“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and, the Northwest offers whatever art the eye wants. Attending the annual Seattle Art Fair is the perfect opportunity to open one’s eyes to a world of art with over 100 galleries participating, which translates to hundreds of artists on view. It is a fabulous display of beauty and talent with one wishing they had an unlimited art budget (although prices generally tended to be reasonable) and more wall space.
Some of the art was “perhaps not to my taste,” but, there is no doubt that it is interesting, innovative and thought provoking. Sometimes the thought is “how did they come up with this, and, after a bit of reflection, why? For example, the “Incubator for Earthquakes” is a kinetic dinner table sculpture with a vibrating motor, which is intermittently subjected to earthquake tremors that set the dinner china jumping. A bit weird bit but perhaps an appropriate art piece for Seattle?
The Seattle Art Fair is an annual event held at the CenturyLink Field Event Center (CenturyLink Field is where the Seattle Seahawks play), and, it is a “primo event.” It was founded five years ago by Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder. His death fostered speculation as to its continued viability, but, if this year’s event was any indication, there is no reason for concern.
Art is everywhere in the Northwest; galleries are omnipresent. In small towns they are frequently the focus of the downtown areas. Seattle is well represented with lots of galleries with Pioneer Square downtown being a prominent arts district. And that is where we were last Thursday evening before the Art Fair. Our very good longtime friend Kathy is an art consultant, and, she frequently arranges art exhibits as she did that evening in a Sotheby’s sales gallery in Pioneer Square showing eight artists. Steve was delighted to have been asked to exhibit. It was an exciting and very busy evening with a packed house almost the entire evening.
To add a bit of intrigue to the evening a group of protesters showed up just before closing; this is Seattle after all. They were protesting a new building that is being built on the edge of the international district. As they became louder and more aggressive, the police were called. That was the cue for the protesters to move on, which they finally did.
