Tag Archives: art

Capitol Hill’s Lady Krishna — love, meditation, and new music

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Natasha Shulman, better known as Lady Krishna, tells CHS she is working on a new album. Those unfamiliar with Lady Krishna need look no farther than her website, which showcases her multimedia art and performances.

Lady Krishna has lived in the neighborhood consistently since the late 90s after nearly two decades spent in New York City, among other spots. Ever since, she has enriched the Hill with her paintings, albums, and meditations, though not without recent challenges due to her health as well as the coronavirus.

“I feel a part of the community so much in Seattle, I’m happy I’m here and I’m getting such good care here,” said Lady Krishna.

She recently finished mixing and mastering her latest song, with the working title I’m a butterfly, I came to be free, as part of an upcoming album.

Three months ago, Lady Krishna was diagnosed with colon cancer. Continue reading →

With ‘graffiti clean,’ Harrell to unveil ‘major community service initiative’ — UPDATE: One Seattle Day of Service

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Bruce Harrell does not like graffiti. The new mayor will be in the Chinatown-International District Monday morning to unveil what his administration says will be a new “major community volunteer effort” in partnership with public, private, and nonprofit organizations. It will involve an issue that has repeatedly been a pet peeve for Harrell over his years on the council and on the campaign trail will apparently be in the crosshairs.

Monday’s Harrell administration media event will center around a “volunteer activity and graffiti clean,” according to a press release.

UPDATE: Monday, Harrell announced a “One Seattle Day of Service” citywide volunteer event will take place on May 21st “with over 2,200 volunteer opportunities across more than 80 different activities throughout all seven City Council Districts.”

Continue reading →

After year-long restoration, Soul Pole sculpture makes its return to the Douglass-Truth library

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(Image: SPL)

A symbol of “400 years of African American history and the struggle for justice in the United States” will rise again in the Central District.

Tuesday, the return of the “Soul Pole” to the lawn outside the Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library at 23rd and Yesler will be marked with a press conference featuring Mayor Bruce Harrell and Tom Fay, Chief Librarian of The Seattle Public Library.

A year ago, the pole was taken down from where it had stood for nearly 50 years for a much needed restoration of the 21-foot wooden sculpture.

The library contracted with Artech Fine Art Services to manage the project working with Corine Landrieu, “one of the Northwest’s top conservators.” Continue reading →

Chewy’s giant ‘Ultimate Pet Portrait’ joins Capitol Hill’s mural pack

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(Image: Chewy)

(Image: Chewy)

Maybe Capitol Hill is getting soft. Or, maybe, the giant fuzzy buddies featured in the big “Ultimate Pet Portrait” mural at Broadway and Pine are just too sweet.

But the huge yellow commercial work by Seattle artist Ariel Parrow that went up a few weeks back on the side of the old South Annex building on E Pine will be officially unveiled this week having remained mostly unmarred by tagging and vandalism — even if the represented critters include a very un-Capitol Hill mix of apparent purebreds, no mutts, and no pit bulls. The pet rabbit? On brand.

Tuesday, Chewy, the $17 billion online retailer of pet food and “other pet-related products,” will celebrate the mural and hosting “a fun gathering for pets and pet parents” with a tent in Cal Anderson Park with treats and giveaways starting at 11 AM just across from the E Pine artwork. Continue reading →

Illumination art for Ukraine to light up Seattle this weekend including Capitol Hill’s Asian Art Museum

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(Image: Enlightenment)

Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum will join buildings around the world in a global display of light art this weekend for Ukraine.

The Enlightenment event will light up the art deco facades of the Volunteer Park museum with works from more than 35 illumination artists who have contributed animations “reflecting solidarity with the Ukrainians and oppressed people around the world.”

“The artworks created will be displayed on the facades of The Seattle Asian Art Museum and dozens of buildings in cities around the world,” the producers, Seattle-based creators of the Borealis – a festival of light events and Maxin10sity of Budapest, say. Continue reading →

Artist restores vandalized Central District MLK mural

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Artist James Crespinel and his son Nick. Thanks to Converge Media for providing this picture to CHS.

The vandalized mural of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been fully restored and is ready, again, to “do what it’s supposed to do” at the Central District corner of MLK Way and E Cherry.

Artist James Crespinel returned to restore his work that has been part of the corner across three decades before it was marred with spray painted vandalism during this year’s MLK Day holiday and spoke with Converge Media about the importance of the mural as he put the finishing touches on the wall after ten days of work. Continue reading →

Find the spiritual antithesis to the Seattle NFT Museum at the teeny tiny Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art inside First Hill’s Museum of Museums

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(Image: Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art)

By Danielle Marie Holland

The Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art is the only full-scale miniature art museum in Seattle, permanently housed inside First Hill’s Museum of Museums. Created by sculptor Jennifer McNeely, the SMCA began presenting its third show as the MOM re-opened earlier this month.

Unlike the recently opened 3,000 square-foot Seattle NFT Museum, the SMCA exists in a more tangible, albeit tiny plane.  “It’s like a gem. If you discover it, you discover it. Any way that you experience it is good. You know it’s fun,” said McNeely.

Designed by an architect from NBBJ, the mini-museum is composed of four gallery spaces and an atrium. Featured within their upcoming exhibit is an immersive miniature installation by Mary Anne Carter, paintings by Magnus Faber, new work by Valerian Bettronini, a ceramics installation by Spiral Getty, and paintings by Brandon’s Ghost. A literal ghost. (Albeit a miniature one.)

The artists are names you should not have ever heard of. Continue reading →

How’s your Dick’s-less start to 2022 going, Capitol Hill? What would you have added to the Broadway drive-in?

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(Image: @plusruss via Instagram)

By now, you’ve probably thought about swinging by Dick’s three or four times before remembering the Broadway drive-in is closed for renovations until spring.

The project was originally planned to be even larger and add a new feature to the popular hangout — you might have a few suggestions for what you would have liked the Broadway Dick’s overhaul to include.

Right now, the only new feature is the street art gallery that has developed on the block. The Dick’s construction fence has been well decorated by taggers leaving their mark at the site of the iconic fast food landmark. Continue reading →

‘Pieces of the sky that have fallen to the ground,’ Ribbon of Light joins AIDS Memorial Pathway connecting Cal Anderson to Capitol Hill Station

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(Image: Seattle Office of Arts & Culture)

The first installation of an artist’s new “quiet space for communal mourning and personal contemplation” is lighting the northeast corner of Cal Anderson Park.

The first of three stations in Horatio Hung-Yan Law’s sculptural Ribbon of Light installation in the park debuted early this month as Capitol Hill nonprofit Gay City hosted a World AIDS Day commemoration marking 40 years since the first cases of the virus were identified.

The new work is part of the AIDS Memorial Pathway connecting the park to The AMP Plaza and Capitol Hill Station. Continue reading →

The Central District’s missing Terry Furchgott mural

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The new post office is located in Seattle’s Central District on 23rd Ave and E Union, reopening in September 2020 after a 20-month closure (Image: Sarah Goh)

By Sarah Goh, UW News Lab/Special to CHS

In 1995, Seattle artist Terry Furchgott painted a six panel mural for the United States Postal Service. Her artwork hung behind the main counter of Seattle’s Central District post office on the southeast corner of 23rd and Union.

When the branch closed to make room for a new development in January 2019, the paintings disappeared. In the new location across the street, the wall behind the main counter remains bare.

“I really miss those paintings,” Central District neighbor Amy Hagopian said. “I thought they really captured the heart and soul of the Central District. What happened to them?”

Hagopian is not the only customer wondering where these paintings went. Furchgott herself had lost track of her mural as well. According to Ramanda Johnson, who has worked at the USPS Central District branch for 23 years, customers frequently ask her where these murals have gone.

“They were meaningful,” Johnson said. “It was a talking point for a lot of people who were from the original neighborhood.” Continue reading →