♪♪
-Hi there and welcome to the show.
I’m Nancy Guppy, coming to you from Fountainhead Gallery
on Queen Anne Hill.
Founded in 1996 by Ron and Sue Peterson,
Fountainhead is a lovely, light filled space
with rotating monthly exhibits of work
by local, national and international artists.
The gallery’s current show,
"Juxtaposition" by Jesse Hitchens,
features gorgeous and evocative paintings
of urban and natural landscapes
found in and around the Pacific Northwest.
Jesse says that his goal in painting
is to, "create a feeling of memory,
the experience we have in a certain place and time.
And one of my favorite things to do in a painting
is to leave room for interpretation to the viewer."
"Juxtaposition" runs through March 31st.
For information on upcoming exhibits
and on the gallery’s live music series,
go to fountainheadgallery.com.
We have a great lineup for you, including --
bench jeweler Shayna Egan.
-Working with my hands is something
that always was sort of innate and natural for me to do.
-A short list of groovy art events...
...and music, plus a surprise from the Black Tones.
-♪ Mama! ♪
♪ There's a spider in my room ♪
-And we’ll begin with a quiet and powerful artist
residency on Vashon Island.
♪♪
-Vashon Island has always had a place in my heart,
and I’m not actually sure why,
except that it just is what it is --
some kind of special sauce.
And I have, for a very long time,
wanted to start an artist residency on Vashon Island.
It’s not about doing it anywhere,
it was really very much about doing it here
and this house that the residency is in,
and the property that it's on,
seemed like it would work.
This house is kind of strange.
It meanders, it has large community,
open space, shared space.
And so it’s turned out to work really, really well.
It did happen in the middle of the pandemic,
and it came together much faster than I thought it would.
And in May of 2021, we opened with our very first resident,
and we’ve been going ever since.
By the end of 2023, we will have hosted more than 110 artists
of varying disciplines from all over the country
and some from other parts of the world.
-I’ve only been to Vashon Island
as a day tripper, previously, and it is just so wonderful
to have an extended period of time
to engage with this magical place.
I was drawn to Vashon Island because of its edges,
that it’s this beautiful rural environment
in very close proximity to the urban center of Seattle,
and there are beautiful edges
between land and water and tides and time.
The work that I’m developing here
examines the way that signals light
and sound move through the landscape
and waterways in and around Vashon Island.
-I never think of my music
as something directly related to a place,
and it’s hard to know exactly where it comes from.
But the space that I’m in sets the tone
for my entry into the music.
This thing that I’m starting to write,
I think I’m writing it for a specific pianist,
but I’ll find that out
as the process of the composing goes on.
-It’s because of the residency
that I now know there is a Vashon Island.
I’ve never been to this area, so it was all new for me.
And I’m from the Netherlands. I’m absolutely a water person.
And so for me just to be on an island,
just the idea of it and to be surrounded
by all this water, for me, it’s very inspiring, I love it.
-This space is my world for the past few weeks.
I look out over Quartermaster Harbor.
I feel like the open expansiveness of this view
above the desk in this large window,
it just helps inspire openness and expansiveness
in my own writing.
I’ve been thinking about my childhood
and writing poems inspired from my childhood
in Southern Virginia.
And so this is a poem --
it’s an ode to a box turtle that I kept as a pet.
"Virginia. Covenant. Quiet. You were first love.
How you could shut yourself in your own body
and wait out the world.
How you would try to get back home for years.
But I learned we can learn to leave
what crawls entangled in tall grass,
solitude, and early autumn rain."
-I think being around artists every day,
I feel like I learn something new every day.
I feel like I’ve learned more about myself,
how we create family with people that you’ve never known.
And you realize we live across the world
or across the country from each other,
and -- and we have so much in common.
And I also feel like a proud parent,
you know, when they do really well
or when I see on social media
that they’ve had some big success
that they’re really excited about.
My life on this island feels huge
because I learn so much from all these people.
-So here you’ll notice this incredible music stand,
which is a painter’s easel that one of the artists here
helped me mount and put together -- Nelleke.
And this is just one of these technical issues
that a composer faces, is that you have a keyboard,
but you need something to really press against
so that I can just be writing and then push against it.
And a flimsy music stand just doesn’t do the same trick.
So this is the -- this is the concoction
we’ve come up for this studio.
-I really am excited
that there are other artists here,
in particular, non-writers.
The fact that there’s a composer here
and then visual artists.
I like to have the conversations in the evening
when we’re all cooking dinner about,
like, what they’re working on,
what their process is like, what they’re learning.
-One of the things I love most about my life,
and I do love my life,
is that I have a life that revolves around art,
I make art, I see art, I just feel incredibly fortunate
to be able to offer this residency
to artists of all kinds.
I was raised in a family that was very philanthropic.
I’m also Jewish, and there is an overarching umbrella
of both philanthropic ideals and the idea of tikkun olam,
which is to repair the world.
I really try to approach
each residents experience here
without expectation.
What I want to make sure is that they feel comfortable and safe,
and that they have the time and the space
to do whatever they need to do.
There are people who arrive here exhausted,
just completely spent
from whatever’s been going on in their lives
or whatever it took for them to get here.
And there are other people who arrive just, like, raring to go.
So I think it’s been really important
to not have any expectation.
That said, if I had any at all,
they would always be blown out of the water.
You know, people make incredible art here,
pretty much without exception.
The real experience of them being here
and being influenced by this place
and making work here is always kind of magnificent.
-More information about the Vashon Artists Residency
is on their website.
And see more of Cathy’s work
at cathysarkowskystudio.com.
The Black Tones, one of Seattle’s great local bands,
is comprised of the brother sister duo
Eva and Cedric Walker,
with Eva’s husband Jake occasionally playing bass.
Well, Eva and Jake recently celebrated
the birth of their first child, Hendrix Michelle Uitti.
Yes, that is Hendrix, as in Jimi Hendrix.
So in light of this wonderful news,
here are The Black Tones from 2019
performing "Mama! There’s a Spider in My Room."
♪♪
-♪ Mama!
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, Mama! ♪
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ He said, “Hey girl" ♪
♪ "Why you still in bed?" ♪
♪♪
♪ “I’m gonna bite you real good, until you’re dead” ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, “I live here, man!" ♪
♪ "Who are you Mr. Spider?” ♪
♪♪
♪ He said, “Hush up, girl!" ♪
♪ "And hold my hand” ♪
♪♪
♪ So I yelled, Mama! ♪
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, Mama! ♪
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ He said, “Quit screaming, girl ♪
♪ "You gonna give me a headache” ♪
♪♪
♪ “I’m gonna crawl up and down you ♪
♪ Girl, I’ll make you shake!” ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, “Stop!" ♪
♪ "I just wanna go to bed” ♪
♪♪
♪ He said, “Girl, you ain’t going to bed" ♪
♪ "Until you meet your judgment day!” ♪
♪♪
♪ So I screamed, Mama! ♪
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, Mama! ♪
♪ There’s a spider in my room ♪
♪♪
♪ Daddy came home ♪
♪ He said, “Girl, why you still awake?” ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, "Daddy, there’s a spider trying to kill me" ♪
♪ "And put me in my grave" ♪
♪♪
♪ He said, "Girl, you crazy! ♪
♪ "Go on to bed" ♪
♪♪
♪ I said, “Daddy, you just lazy! ♪
♪ Kill that damn spider dead!” ♪
♪ So I said, "Mama. ♪
♪ There's a spider in my room." ♪
♪ I said, "Mama. ♪
♪ There's a spider in my room." ♪
♪ Mother ♪
♪♪
♪ Mother ♪
♪♪
♪ Mother ♪
♪♪
♪ Mother ♪
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Chord plays ] [ Laughs ]
-Follow The Black Tones
on Instagram, Bandcamp, and their website.
And catch Eva on KEXP’s early show
Monday through Friday from 5:00 to 7:00.
Next up, metalsmith and maker Shayna Egan.
[ Up-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
-I’m Shayna Egan.
I am a jewelry maker and designer,
and I work as a bench jeweler at Green Lake Jewelry Works.
We primarily here work with precious metals,
so platinum, karated golds, and silver.
I don’t think it’s greatly different than other media.
The fundamentals are the same.
So composition, form, function --
all of that remains the same.
I was always encouraged to experiment and draw,
so from the time I was very little
and could hold a pencil and playing with Play-Doh,
of course, things like that.
Working with my hands is something
that always was sort of innate and natural for me to do.
Gosh. I’ve done a little bit of everything.
Guitar tech is probably the most influential job I had,
just because it was very early in my career
and kind of set me up for what I do now.
I did that for almost 10 years.
During that time period,
I spent a lot of my free time playing in bands,
because it was the mid-'90s,
and that’s right when women were starting to become super visible
in the arts in that way.
And I picked up the guitar and taught myself
and then was lucky enough to get offered the job
at the guitar shop.
So it lent itself naturally to playing with a lot of bands.
In 2016, I moved to Seattle
and then went straight into benchwork.
Design was always of particular interest to me,
just in general, like, being in the world,
working with objects or tools,
and coming across things that aren’t designed well
and being frustrated with the way they function
or didn’t function.
And that being such a large part
of what metalsmithing is,
it sort of overlaps between design,
conceptual art, and craft.
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
It is something that’s existed for hundreds of years
and is done essentially the same way
for the entire time it’s existed.
You heat metal up, and you bend it and move it
and push it back into shape and shove stones into it.
It’s endlessly complex,
and there’s always more to learn.
In terms of teaching,
I enjoy it because I am such a nerd
and I am so passionate about it.
I love watching someone get excited for themselves
when they finally get ahold
of a skill that they’ve been struggling with
and they’re like, "Now I finally get it."
And it happens, and then they can just move forward with it.
You think it’s gonna go faster now that you’ve gotten
a couple in there? -I’m hoping so,
now that I’ve kind of figured out how to get them in there
and what to look for, and yeah.
-We work at a nearly microscopic level.
I mean, we work down to,
especially when we’re setting stones --
You know, some of the stones we set
are .7 millimeters in diameter.
That’s about the smallest that we go
for something like a hidden halo next to a center stone.
My particular favorite is restoration work,
so I’ll take something that is sometimes
more than 100 years old and refurbish it in a way
that makes it possible to wear again
for a whole nother generation.
And I think that’s an incredibly special,
special thing to do for someone.
I think it’s interesting, because it’s something
that is such an intimate experience for the person
that is asking for the object.
It’s something you wear in your body sometimes every day.
And so that way, I think it’s different than other arts.
I think that’s one of the things that was
most brought to my attention being in school --
watching people grapple with
how to combine craft versus fine art,
where fine art is typically, like,
in the vein of conceptual art.
So lots of big ideas
and then trying to make that come through in the object.
Whereas craft disciplines are more oriented
towards the function of something.
Finding an interesting balance between those two things
and getting them to go together is --
it’s a puzzle, and you have to figure it out every time.
It is endless.
You can keep going deeper on every level with it.
You know, people spend their whole careers
just dealing with gemstones
or just with diamonds,
or some jewelers are just engravers.
They just embellish the surface of jewelry.
I love to fabricate.
so I love to take, you know, wire sheet
and turn it into something else.
And in that way, it is wonderful and terrible,
because you can never know all the things,
but you always get to learn more.
[ Dramatic music plays ]
♪♪
-Follow Shana and see
more of her work on Instagram.
And now a short and snappy calendar of events.
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
"Uncommon Threads: A Fiber Arts Experience,"
curated by Mary Adams
and currently at the Lynnwood Event Center,
showcases six innovative fiber artists from around the world.
Using a wide array of natural and synthetic materials,
including recycled plastic, felted wool, and silk,
yarn, and dyed cheesecloth,
these gorgeous artworks are a feast for the eyes.
"Uncommon Threads" runs through June 14,
with a meet the artists in-person event
on Tuesday, April 9.
♪♪
Gregg Lachow's YouTube series "The Uncertain Detective"
tells the story of a filmmaker struggling
to make a low-budget, comedic TV series
about a detective who investigates unusual cases.
To save money, the filmmaker casts himself
and his real-life wife and son in the series
with funny and often moving results.
-Ooh. Maybe you kill your husband with a big knife.
-No, no. -And then we see the blood
dripping down onto the body. -No, no. I’m not doing it.
It’s too gruesome.
-Come on. -No.
-Watch the series online and attend a special live screening
on Monday, April 22 at SIFF Center.
[ Jazz music plays ]
[ "The Day That You Begin" plays ]
And finally, the mega-talented Stephanie Anne Johnson,
currently on tour with their 2023 release, "Jewels,"
plays two nights at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley
April 9 and 10.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience
one of Seattle’s great musicians
on the stage of one of Seattle’s best live-music venues.
-♪ The day that I begin ♪
♪♪
-And that’s a wrap.
Big thanks to Fountainhead Gallery
for hosting us, and a reminder
that their current show,
"Juxtaposition,"
closes Sunday, March 31.
"Among the Wildflowers:
oil paintings
by D. Jordan Parietti,"
opens April 4.
And mark your calendar
for the Live in-gallery jazz concert
featuring vocalist Eugenie Jones
happening Saturday, April 13.
And we’re gonna leave you
with a charming, "educational" music video
created exclusively for "Art Zone"
by Eva Walker, Jake Uitti,
and their sweet baby girl, Hendrix Michelle.
So enjoy, and we’ll see you soon.
-Hendrix, it's time to practice the alphabet.
[ Rock music plays ]
♪♪
♪ A-B-C-D-E-F-G ♪
♪ H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P ♪
♪ Q-R-S-T-U-V ♪
♪ W-X and Y and Z ♪
[ Beatboxing ]
♪♪
♪ I was 12 years old, sitting in church ♪
♪ Bored out of my mind ♪
♪ When I decided I’m gonna do something better with my time ♪
♪ So instead of sitting and listen ♪
♪ To the choir sing another verse ♪
♪ I decided I’m gonna learn the alphabet in reverse ♪
[ Beatboxing ]
♪♪
♪ Z-Y-X-W-V-U-T-S-R-Q-P ♪
♪ O-N-M-L-K-J-I-H ♪
♪ G-F-E-D-C-B-A is how it goes ♪
♪ Now you know ♪
[ Beatboxing ]
♪♪
♪ Now you know the alphabet forward and backwards ♪
♪ Next time, won’t you rap with me? ♪
♪ And then we’ll both be nerds ♪
[ Beatboxing ]
♪♪
♪ A-B-C-D-E-F-G ♪
♪ H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P ♪
♪ Q-R-S-T-U-V ♪
♪ W-X and Y and Z-Z-Z-Z-Z ♪
Good job, Hendrix. -Good job.