Elections have begun! Olympia's Plinth Project on Percival Landing

The 2014 People's Prize competition began Friday July 25 and continues through August 31st. You can vote for one of the sculptures displayed on the plinths of Percival Landing. The city will purchase the sculpture with the most votes and place it in a different location as part of the city's public art collection.   

Plinths in architectural terminology, are pedestals upon which columns, statues, monument or structure stands. The City of Olympia has placed several plinths on Percival Landing providing a base for sculptures and performers. Take a walk along the landing, get a ballot and add your voice to the city's public art collection. And don't forget the plinth at the eastern end of Yashiro bridge, next to Bayview Thriftway. 

I've sketched a sampling below: 

OPENING (Ring Dance #9)by Don Freas

Steel and Cast Iron

Olympia Avenue Plaza

Figure in Motionby Hugh Buchholz

Bronze

North of Harbor House

Vertebra: Ocean Verde

by Dave Haslett

Stone: NW Olivine (Mt Baker) and Basalt (Moses Lake)

State Street Pavilion

Basin of Quenched Fire

by Bil Fleming

Reclaimed Sea Buoy and Tractor Cog

Water Street and 4th Avenue

Georgetown

The daughter of a friend owns, with her husband, All City Coffee on Yale Street, just off Airport way in Georgetown. So I chose it for a meeting spot at the May sketch outing for the Urban Sketchers Seattle group. I like the old brick buildings a sense of history in Georgetown. 

I tucked around the corner to find three other sketches at the Georgetown trailer park --an art deco/hippie flea market. 

GRUBuation!

Amidst festival regalia, Garden Raised bounty (GRUB) held it’s annual “Grubuation” honoring students for their social, scholarly and agricultural accomplishments. The class, a diverse collection of students representing various high schools in Thurston County told their stories under a white tent decorated with multi-colored batik flags.

They used a variety of mediums to express their gratitude, pride and even love for the program, their teachers, the GRUB staff, community mentors and their fellow students. One young woman rapped her appreciation, while another, an alumni, spoke her poem slam style. They sang, showed a slide show of the year’s events and put on delectable spread for all the guests.

GRUB is a garden-based non-profit that fosters several programs related to growing healthy food. Their Cultivating Youth Employment Program employs 15-20 low-income and/or at-risk youth for two months each summer on GRUB’s  1.75 acre urban farm on Olympia’s Westside. GRUB staff trains the students in gardening, cooking, health and nutrition, communications, leadership skills and teamwork. Some of the students continue through the school year further developing these skills and focusing on longer term academic and employment goals. Though group dynamics they learn to form tight bonds with each other and the staff.

The Kitchen Garden Project (KGP) was started in 1993 by Rich Doss and merged with GRUB IN 2001. KGP focuses on improving quality of life and nutrition for low-income families and seniors by helping them build raised-bed gardens at their homes. Recent years have seen the need rise and the waiting list build.

GRUB is very tightly connected to the food/education movement that is becoming ever more pervasive in all areas of the country. GRUB’S annual report states that Students from GRUB participated, last year in the “annual Rooted in Community (RIC) Youth Leadership Summit in South Central LA. RIC is a national grassroots network that empowers young people to lead their communities towards food justice through urban and rural agriculture, community gardening, food security, and related environmental justice work. “  The student’s from GRUB were acknowledged as key contributors and student leaders.

You can read more about their programs and their successes on their website: http://goodgrub.org/

Radish Season!

Piles and piles of radishes stack the stands at the Olympia Farmer's Market. I sketched these, organic Easter egg radishes, at the Calliope Farms stand. The proprietor, Jacob Wilson, told me about his farm near Evergreen where he and Megan Marina tend "about six acres of cultivated ground, pasture, greenhouses, orchard and nettle patch."  Check them out to add a little colorful spice to your palate. 

Santa Monica in May

It was an confluence of events. Our son, Connor was turning 30. Jing Jing, our oldest son Jeremy's girlfriend who designs furniture was opening a show at a new gallery in downtown Los Angeles. Lianna, who lives in Brooklyn, NY wanted a break after a long winter. So we all decided to pack our bags and snatch up some California sunshine.

Because I was traveling with people who don't sketch I had to grab moments here and there to sneak in a sketch. So I decide to focus on doing a few 1-5 minute sketches. I got the main lines down then added color later.

 

These next sketches took a bit longer. 

This one was done on the walkway next to the beach. It doesn't do justice to the crowd that was gathered to watch the 1st Anniversary of Slack Line Park, a sectioned off area of Santa Monica beach where one can jump on a flat, bouncy tightrope about the width of a seat belt. It was fun to watch. I include a very short video below. 

Finally, on our last day, when kids were busy or gone we rode bikes down the path next to the beach and I sad in the sand and sketched Hotel Casa del Mar. It was designed by Charles F Plummer in the Italian Renaissance style and opened in 1926. During the second world war it became a hotel and recreation center for military, then it was headquarters for Synanon, a drug and alcohol rehab organization. In 1997 Shutters on the Beach,it's modern upscale neighbor purchased and remodeled it. Its now on the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately I didn't take the time to saunter through the lobby. Maybe next time. 

43rd Annual Northwest Folklife

I love Folklife. It's such a colorful and culturally diverse event. I managed to pick the weekend's rainiest day, Sunday, to get there. As I sat for my first sketch I figured out I needed to find a covered space and surprisingly there are plenty of them in Seattle Center --trees, outcropping roofs, covered walkways. Had I not forgotten my extra layer I would have stuck around and watched my hometown heros - Samba Olywa.

I've been wanting to try twig-sketching for a while and finally got my materials gathered, a good sized twig (or in my case a bamboo shaft), Chinese ink and some decently absorbant paper. It's not an easy tool; the pen dries quickly. I persisted and will keep experimenting. I like the rough quality and variable line quality. 

Tacoma's Theater District

Our April sketch outing was in Tacoma's Theater District - the multi street intersection with Tullys, the Rialto and Pantages converge. It hailed like the dickens so I quickly sketched this between the deluges.