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!

Friendship: a work-in-progress

Studio day…. trying something a little different with this collage.

I deliberately misaligned the collage pieces again, but this time I’m “joining” the pieces kintsugi-style. Just using gold paint, though, with some guidance from my favorite stencils.

The idea of repairing a broken vessel with lacquered gold has always appealed to me; it’s just now that it means more when I look at my friendships through that lens.

Some relationships are worth saving, even if they’re a little banged up. They might even mean more to you after you’ve put in the work to repair them. Others just look sturdy until they’re tested. Can’t wait to see what else this collage reveals to me.

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.