colors.

The work I have proposed for the Broadway wall aims to activate and elevate this urban space by bringing a sense of play to the rapidly evolving Capitol Hill neighborhood. Drawing on puzzles, carnival games, and game show attractions, I want to create a kinetic and interactive artwork that asks passers-by to complete a formula.

Vis-a-Vis Society - "How We Came To Be Here"

2011-08-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

Vis-a-Vis Society's Drs. Ink & Owning describe their recent presentation at the Red Wall. This final iteration of their project completes a one-year residency. All photos by Rebecca Hoogs.

"On July 14 for Blitz Capitol Hill Art Walk, the Vis-a-Vis Society continued their scientific-poetic research, adding to their installation as part of STart's Capitol Hill Wall Project in Cal Anderson Park. Colorful blankets of science were spread out on the grass in front of the Vis-a-Vis Society's large-scale graphs to invite passersby to hang out, fill in a survey, and enjoy some free peanuts.

Dr. Ink helped facilitate another constellation of glowing data on the smaller graph, answering the questions: (X-Axis) How Fast Does Time Seem To Be Moving?, and (Y-Axis) How Far Are You From Where You Want To Be? Individuals were given glowing electric tea lights to place at the point that best expressed their own answer to these questions. Each interactive graphing session on this grid resulted in a new starscape of data, helping us to observe the larger patterns of our collective, personal experience of time and distance, as well as to tell the stories (the naming of the constellations) of our current shared time-space moment.

At the same time, Dr. Owning added qualitative data to the quantitative bar graphs for "How We Came To Be Here" -- people's individual stories in answer to the question: "How did you come to be

here?" These answers were culled from Vis-a-Vis Society surveys gathered throughout the year at the wall. These written answers were grouped by the multiple choice category that the survey-taker

originally selected (as graphed by the four different color bars on the wall) indicating how he/she came to be here: Carried, Driven, Dreaming, or Self-Conveyed.

Further data was collected via a new poem-survey, asking people torelabel the four bars of the graph with variables that were personally meaningful to them in their life right now, and corresponded roughly to the proportions of the graph. (For example, they might relabel the four variables Carried, Driven, Dreaming, or Self-Conveyed as Love, Work, Popsicles, Loss.) The surveys also asked people to speculate on the questions: What happened on this wall? Who made these marks? What was important to these people? After some further processing, we'll have more findings to report!"

We remain statistically yours,

Drs. Ink & Owning

HIV30: Take Action Seattle

2011-07-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

On July 14, HIV:30: Take Action Seattle unveiled the first of three banners to grace Broadway in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This community project is a collaboration of a number of organizations including Gay City Health Project, Seattle HIV Vaccine Trials Unit, Pride Foundation, and Lifelong AIDS Alliance - full list of supporting organizations here. For photos and updates, check out www.hiv-30.org. If you want to get more involved, the project would like "your stories, photos and anything else you feel should be commemorated regarding HIV/AIDS in Seattle" - contact: Robert at robert@gaycity.org.

More info:
Seattle Gay News
Capitol Hill Seattle

Update:
Capitol Hill Seattle reports on the vandalism of the HIV:30 banner.

Nicole Bernard, Jess Rees - "Mapping Capitol Hill"

2011-07-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Sign Savant

The latest project to grace the red walls is a neighborhood history project by Nicole Bernard and Jess Rees, two Capitol Hill residents, entitled “Mapping Capitol Hill”. The installation opened on Broadway (between Denny and John) on Thursday, June 9, 2011 and will be up through at least summer 2012.

"The project is a 23 foot wall mural using large scale reproductions of historic maps of the
neighborhood highlighting main transportation corridors in 1893, 1950, and 2011 as well as greater
Seattle transportation and history timelines. The aim of the artists is to peel away layers of history built up over the last twelve decades and share with neighbors site-specific details about the area in which we all live. We tend to think of a neighborhood as ours. Timeless, changeless, and pure. But of course cities and especially the Capitol Hill neighborhood are vibrant and dynamic places. It is the nature of a living neighborhood to develop and grow - sometimes the changes are celebrated, sometimes painful, and sometimes bittersweet. When something we love seemingly disappears, it’s hard to see how transformations are always positive, but it's in the character of a lively neighborhood like Capitol Hill tobe in a constant state of flux."

"Nicole Bernard and Jess Rees, two local history buffs, decided to look into just exactly how
our neighborhood has changed by examining its most basic element--the streets. Amid the
disruption of new construction, the project also celebrates the anchoring landmarks of Capitol Hill--
places like Broadway Market, Bobby Morris playfield, or repurposed Auto Row buildings along the Pike/
Pine corridor. Jess and Nicole create a visual narrative of how the footprint of our neighborhood has
changed--or remained the same--over the years. From carriage pathways and electric trolleys to Sound Transit’s light rail station opening in 2016 transportation has evolved. Nicole and Jess situate these evolutions in the context of greater Seattle history and urban growth. Visitors and neighborhood residents alike are invited to explore this dichotomy and also participateby celebrating our streets and locating places of special significance on these historic maps. Intersecting layers of complexity of our many histories are what make Capitol Hill such a lively, dynamic, and special neighborhood. We invite everyone to share their Capitol Hill stories and memories on the Mapping Capitol Hill facebook page, which can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/mappingcapitolhill.

Jess Rees is a local artist and musician whose work can be seen at jessrees.com. Nicole works for a regional sustainability research center in downtown Seattle and has lived in Capitol Hill since 2004. Nicole and Jess can be reached for comment or further questions at mappingcapitolhill@gmail.com."

Specs one - "Watching Emeralds"

2011-05-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

"SPECSONE aka SPECSWIZARD aka MIC MULLIGAN & S. FUTURE, came from Earth and Space. sound and form. started rhyming and making beats in 1979. started Graffing in 1983. we've only just begun!"

Specs one, a Seattle native, is a musician, visual artist, and elder in the underground art community. He's a noted MC and beat-maker; dubbed by writer/journalist Charles Mudede as "Seattle's Baudelaire", and often described as "The Holy Ghost of Northwest underground hip hop". Wandering the streets with Specs is to hear tales of various scenes dating from the late 70's, now since vanished, to the street happenings of today. In addition to working on songs, film scores, performing live, and writing; Specs also has produced a series of comics under Capstan Media, and recently published 'Mux Adapter', a graphic novel. For the Capitol Hill Wall Project, he will be painting a 60 ft. mural on Broadway entitled, "Watching Emeralds"; a homage to his hometown.

Day one photos:

Vida Rose - "It's Always Been There"

2011-05-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Vida Rose recently updated her comic mural on Broadway due another instance of vandalism which has been plaguing her project (for background on her work go here).

After

Before

Links to posts

2011-04-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

txturbia.com
"In her first Portraits of Place: Neighborhoods in Transition post, TXT-Urbia co-founder Karen Johnson introduces us to a light rail construction site moonlighting as a stage for urban theater..."

capitolhillseattle.com
"Jesus candles for Slats"

Amanda Moore - "The Open Town" - WALLRUS Project by SEAT

2011-03-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

To follow the progress of this project:

facebook.com/theopentown

theopentown.com

twitter.com/theopentown

More on Amanda's animation project from Seattle University's The Spectator here.

SEAT website here.

Amanda Moore - "The Open Town" - WALLRUS Project by SEAT

2011-03-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Article on the current SEAT project from capitolhill.komonews.com:

Animators make good use of the 'big red wall'

Submitted by Conor Christofferson, KOMO Communities Reporter

Friday, March 4th, 10:29am

"The city has a new Mecca for cutting-edge art, but you don’t need to visit a gallery or pay an entrance fee to see it.

If you’ve passed through Capitol Hill in the last couple of months, you’ve almost certainly noticed the giant red wall spanning roughly a city block along Broadway and John. Built to enclose the ongoing construction of the future University Link Capitol Hill station, the wall also plays home to new work from some of the area’s most respected artists.
Sound Transit offered up the space as a way to turn a drab work site into a must-visit destination for art lovers, and the plan is working.
Perhaps the most ambitious piece on the wall is the Walrus Project. A four-year animation project from the Seattle Experimental Animation Team, Walrus will give seven of the city’s top animators six months each to create their own unique animation piece.
Webster Crowell is co-creator of the experimental animation team and came up with idea to use the big red wall for the Walrus project. He said one reason the artists were interested in the wall was because it gives them a chance to collaborate.
“It’s a pretty hermetic working situation for most of us where you disappear into a project for months, and we’d always see each other at film screenings and talk about how it would be nice to work together,” Crowell said. “We wanted to help foster an animation community, and having something that was four-years long and wasn’t going to be fly-by night seemed like a nice investment of everyone’s time.”
Unlike a mural, which is painted and then remains static, the animation project is constantly changing. The first artist to take a crack at Walrus was Clyde Peterson, who used the space to create a giant chalkboard animation. The animation came together slowly, frame by frame, until Peterson had an entire film completed, which he recently released as a music video for the Portland band The Thermals.
Amanda Moore will take over the space next week to create an animated title sequence for her own ambitious project, "The Open Town." Using characters such as a contortionist, a disgraced police chief and a vaudeville tycoon, Moore will create her own story about the city’s turbulent past.
“I want to tell a story that’s the story of Seattle,” she said.

Moore is kicking off her six-month stint on the wall with a party next Thursday at 6 p.m. Stop by to learn more about Moore's project, or just check out the entertainment, which will include a vaudeville actor and musicians."

Clyde Petersen - "Not Like Any Other Feeling" video/animation for The Thermals

2011-03-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

http://stereogum.com/650652/the-thermals-not-like-any-other-feeling-video-stereogum-premiere/video/

The project by SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) member, Clyde Petersen, during her 6-month WALLRUS residency was just released by Kill Rock Stars! More info on the project here.

The Thermals - "Not Like Any Other Feeling" from stereogum on Vimeo.

Vida Rose - "It's Alwasy Been There"

2011-03-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

"This comic is a love letter for the street, its' passerby and inhabitants. I made the original sketch when I was homesick, mosquito-bitten and very far away. It brought me a kind of delight and comfort... and now I'm delighted to share it with the neighborhood I grew up in." - Vida Rose

Courtesy of Artist

Sign Savant

This latest project by Vida Rose, a Seattle native, is a homage to the Capitol Hill neighborhood where her family had settled a generation ago. From the project's inception, there's been a number of changes to the design due to occurrences outside of the artist's control. The original sketch for the comic panel is shown at the bottom of this post. Within a day of the artist completing her painting, through an unfortunate misunderstanding with the contractors responsible for cleaning up vandalism on the red wall, her work was painted over. The artist then re-painted her painting, only to find that a few days later, someone had come along and written "i deed it" on top of the work. Undeterred, Vida decided that the intrusion on her work could be incorporated into the panel and subsequently re-painted the vandal's marking in her hand, altering it to fit within the theme of the piece.


The first iteration of her project which was painted over.


The original artist sketch.

Gretchen Bennett - "Crazy In Love"

2011-01-09T18:42:00.000-08:00

One last look at Gretchen Bennett's wheatpaste project, "Crazy In Love".
Jen Graves / The Stranger review here.
More photos here.

For more information about the artist - gretchenbennett.com

Sign Savant

photos by dk pan

Vis-a-Vis Society performs live graphing!

2011-01-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sign Savant

On Sunday, January 2nd, Dr. Ink and Dr. Owning performed their latest installment of survey poems and live graphing. Dr. Ink gives us a first hand account from the day's events:
Photos by Rebecca Hoogs

Dr. Owning


Dr. Ink

"It was Very Cold on Sunday, but also beautiful and clear and it was great to be out there interacting and graphing for the new year. And at last a non-rainy day so we could place the data on both graphs!

On this day the Vis-à-Vis Society created a new glowing constellation of data on the smaller graph on the wall (x-axis: "How Fast Does Time Seem To Be Moving," & y-axis: "How Far Are You From Where You Want to Be"). In general, most people seemed to be experiencing time moving "fast" to "very very fast," and generally in the middle range of distance from where they wanted to be (more than millimeters - moving towards miles). One person placed her point exactly on the line for being right where she wanted to be, right now, in this moment. "How often does that happen?" she said, smiling. Another data point expressed the feeling that time seemed to be moving "in reverse" (a first in our data collecting so far!), with a small-to-medium range of distance from where that person wanted to be. Some very intriguing results all around! Dr. Ink provided the small attachable lights for people to place their own glowing point on this smaller graph, at the coordinate that best represented them in this moment.

And we were able to get the giant bar graphs up at last for the larger graph "How We Came To Be Here." "Self-Conveyed" was the answer most people chose on the poem-survey by quite a lot. (The bar went all the way to the "H" in "How"!) Dr. Owning manned the paint roller with super-extension handle to apply the results. The painted bar graphs look great against the red wall - we were very happy with how they turned out! And we are also very happy to have this data up where people can see and enjoy it. (Many passersby also expressed excitement and curiosity to know what the results were and to discover how the graph installation would work "in action.") We included all the data we'd collected so far from previous surveying sessions at the Wall, as well all the new data collected on Sunday. (The notes people included on their poem-surveys for "How We Came To Be Here" we are also saving for future use in performances at the wall, and we're hoping to include some of the text on the wall itself - stay tuned.)

At the very end, we performed a new jug-band statistical analysis technique (color + sound) to correspond to the bar graphs, also a success!"

Wall Project noticed in Parks Blog

2010-12-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

Full blog post from the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Blog can be found here.

"However, the park was lovely and also contained some really awesome public art courtesy of the Sound Transit Art Program (STart). As a light rail station is constructed in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, local artists are creating temporary art installations on the construction wall. Several of these projects are visible from the park, including this one that I just loved, Tim Marsden’s “Is That All There Is?" - Melissa McMasters

Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and Sound Transit present “Stars on Broadway”

2010-12-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

Capitol Hill Seattle article here.

photo by Staton DuBois / CHS

"The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and Sound Transit are partnering on “Stars on Broadway,” a program that shines some light on a few of the non-profit organizations that make life brighter for everyone on Capitol Hill throughout the year. In the program’s first edition, the Capitol Hill Chamber has selected five recipients to honor with a lighted star, each created by artists from the Sound Transit Art Program (STart) Wall Project. The stars will hang throughout the holiday season on the red construction wall on Broadway just south of John."

2010 “Stars on Broadway” Honorees

photos by Rhonda Dixon

Cal Anderson Park Alliance (CAPA), www.calandersonpark.org – Star by Rob Zverina
Cal Anderson Park Alliance generates and funds creative, innovative activities and events at Cal Anderson Park.

Gay City Health Project, www.gaycity.org – Star by NKO
Gay City promotes gay, bi and trans men's health and prevent HIV transmission by building community, fostering communication and nurturing self-esteem.

Neighborhood Farmer's Market Alliance, www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org – Star by Sam Trout
Broadway Farmers Market: Bringing farm-fresh food to our neighborhood.

Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, www.psks.org – Star by Jesse Brown
Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets saves lives: "I have learned to believe in myself, accept myself and empower myself. We live and breathe the people we save.”

Rosehedge/Multifaith Works, www.rosehedge.org; www.multifaith.org, – Star by Michiko Tanaka
Rosehedge and Multifaith Works, two of Seattle’s premier AIDS care organizations, are merging to better help those living with HIV/AIDS

The Seattle Times

2010-12-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Times features a photo of the Wall Project in Local News.

photo by Mark Harrizon / The Seattle Times

"Sound Transit curator D.K. Pan removes artist Gretchen Bennett's work from light-rail construction walls along Broadway between Pike Street and Olive Way. The work is in preparation for a new project featuring 4-foot-wide backlit stars and five artists sponsored by five area nonprofit organizations. Pan has the task of curating the work of other artists in a rotating display during the construction project from 2011 to 2014."

Seattle Magazine picks Wall Project as one of 'Best of 2010'

2010-11-29T21:29:00.000-08:00

"Best lemonade made from lemons"

"STart (the Sound Transit Art Program) is beautifying the two-block hole in the ground that Capitol Hill residents will have to walk around for the next four years as the city builds a light rail station next to Cal Anderson Park. The project, curated by artist D.K. Pan and titled “The City: Love, Loss and the Moveable Future” (startwallproject.blogspot.com), turned a giant construction wall into an art gallery accessible to all who pass by. Nearly 30 local artists have been tapped to participate in this ongoing exhibit, including the Seattle Experimental Animation Team, a group of local animators that is painstakingly painting, filming, repainting and filming eight animations on the wall for a cumulative installation called “Wallrus.”

Mayor McGinn Does Art

2010-10-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

Mayor Mike McGinn spent Saturday taking a tour of the Broadway business district, which included a stop by The Wall.

Dr. Ingrid Ink from the Vis-a-vis Society was on hand conducting research, and was able to get the Mayor to add his input for a report on convenyence means and methods of Hillites and Hill visitors.

photo by Barbara Luecke

Two nights before, Drs. Ink and Owning kicked off their research project during Arts Blitz. Undetered by drizzly weather, the pair sported some fetching rain bonnets.

Miss getting your responses on the wall? Keep an eye here for dates and times when the good Doctors will be out conducting more survey work, or visit their web site at www.myspace.com/visavissociety.

From Gabriel Campanario aka The Seattle Sketcher

2010-10-15T18:17:00.000-07:00


Gabriel Campanario

The Seattle Times artist, Gabriel Campanario, sketches a section of the Wall.
The original article can be found here.

SEAT presents Clyde Petersen, first artist of the WALLRUS project

2010-10-08T04:41:00.000-07:00

SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) presents the first project of the 4-year WALLRUS series.

SEAT is "a loose coalition of animator/filmmakers based in Seattle whose mission is to be a nurturing force for the creation and dissemination of experimental animation."

The WALLRUS project, supported by NW Film Forum and Art Work Fine Art Services, is a "slow moving, ungainly giant movie, an eight part collaborative mural/animation created over four years" on a section of the Wall next to Cal Anderson Park. "The wall will become an animated mural, with a new animator arriving every six months to transform the wall entirely, culminating in evening screenings of ‘wall’ animation and selected films curated by the artist of the season."

This collaborative project involves seven animators and one school group:

Clyde Petersen
Webster Crowell
Britta Johnson
Sarah Jane Lapp
Tess Martin
Amanda Moore
Coyote Central

Initial artist Clyde Petersen began his animation during September's Blitz! He is working on animating a music video for Not Like Any Other Feeling, by the Portland-based band The Thermals. The project celebrates the wonders of travel in outer space.

Clyde Petersen runs the Seattle-based production company Do It For the Girls Productions. He divides time between producing live action and animated music videos, touring with and managing local bands, and teaching youth film making camps. His most recent feature film, The Unspeakable, premiered in July 2010.

More information on Clyde's project is here.
More information on SEAT is here.

Vis-a-Vis Society presents "How We Came To Be Here"

2010-10-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

"It's finally happening! As you make your rounds during the OCTOBER Blitz Capitol Hill Arts Walk (Thursday, Oct 14th) be sure to stop by the Vis-à-Vis Society's new ongoing graph and installation as part of the STart Capitol Hill Wall Project. From 5:30-7:30 PM, Drs. Ink and Owning will be surveying passersby and creating LIVE GRAPHS for their project "HOW WE CAME TO BE HERE." Add your light to the constellation of data, and watch as the live bar graphs grow up to 18 feet! At 7:30 PM, the Vis-à-Vis Society will then sing and dance the evening's findings. FREE & ALL AGES! (The Vis-à-Vis Society installation graphs are on the big red wall in Cal Anderson Park by the mountain-fountain, just North of "Boom.") For more information visit: http://www.myspace.com/visavissociety "
- Vis-à-Vis Society

photo by dk pan

Interview with Cameron Larson by Comrade Bunny

2010-09-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Capitolhillseattle.com features an interview with the artist behind the "Caps for Slats" project.
It can be found here.

photos by dk pan

Tim Marsden - "Is That All There Is?"

2010-09-16T07:05:00.000-07:00


photos by dk pan

For more information about the artist - etmarsden.com

Evan Blackwell - "Somewhere Between Here and There"

2010-09-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

photos by dk pan

Artist statement by Evan describing his approach to art-making and life:
"I have consistently been making things with materials from my surroundings as a way to comprehend, as well as bring order and new meanings to the world I live in. At the very core of my research is a desire to create a harmony between the reality of my urban existence and my own personal ideology. My goal is to reinvent much of my surroundings both philosophically and physically in order to experience a more fulfilling life. My methods for doing this is to collect, rearrange and repurpose the materials and spaces around me. Translating everyday things into poignant forms of expression of our time; similar to a kind of alchemy, this process helps me overcome the limits of social constraints. It allows me access to a capacity of understanding that is not limited by a set paradigm."

For more information about the artist - evanblackwell.com

Cameron Larson - "Caps for Slats"

2010-09-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Cameron Larson will begin installing his mosaic project this coming Thursday, Sept. 9th, in conjunction with Blitz! (Capitol Hill Art Walk). The work will comprise of some 7,000 beer bottle caps arranged and installed directly onto a section of the Broadway wall. The finished work will be a 8'x8' portrait of the recently departed Capitol Hill icon, Chris Harvey aka "Slats".
Cameron has been collecting caps for the past year for this project, but is need of more... "Any obscure caps are ideal. No Corona, Budwiser, Bud Light, Henry Weinhard... But I will accept ANYTHING!!!" He will be working on Broadway (next to Joey Veltkamp's panels) for the next few weeks, installing his project bit by bit.

SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) presents "WALLRUS"

2010-09-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

WALLRUS - ANIMATED WALL EVENT
Local animators premiere four-year wall animation project Wallrus, an animated wall project lasting four years and involving 8 animators, kicks off at 6PM on Thursday, September 9th, 2010 in Seattle's Cal Anderson Park. Local artist/musician Clyde Petersen will create a large scale animation destined for a music video.

ABOUT WALLRUS:
SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) in conjunction with Sound Transit, and with support from the NW Film Forum and Art Work Fine Art Services presents: Wallrus - The slow moving, ungainly giant movie, an eight part collaborative mural/animation created over four years on the surface of a construction barrier in Seattle's Cal Anderson Park. Seven animators and one school group collaborating over time will take over part of the huge plywood wall around the Capitol Hill Light Rail construction - specifically a section by 'the Philosopher's Tree' near the 10th Ave and Denny park entrance in Cal Anderson Park. Beginning Thursday September 9th this wall will become an animated mural, with a new animator arriving every six months to transform the wall entirely, culminating in evening screenings of 'wall' animation and selected films curated by the artist of the season.
SEAT members include Webster Crowell, Tess Martin, Britta Johnson, Clyde Peterson, Sarah Jane Lapp, Amanda Moore, and others, including a collaborative project with Coyote Central.

ABOUT THE EVENT:
Initial artist Clyde Petersen begins his animation at 6PM during the Capitol Hill art walk on September 9th, 2010. The spectacle is free and open to the public. He will be working on a music video for Portland based band, The Thermals. The project will celebrate the wonders of travel in outer space.

ABOUT THE ANIMATORS:
Clyde Petersen runs the Seattle-based production company Do It For the Girls Productions. He divides time between producing live action and animated music videos, touring with and managing local bands, and teaching youth film making camps. His most recent feature film, The Unspeakable, premiered in July 2010.

Jen Graves/The Stranger feature Gretchen Bennett and Baso Fibonacci this week.

2010-09-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Gretchen Bennett's "Crazy in Love" -
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/dangerously-in-love/Content?oid=4786480

Baso Fibonacci's "Untitled" -
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-legal-art-of-illegal-artists/Content?oid=4793225

Baso Fibonacci - "Untitled"

2010-08-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

A painted mural self-portrait with owls in a landscape stretches from the corner of E. John Street to the first entrance gate on 10th Avenue. The 24' x 120' piece was designed by street artist Baso Fibonacci and painted by Zach Rochstad and Japhy Witte, with support from Art Primo Paint Suppliers.

The painting was recently featured by KOMO news - see the footage here

Tim Marsden - BOOM!

2010-08-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, I keep referring to it as "Boom," but to be fair, Tim Marsden's contribution to The Wall is called "Is That All There Is?" Inspired by the Peggy Lee song of the same name, Marsden imagines what it would be like to experience a real-life (cartoon) explosion, complete with a big boom! and flying debris.


photos by jennifer babuca

"Is That All There Is?" can be seen from Cal Anderson Park, and features real planks of wood painted to look like... cartoon planks of wood.

Learn more about Tim's work at etmarsden.com

-Jennifer

Joey Veltkamp - the lowdown

2010-08-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

photos by jennifer babuca

A little info on Joey's murals, in the artist's own words:

"My paintings are records of the disparate elements of my life on the hill during the past 13 years. Each object in the panels represents a memory I associate with the hill (or in some cases, objects symbolize the hill's collective memory). While maybe not immediately apparent, there are references to past and present bars, restaurants, coffee shops, weird vendors, hangovers, hipster culture, pride parades, Nirvana, the farmer's market, drugs, sex, rock and roll."

Joey's work can be seen on Broadway, near Denny. The images are like a scavenger hunt, so allot yourself enough time to study them, challenge yourself to see how many objects you can find and allow the paintings to conjure up your own memories of Capitol Hill.

Learn more about Joey at 72clouds.com

-Jennifer


photos by dk pan

Gretchen Bennett - "Crazy in Love"

2010-08-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

For more information about the artist - gretchenbennett.com

photos by dk pan

Gretchen Bennett

2010-08-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

Installed on Monday, August 9, Gretchen Bennett's "Crazy in Love" features 10 hand-rendered video stills the title song. The series begins with Antony and the Johnsons' ballad version followed by the original Beyonce version.

Installation of Tim Marsden's work continues through the end of the week, and Joey Veltkamp was also installed. We'll get some photos up soon!
-Jennifer

Tim Marsden

2010-08-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Tim Marsden began his installation project this week on a section of the Wall next to Cal Anderson Park.
For more information about the artist - etmarsden.com

photos by dk pan

Evan Blackwell - "Somewhere Between Here and There"

2010-08-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Evan Blackwell began installation on his project, involving reclaimed door and framing materials, on Broadway Ave. E. near the E. John St. intersection.

For more information about the artist - evanblackwell.com

photos by Jennifer Babuca

Baso Fibonacci on KOMO News

2010-08-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

http://capitolhill.komonews.com/content/capitol-hill-sound-transit-wall-art-comes-together

Baso Fibonacci

2010-08-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Baso Fibonacci – 'untitled'
A 24' x 135' mural/self portrait of the artist on 10th Ave. E. near E. John Street. Baso and his crew of painters, Zach Rochstad and Japhy Witte, began work on the mural last Thursday and will be wrapping up later this week.

Baso Fibonacci

Zach Rochstad

Japhy Witte

Barbara Luecke being interviewed by KOMO

photos by dk pan

photos by Barbara Luecke

For more photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkpan/sets/72157624658935074/

2010-08-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Sound Transit is building a light rail station in the heart of Capitol Hill that will connect the neighborhood to service to the University of Washington and SeaTac airport. Over the next four years, through 2014, a two block stretch between Broadway and 10th Avenue will be surrounded by a construction wall as the area is excavated and the station is built. During this construction period, the Sound Transit Art Program, STart, will turn the construction wall into an art lab with a rotation of commissioned works from a wide range of artists, curated by lead artist D.K. Pan.

The first step of transforming the construction wall into the art lab was choosing an appropriate color. In recognition of Capitol Hill’s place as the heart of Seattle, Pan selected a vibrant red for the wall and created a theme for the gallery – “THE CITY: love, loss, and the moveable future.”

Through a competitive process, a roster of nearly thirty artists has been created to draw from to create projects. Many artists are developing their projects and the first round of installations will continue over the next few weeks and over the four years of construction. Some of the works that are currently underway:

1) Baso Fibonacci – an untitled mural/self portrait of the artist on 10th Ave. E. near E. John Street. Baso and his crew of painters, Zach Rochstad and Japhy Witte began work on the mural last Thursday and will be wrapping up later this week.

2) Gretchen Bennett – “Crazy in Love” is a series of posters of hand-rendered video stills comparing/contrasting Beyonce and Antony & the Johnsons different interpretations of the titular song. The posters will be installed on Broadway near Denny later this week.

3) Joey Veltkamp – two murals that will be installed on Broadway that translates the artist’s memories and love of Capitol Hill though objet de refuse he’s encountered over the years.

4) Evan Blackwell - a 3-dimensional installation that utilizes reclaimed door and framing material to create beautiful geometric patterns. This artwork is anticipated to be installed on Broadway near John Street over Thursday and Friday of this week.

5) Vis-aVis Society – a two-person performance and installation work for the Cal Anderson side of the wall. The artists, Sierra Nelson and Rachel Kessler will conduct surveys during Arts Blitz exploring how we came to be where we are and chart results on the wall.

6) SEAT (Seattle Experimental Animation Team) – a film collective featuring Webster Crowell, Britta Johnson, Sarah Jane Lapp, Tess Martin, Amanda Moore, Clyde Peterson, and youth group Coyote Central will create a time-lapse animated event on the Cal Anderson Park side of the wall. The wall images will result in an animation titled “Wallrus,” which will be screened at the end of the four year-residency on the wall. This project kicks off in early September.

More projects will unfold over the coming months and continue throughout the life of the wall. For artists who are interested in applying to be a part of the roster, we will holding future artist calls, which will be posted on our website. You can register to receive email notifications of artist opportunities at www.soundtransit.org/artopportunities

- Jennifer Babuca, STart Program Coordinator

Welcome the STart Wall Project Blog

2010-07-14T07:09:00.001-07:00

'Time Is Memory, LOVE' by D.K. Pan

Blog postings about Wall Project

2010-07-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2010/03/11/dk-pan-selected-as-the-lead-artist-for-the-light-rail-construction-wall

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2010/04/05/more-details-on-the-light-rail-boom-plus-upcoming-meeting-on-construction-wall-art

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/29/the-great-red-wall-of-capitol-hill