♪♪
-Hi, and welcome to our first show of the fall season.
I'm Nancy Guppy, and we are kicking things off
at Rick Leonard Gallery in Mount Vernon
with a terrific exhibit titled
"Peter Malarkey: Social Landscapes."
More on Peter right after I tease the show.
♪♪
MOHAI celebrates "Almost Live!"...
♪♪
...visual art by rock 'n' roll roadies...
-Attached with each roadie is all these stories and objects
that go along with who they are and the bands
that they work with.
-...remembering Charles R. Cross...
♪♪
...and music from Once Around The Sun.
-♪ And I know I can't just ♪
♪ Pack my bags and come to see you ♪
♪ It feels like a dream ♪
-Peter Malarkey is a visual artist
who often paints in the plein-air style,
which means painting on location.
And "Social Landscapes," his first show of paintings
in 12 years, is a knockout.
-I call this my second painting career.
I painted hard in my 30s and 40s
and showed hard and worked hard,
and I had two young ones, two kids.
And something just had to give,
so the painting gave, very happily.
And I kept on painting in the 20 years since then,
I kept on producing paintings,
but not at a rate you could show or get a gallery involved.
I got invited to be in this gallery,
and about a year-and-a-half ago, we agreed to a show.
And so I knew if nothing else here
was a chance to put out a single solo-person show.
And I had a room to work on it in where I could,
you know, see it all at once, rather than piecemeal.
So I tried to really pull it all together.
I would call my painting style broadly representational
or impressionistic.
I think about impressionism not as the 19th-century phenomenon
of impressionism a la Monet,
but I think of impressionism as a mode of seeing
where you're trying to pick up the way
the eye blurs the way light lands on things.
And that's a very old visual motivation
that goes back -- as far back
as you really want to look at paint.
You know, Velazquez is maybe the first agreed progenitor
of an impressionistic view.
So that's where I'd like to keep going,
is a loosely rendered depiction of the world.
♪♪
You ask about materials
and, you know, I've been around oil paint now 40 years.
And people get very esoteric about oil paint.
It's got a lot of whispers and mysteries
about secrets of the old masters and things like that.
And the longer I'm around it,
the more I just enjoy treating it as,
you know, a worker's tool.
And I'm very specific about what colors I use.
There are about 15 that I pull from
but they're from different metal groups
that I know the way they're going to respond.
You know, one set is in cadmium.
One set is based in iron. One set is based in aluminum.
And I know how they're going to behave.
I like thinking about the behavior
of all of that colored metallic powder
suspended in a gallery of translucent oil
and the way those different particles actually interact.
♪♪
My work has changed in the last couple of decades
because I've learned how to get myself
out of the way of the scene.
I've pushed enough paint around now that I can set it down,
get it to behave, and then leave it alone,
as opposed to keep fussing with it.
That took many, many, many paintings
to even know what that's supposed to look like.
This show for me is showing me more about the way light behaves
and the way paint can depict that
but it can't happen without really opening myself up
to what I'm seeing.
♪♪
The whole peninsula has informed my eye
and made it willing to paint raw things,
including raw settlements:
the housing we do, the roads we build, the clearcuts we make,
the quarries we cut.
They're the way we interact with the skin of the planet.
We shape it to our vehicles.
We shape it with our vehicles.
It's change my aesthetic.
For representational painting to stay alive,
it needs to actually have a raw edge,
as opposed to a soothing edge
that just keeps hearkening back to a previous aesthetic.
♪♪
I'd like the people who come to the gallery
to have a shared experience with the painter.
I believe that a lot of artwork gets in between the artist
and the audience.
And I really want people to say, hey, guess what?
I'm sharing the same culture as this person,
no matter how we define it.
It's an optical, retinal culture of pigment and light,
and I'm sharing it with the artist.
That would be a complete experience for me.
♪♪
-"Peter Malarkey: Social Landscapes,"
runs now through September 30.
Hours and location are at rickleonardgallery.com.
"Almost Live!," the sketch comedy show
that aired on King TV from 1984 to 1999,
is being memorialized at MOHAI,
the Museum of History and Industry,
with an installation called
"Almost Live!: Almost an Exhibit."
Featuring props, costumes, and lots of video clips,
the exhibit is an entertaining and interesting look
at a particular time in Seattle's history.
I was a writer and performer on the show
for much of its 15-year run,
and one of the highlights of the job
was working with fellow cast member Tracey Conway.
So, here is one of our favorite sketches,
called "New Boyfriend."
-Hey, Pam!
-Hi. -How are you?
Good to see you!
-You too.
-You look great. -You look so cute.
-Well, here he is.
-So this is Alan!
-Okay. Before you say anything at all,
I mean, his hair is going to be totally different.
This is way too '70s. -Yeah.
-I mean, I want it cut away from his face
and maybe a little longer in the back. You think?
-Uh-huh. Uh-huh. It's nice, though.
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And, of course, new frames -- I mean,
something that doesn't make him look like such a turtle.
Oh! But not too John Lennon-y.
-No, that wouldn't fit his face at all.
-No, round. No. -Mnh-mnh. Mnh-mnh.
-Okay, clothes. Uh...
-Well, obviously not these.
[ Both laugh ]
-I'm thinking Gap. -Uh-huh.
-White T-shirt or a white Oxford,
straight-leg jeans, black, of course.
I mean, I know it's not original,
but I think it'll give me a foundation to build on.
-That makes perfect sense. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Okay, shoes.
Oh God, don't look at the shoes.
-Boy, those are really bad.
-Well, his old girlfriend worked at Mervyn's.
-Oh. Say no more.
-Anyway, I think I'm going to bring in some black loafers.
It's clean and simple.
-What about Doc Martens?
-Boots or low-cuts?
-Definitely low-cuts.
-Mm-hmm. Good suggestion, I like it.
I'll think about it. Okay, moving on to accessories.
Maybe a pierced ear?
-But not a stud. I mean, no stone or diamond.
-Oh, no, no, no, no. A hoop, like a gold hoop.
-Perfect. Statement without making a statement.
-Exactly. Okay.
As far as facial hair, I don't know. I'm not sure.
I mean, I like it but it may not fit,
like maybe sideburns or a mustache going into the beard?
-That's kind of hard. Although, you know,
that would take care of that weak chin area.
But, you know, you don't have to decide right away.
-You're right.
You're absolutely right, I don't.
So...
Anyway, I...guess that's about it.
-Yeah.
Uh-huh.
[ Giggles ] Okay.
Well, it is nice to meet you, Alan.
-Isn't he great?
Well, should we sit down? -Yeah. Yeah.
So what have you been up to?
-Crazy, crazy. [ Speaking indistinctly ]
-"Almost Live!: Almost an Exhibit"
runs now through February 23, 2025.
More information is at mohai.org.
Our band this week is the brother-sister duo
Once Around The Sun,
and here they are performing their original song, "Far Away."
♪♪
-♪ I'm far ♪
-♪ Far away ♪
-♪ I'm far ♪
-♪ Far away ♪
-♪ A distant story ♪
♪ A living memory ♪
-♪ Remind me of the time I tried to speak ♪
-♪ Careless future, adventurous past ♪
-♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
-♪ My father told me ♪
♪ This life is too short ♪
♪ My mother said that ♪
♪ Pain will last ♪
-♪ Careless future, adventurous past ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
♪♪
♪ And I know I can't just ♪
♪ Pack my bags and come to see you ♪
♪ It feels like a dream ♪
♪ And people say this world is small ♪
-♪ But not for me ♪
-♪ 'Cause you're far ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
♪ I'm far ♪
♪ Far away ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you.
-Keep up with Once Around The Sun on Facebook.
Currently showing at Mini Mart City Park in Georgetown is
"The Golden Cage: Trapped at Work," a group exhibit which,
as you are about to see, has a fascinating premise.
-I've been on the road as a tour manager for 36 years
and I've spent a lot of my time sitting at my desk,
waiting for the phone to ring or for another email to come in.
So I've always found some other little craft
or kept sketchbooks to keep my time.
This is kind of a culmination of everything
that all of us have done on the road together as a touring team.
-As we were trapped at work,
I always called it our golden cage
because we would be stuck at a Ritz-Carlton
and we would just hang out and listen to music
and draw and make art to pass the time.
-I knew these guys as friends and artists
way before we were tour managers together.
I love the fact that he did the same thing I did,
made something out of something, no matter where you were.
He always found the boxes or the pieces
and cobbled them together.
And probably since I met him when I was 18,
his artistic sensibility and his style
and everything he did, I loved.
I thought it was great.
Graphically, you were cool, you did great stuff,
and then you were doing records.
-You added to records too.
You did the graphics on that first Brad record.
-I did.
He gave me my first professional job on his Brad record.
-He did the disc design.
-Cary and I worked together on the road with Neil Young
for years and years together. Regan and I did the same thing.
Literally, I was probably the torture master at most times
because as tour manager
I always said we've got to hang in my room.
We've got to be here. We always do.
There's probably times when people could have gone
and enjoyed themselves or had meals,
but I made them draw pictures and hang out with me.
-I started filming a lot of stuff with my phone
and getting into motion graphics
and I spent a lot of my time doing that on the road.
-Unplug that.
-I ended up getting this little corridor
in my area of the gallery here.
So the piece that we'll show --
and it's something that both of the guys reacted to --
and it was a little ad --
advertisement I made for light rail here in Seattle.
-I love the piece.
-So this was an uncommissioned piece?
Seattle Transit didn't call you? -That's right.
-But they will.
-This is just a moment of inspiration for me.
I was picking up my kid who had come from SeaTac
and we wanted to see what it was like
to take the light rail from the airport.
And it was spooky.
I had kind of a, not scary experience
but it was kind of "Escape from New York" vibe.
-Kevin Shuss is the fourth member of this group
that's not with us today.
He's on tour with Pearl Jam at the moment.
But Kevin does a lot of stencils and he does the drum heads
that you'd see up on the wall and whatnot.
He was with Alice in Chains.
He's worked with Sound Garden, Temple of the Dog.
He's been with Pearl Jam for 30 years.
-We booked this exhibit over a year ago,
so it's a culmination of a year of focus
and work getting all of this stuff together.
-It's a pretty phenomenal opportunity for us.
-It has and, you know,
I don't know if you guys think the same thing,
but it was a year ago.
It was like, ah, we have a year, don't worry about it.
And I don't know what's happened now,
but this last week has been kind of a whirlwind.
And also, I've been on the road and the band
that I work with just played here in Seattle this week.
So we were fortunate enough to do a pre-show
for the folks in Metallica this weekend.
And it was the first time
we were going to let anybody see what this was
and I think we were all pretty nervous about it.
And I think they got the vibe.
They understood what it was.
You know, my stuff,
as you might see, isn't technically amazing
but it's the idea of where I am when I do it and how I do it.
And if you were wondering where
anybody's toilet paper went during the pandemic,
I took all of the rolls and hoarded them.
I disassemble, you know, coat hangers in my hotel rooms
and make mobiles. And I love music.
I would love to have been in a band or been a musician
but I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.
But I was good at organizing things and getting people places
and I'm also good at getting them there in a good mood
and not letting them see the sweat and the stress.
-I was doing a lot of sketching
and drawing people and photographs that I've seen
and just practicing in my sketchbook drawing faces
and portraits, mainly.
And I went and saw the Basquiat show in LA,
kind of inspired by that.
You know, he used a lot of oil pens in his work.
And so I bought some oil pens and started working with them
and that just kind of fed into, oh,
I think I'll do portraits of my friends for the show.
And it just brought so much joy to the dark,
dreary, rainy winter days here last winter
and that kind of creative inspiration
just lasted for like three months doing these paintings.
So that's how they came about. -I don't have a choice.
I make these robots and these crazy things
because I started thinking about them,
then I started dreaming about them,
and then I have these panic attacks
that I'm going to try to make it
and it's not going to be what I think it's going to be,
and then I just have to sit down and do it.
So I would drive myself nuts if I didn't just keep making stuff.
-I would like to see it grow into something
where there's a bunch of roadies
and a bunch of roadie art and history.
Because attached with each roadie
is all these stories and objects
that go along with who they are
and the bands that they work with
and their history, which, to me, as you get older,
the stories and the history is what really intrigue me
and stay with me the most.
-There's no stopping. It's my passion.
So, yeah, I'm going to continue to do it
and I can't imagine life without it.
♪♪
-"The Golden Cage: Trapped at Work"
runs now through October 13.
And that's a wrap.
Big, heartfelt thanks to Rick Leonard Gallery for hosting us,
and a reminder that
"Peter Malarkey: Social Landscapes"
runs now through September 30.
And we're going to leave you with a remembrance
of Charles R. Cross, an iconic Seattleite
and a renowned rock journalist and author
who died suddenly of natural causes on August 9.
A father, a brother, an artist, and a friend to so many people,
Charles made this world a more interesting place.
He was loved deeply and will be missed always.
So thanks so much for watching.
Have a great week.
♪♪
-♪ Is there a reason why ♪
♪ We will not satisfy ♪
♪ We keep on going and ignore ♪
♪ I think we realize ♪
♪ It's not really worth the price ♪
♪ But we will just not let it go ♪
[ Singing indistinctly ]
♪♪
-♪ This right here ♪
♪ Is home ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪