Dennis from Central Vacuum Services – a portrait from a gallery of Capitol Hill small business owners featured at Cupcake Royale for the third anniversary Blitz art walk (Image: Autumn Azure)

Thursday marks the third anniversary of a monthly staple in the Seattle arts community, The Blitz! Capitol Hill Arts Walk. In 2009, organizer Ellen Forney and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce introduced the Hill to a new vision of a community inspired art program.

Previous to Blitz!, the art event on Capitol Hill consisted of a Tuesday Art Walk. While it had been existing (without much growth or excitement) the Chamber organized a round table meeting in which new member, and now co-chair of the event series Forney, was brought in alongside Audrey McManus (of Babeland) and Anderson to revamp and re-brand the cultural event that had grown increasingly lackluster. Forney goes out of her way to make it clear the previous art walk was the result of great effort and was still a vibrant piece of Hill culture. But the new energy brought to Blitz through greater investment by the Chamber and a renewed effort to engage the business community of the Hill has pushed the event to a new level.

Forney, herself an artist who has contributed illustrations to The Stranger and currently teaches at Cornish, has helped re-make the monthly walk. CHS talked to her about the anniversary, the celebrations — including mustaches —  planned during this Thursday’s walk and what’s ahead.

In The Beginning There Was….
“There was so much interest. You could tell Capitol Hill was ripe for a big organized art walk. There were a lot of people that participated. It just got to be an institution really quickly. The need was there,” said Forney.

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The neighborhood and its relatively strong community of small businesses has provided an interesting backdrop for an art walk — there aren’t as many art galleries left.

“What I love about Blitz is that in Cap Hill, as opposed to other art walks, there aren’t actually many art galleries,” Forney said. “There are so many artists and creative people but not many art galleries. We have so much art. Cafes, restaurants, other alternate venues -the artist studios and co-ops. I really like having a night to go around with art goggles on.”

And Now There Are….

Wylie from Joe Bar (Image: Autumn Azure)

A wide variety of venues on the Hill promote the Blitz! Art Walk. Although a handful of new galleries have been opening up alongside artist studios and co-ops, it’s the small businesses of the Hill where much of the work is put on display.

As part of the third anniversary, Cupcake Royal, will host a photography exhibition by Autumn Azure featuring portraits of local small business owners.

Another aspect of the anniversary shows there is room for the big guys, too. Zipcar will provide a shuttle to move people around the Hill.

Says Forney, “We’ve always dreamt of having a shuttle [for Blitz!]. I was in touch with a really enthusiastic Zipcar rep that wanted to do something with the community and it’s good for Zipcar.”

…And What’s Next, You Ask?
“One of the things that I really love to see happen is that, for the other pods in the different parts of the neighborhood have,” Forney said. “There are a lot of different mini neighborhoods. So if there were a bunch on 15th, there’s a collection going down Olive Way, and a collection has been percolating on North Broadway. But they end up being far flung.”

Currently the Blitz! territory runs up along Pike/Pine, Olive Way, Broadway, and all the way up to 15th Ave. As Blitz! continues to spread, organizers are looking to involve even more of the community.

A shuttle could be a start, and Blitz! has been considering the option.

In the meantime, enjoy the bevy of activities going down on Thursday, June 14th as part of Blitz. First and foremost, and perhaps most intriguing, is the Mustache Tour that Blitz is offering.

“I take credit for that,” Forney said. “I thought, yeah we should have walking tours. But we’ve gotta have a gimmick. Like Mustache Tours!”

Join the tour, and don your fake mustache. Maybe you won’t view the artwork differently, but at least the people around you will start to wonder if you’re part of the exhibition.

Jojo from Arabica Lounge (Image: Autumn Azure)

Along with the Mustache Tours and the Zipcar shuttles, there will be a live acrobatic performance by The School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts. Here are more highlights planned for this Thursday’s Blitz! Anniversary:

If you want to take a shuttle….
ZIPCAR SHUTTLE STOPS:
Zip around the Art Walk with the complimentary Zipcar shuttle service, 5 – 8pm.
Look for the specially-marked Zipcar sedans at these locations:
•                Harvard & E Olive Way: Zipcar lot
•                E Olive Way & Bellevue: City Market parking lot
•                E Pike & Bellevue: Zipcar lot
•                Broadway between E Pike & E Pine: Taco Del Mar parking lot
13th & E Pine: Zipcar lot

Where to go along the way…
Poco Wine Room || 1408 East Pine Street
Nate Gowdy, photography. Nate seeks to transform the old standard out-and-about, deer-in-the-headlights snaps of Seattle’s greater LGBTQ community into wonderful character portraits. (image)

Joe Bar || 810 East Roy Street
Joe Bar Presents: Keith Tilford. New work in acrylics on acrylic panel exploring geology and landscape, science fiction, architecture, technology, and the histories of abstraction collected under the theme of dislocations. (image)

Vino Verite || 208 Boylston Ave East
Kate Protage’s acrylic paintings and mylar drawings are snapshot moments in time filled with the movement and vibrancy of memory. Wine tasting with Hip Chicks Do Wine, a small winery owned by two women who make delicious and adventurous wine. (image)

Vermillion || 1508 11th Avenue
“Ambiguous” is a large scale installation with paintings and a mural by Jeff “Wierdo” Jacobson. Jacobson’s work honors the past with his classical compositions, masterful rendering, and Baroque -style lighting while remaining fresh and contemporary with his inter-dimensional inserts of geometry and coral growth. (image)

High 5 Pie || 1400 12th Avenue
Featuring one or two brief performances of Vanessa DeWolf’s “Score for an Unrehearsed Ensemble” (to be performed at On The Boards on June 16 and 17). Improvisation relational performances of song, dance and text — completely unrehearsed! Have a taste of delightful anarchy along with your delicious pie!

Ghost Gallery || 504 East Denny Way
Seeing is Believing: A Study of Dreams. Through a variety of mediums including video, print, drawing and sculpture, the viewer will be taken on a voyeuristic journey into the depths of the artists’ most trenchant neuro-dreamscapes. Featuring Jonas Bjerre (Mew) and Agnete Hegelund (Denmark), Amanda Manitach, Jennifer Borges Foster, Anne Blackburn, Sharon Arnold.  (image)

As for the Mustache Walking Tour Schedule….
BLITZ MUSTACHE WALKING TOURS

Laurie from Ghost Gallery (Image: Autumn Azure)

Tats, Lube and Yoda with Korby Sears
Meet at 6pm at Ltd Art Gallery (307 East Pike Street)
Korby Sears is a composer, musician, game designer, app producer – and a hustlah. Korby is the recipient of a 2004 Stranger Genius Award, a 2005 Seattle Weekly Music Award, and once won a pair of alligator shoes at a company picnic (1998). Tour stops may include True Love Gallery, Babeland, and Vermillion. Sears knows very little about art, but sleeps nightly with a woman who has a PhD in Art History. Enjoy the osmosis!

Sweeeeet Mustache Tour with Ellen Forney
Meet at 6:45pm at Retrofit Home (1103 East Pike Street)
Cartoonist Ellen Forney is a Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce board member, Cornish College of the Arts professor, Capitol Hill light rail station public-artist-to-be, and is impatiently awaiting the fall release of her first graphic novel. Forney’s tour begins with champagne at Retrofit Home and may include stops at Cupcake Royale, Richardson Studio, and High 5 Pie.

East Olive Branch with Anne Blackburn
Meet at Tommy Gun (1703 East Olive Way) 5pm to pre-func, tour leaves at 6pm.
Anne Blackburn is a Seattle-based installation artist, curator, and instigator. She will be showing at the Capitol Hill Block Party in July, as well as co-curating the Lo-Fi festival at Smoke Farm in August.  Expect more bones, gold leaf, tar-paper ivy, and beer cans.
Pre-func with Blackburn at 5pm (look for a flower!) or join her tour an hour later. Tour stops may include Blindfold Gallery, Vino Verite and Apocalypse Tattoo, and will end at Ghost Gallery where she has a piece in the current show.

Hike the Pike! with Mollie Bryan
Meet at 7:00pm at Jason Hallman Gallery (910 East Pike Street)
Mollie Bryan is a Capitol Hill artist and is also the organizer of the Fremont Art Walk. Bryan’s artwork is inspired by visceral reactions to the world around her–especially her greatest love, music.  Tour stops may include Cupcake Royale, Café Vita, Retrofit Home and Vermillion.  
 
Sailing the Volition with Jesse Higman
Meet at 7:00pm at Teletubby Hill on the north end of Cal Anderson Park
Pour paintings with Jesse Higman in his studio, tour along 11th Ave, and end the evening with Dumb Eyes’ Penetration, the visual/audio psychedelic dance event at Sole Repair. Higman is a recipient of the Mayor’s Arts Award, City Arts Art Walk award, and recognition from the Smithsonian. Higman invites you to “Sail the Volition”:

“Get close, go inside. Darken the room and circle the table, pour to the sky and read the signs. At the first sound, listen to the setting sun, and be ready to tell the moon. We will come to the night with what we know. Feel the spirits. They see you. If you are afraid, offer them everything. They will treat you the same. We will travel with the song to the place they sing. Bring your camera and field recording equipment, and a friend who can operate them if you need to dictate. As Soul Motioneers we employ full risk to provoke the perilous. All hands set riggings. We follow currents, reject others, cast wakes and part space. Yes, the world is flat. Life craves edges and grows there!”

Although Higman’s description of this tour is more poetic than informational, the invitation alone to paint with this award-winning artist in his studio at the park is probably worth taking a chance on the unknown.

For three years Blitz Capitol Hill Arts Walk has showcased the neighborhood’s art offerings in galleries, cafés, restaurants, and retail stores. On June 14, 2012 Blitz marks its three-year anniversary with special features including our third annual guided Blitz Mustache Walking Tours, street performers, a complimentary Zipcar shuttle service, and more.

Blitz’s Third Annual Mustache Tours are guided tours led by mustachioed local artists which highlight June’s art  shows and venues. Tour participants are encouraged to BYOM, and fake mustaches will be provided for the mustache-less. This year’s tour guides are composer/musician Korby Sears, cartoonist Ellen Forney, photographer/artist Mollie Bryan, installation artist Anne Blackburn, and award-winning painter Jesse Higman. 

Tour meeting times and locations are listed below and are available on the Blitz website, www.blitzcapitolhill.com.

A live, outdoor performance by the The School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts will kick off the evening! The school’s Youth Performance Company dazzles audiences with juggling, unicycling, tightwire, and more. The choreographed performance at the Seattle Central Community College plaza begins at 5:30 and is followed by fun, freestyle, new circus action from 6:00 to 6:30pm.

Blitz is excited to offer the first ever art walk shuttle service! Zipcar offers complimentary shuttle service around the art walk on June 14^th, 5 – 8pm. The two Zipcar sedans are driven by Zipcar Ambassadors and can transport up to four passengers between designated Zipcar shuttle stops. Walk around, zip to the next area, repeat! 

Shuttle stops are listed below and on the Blitz website www.blitzcapitolhill.com.

 

Produced by the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce every Second Thursday of the month, Blitz invites residents and visitors to explore the neighborhood, and to see art being created and displayed in expected and unexpected places. Participants can check out paintings in a cupcake cafe, listen to lounge rock in an art gallery, and ponder installations in an artist’s studio. 

 

Selected exhibit highlights from the June 14 Blitz Capitol Hill Arts Walk are listed below. Full event listings and previews are on theBlitz website www.blitzcapitolhill.com.

 

News and information about the Capitol Hill arts scene are posted to the Capitol Hill Arts Walk Facebook Page: facebook.com/CapitolHillArtsWalk and to Twitter @blitzarts

Blitz promotional image

 

Contact Ellen Forney or Jeanine Anderson for more information. 

 

BLITZ MUSTACHE WALKING TOURS

Tats, Lube and Yoda with Korby Sears

Meet at 6pm at Ltd Art Gallery (307 East Pike Street)

Korby Sears is a composer, musician, game designer, app producer – and a hustlah. Korby is the recipient of a 2004 Stranger Genius Award, a 2005 Seattle Weekly Music Award, and once won a pair of alligator shoes at a company picnic (1998). Tour stops may include True Love Gallery, Babeland, and Vermillion. Sears knows very little about art, but sleeps nightly with a woman who has a PhD in Art History. Enjoy the osmosis! 

Sweeeeet Mustache Tour with Ellen Forney

Meet at 6:45pm at Retrofit Home (1103 East Pike Street)

Cartoonist Ellen Forney is a Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce board member, Cornish College of the Arts professor, Capitol Hill light rail station public-artist-to-be, and is impatiently awaiting the fall release of her first graphic novel. Forney’s tour begins with champagne at Retrofit Home and may include stops at Cupcake Royale, Richardson Studio, and High 5 Pie.

 

East Olive Branch with Anne Blackburn

Meet at Tommy Gun (1703 East Olive Way) 5pm to pre-func, tour leaves at 6pm.

Anne Blackburn is a Seattle-based installation artist, curator, and instigator. She will be showing at the Capitol Hill Block Party in July, as well as co-curating the Lo-Fi festival at Smoke Farm in August.  Expect more bones, gold leaf, tar-paper ivy, and beer cans.

Pre-func with Blackburn at 5pm (look for a flower!) or join her tour an hour later. Tour stops may include Blindfold Gallery, Vino Verite and Apocalypse Tattoo, and will end at Ghost Gallery where she has a piece in the current show.

 

Hike the Pike! with Mollie Bryan

Meet at 7:00pm at Jason Hallman Gallery (910 East Pike Street)

Mollie Bryan is a Capitol Hill artist and is also the organizer of the Fremont Art Walk. Bryan’s artwork is inspired by visceral reactions to the world around her–especially her greatest love, music.  Tour stops may include Cupcake Royale, Café Vita, Retrofit Home and Vermillion.  

  

Sailing the Volition with Jesse Higman

 Meet at 7:00pm at Teletubby Hill on the north end of Cal Anderson Park

Pour paintings with Jesse Higman in his studio, tour along 11th Ave, and end the evening with Dumb Eyes’ Penetration, the visual/audio psychedelic dance event at Sole Repair. Higman is a recipient of the Mayor’s Arts Award, City Arts Art Walk award, and recognition from the Smithsonian. Higman invites you to “Sail the Volition”:

 

“Get close, go inside. Darken the room and circle the table, pour to the sky and read the signs. At the first sound, listen to the setting sun, and be ready to tell the moon. We will come to the night with what we know. Feel the spirits. They see you. If you are afraid, offer them everything. They will treat you the same. We will travel with the song to the place they sing. Bring your camera and field recording equipment, and a friend who can operate them if you need to dictate. As Soul Motioneers we employ full risk to provoke the perilous. All hands set riggings. We follow currents, reject others, cast wakes and part space. Yes, the world is flat. Life craves edges and grows there!”

 

Although Higman’s description of this tour is more poetic than informational, the invitation alone to paint with this award-winning artist in his studio at the park is probably worth taking a chance on the unknown. 

ZIPCAR SHUTTLE STOPS:

Zip around the Art Walk with the complimentary Zipcar shuttle service, 5 – 8pm.

Look for the specially-marked Zipcar sedans at these locations:

• Harvard & E Olive Way: Zipcar lot
• E Olive Way & Bellevue: City Market parking lot
• E Pike & Bellevue: Zipcar lot
• Broadway between E Pike & E Pine: Taco Del Mar parking lot

13th & E Pine: Zipcar lot

Want to learn more about Blitz? Check out the full event listing and previews:www.blitzcapitolhill.com
Follow them on facebook: facebook.com/CapitolHillArtsWalk 
and twitter: Twitter@blitzarts

CHS is a community sponsor of the Blitz art walk.