"Living the Dream" exhibit: Fingers crossed...

“Living the Dream, Dreaming the Life” closes today, but I’m not sad. I’m like 99% sure I don’t have to bring home “Relatively Progressive”…

“Relatively Progressive,” 2019, by Lisa Myers Bulmash.

… because someone’s very interested in adding it to their collection!

As I said earlier, I felt almost compelled to create a piece for this exhibit: I use family photos in my work as often as I can, most recently in the Liberty Bank Building portraits. So it was a treat to use images from the Pratt Family Legacy Collection.

There’s a possibility someone else is interested in “Rare & Exquisite (CA)” as well.

Let’s hope both go to new homes, yeah? Fingers crossed.

Show closing: Leaving the "Motherland"

This is it, folks: the last weekend you can visit the “Motherland.” Last flight out leaves Saturday.

You have two options left to you: join the artists, collectors and other art lovers at the closing reception…

Credit: CoCA Seattle

… or get your hands on a catalog of all the art exhibited.

This might be your best option if you’re committed to holiday-related events that overlap the closing reception. Bonus: The catalog cost also helps support future CoCA exhibits and events.

This is your engraved invitation — go!

Motivation for artists: keep going

I knew I wanted to see “yəhaw̓: Together we lift the sky”; I just didn’t realize I needed to see it as well. Parts of my life have been pretty rough during the last month. So I was looking forward to a little distraction. Found it!

HollyAnna DeCoteau Littlebull made “Lifts the Sky” out of 15,190 pieces of upcycled plastic and about 150 cubic feet of Styrofoam. Stunning — but here’s the kicker. HollyAnna says she’s completely colorblind.

HollyAnna DeCoteau Littlebull (in red jacket) with an admirer of her work at “Together we lift the sky”

To her, the statue appears to be various shades of brown and gray.

Her friends helped make the Bigfoot statue possible by separating the plastics by color for her. Pretty cool metaphor: we can do Big Things Together. In fact, the metaphor’s right there in the exhibit name. The project’s website translates yəhaw̓ as “to proceed, to go forward, to do it.” I needed a reminder to keep going, and that my friends will come with me.

The exhibit at King Street Station features work from 200 Indigenous artists living in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana and British Columbia. That’s a lot of art to take in during one trip, which is why I’d suggest you visit at least two or three times to absorb everything. Good thing the exhibit will be open until mid-August 2019. That’ll give me time for more inspiration, and time to make more work of my own.