Tag Archives: art

Queertique is creating ‘a physical place’ for queer lifestyle, art, and artisans just below the surface of Pike/Pine

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Once home to the subterranean retail of the neighborhood Castle Megastore sex shop, Queertique is now growing below E Pike as a place for queer creativity, commerce, and community.

Owner Tyler Huang tells CHS he hopes the newly debuted Queertique will grow as a gallery, store, and community hub on the block home to the Wildrose, Bimbos, Big Marios, and Cafe Vita. Built out by Huang and brought to life with art and design from friends and collaborators, the old sex shop space is a reclamation for “independent queer artisans and beyond.”

“First place I bought a bottle of lube,” Huang reminisces. “I’m really happy to be back and keeping it in the community.”

Queertique was born in the desert. Huang said his move to Palm Springs where the lifestyle business was first created involved him bringing a little of the Pacific Northwest’s green spirit to the dry region known as a queer citadel through history and into the present day. Continue reading →

Meet the Capitol Hill artist | Painter Elinore Bucholtz is finding her destiny in art inside a Broadway salon

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(Image: Todd Matthews)

Meet the Capitol Hill Artist is an occasional series on CHS documenting the lives of the neighborhood’s artists and the creators behind the neighborhood’s galleries and arts venues

Call it kismet. Earlier this year, 85-year-old painter and Capitol Hill resident Elinore Bucholtz treated herself to a shampoo at a Broadway salon and noticed art on the walls. She asked the owner, Heather Caldwell, if she might consider hanging her abstract paintings. Caldwell liked what she saw, and, last month, Bucholtz hung 10 of her bright and colorful paintings at Capitol Hill’s Kismet Salon & Spa.

“She told me she liked changing things out and wanted to put my work up,” said Bucholtz during a recent interview at the salon. “Really, she gave me the opportunity.”

It’s hardly the first time Bucholtz has displayed her art in the neighborhood. Her work has been shown at Chophouse Row, Starbucks on Olive Way, Ada’s Discovery CafĂ©, and Roy Street Coffee & Tea—all during Capitol Hill Art Walk. She’s had solo shows at Joe Bar, CafĂ© Ladro in Edmonds, Fresh Flours Bakery on Beacon Hill, and Equinox Gallery in Georgetown. Not bad for someone who moved to Seattle in 2017 and only started to paint at age 56. “I never dreamed of doing art before then,” she said. “I couldn’t draw anything when I was young. I didn’t even doodle.” Continue reading →

There’s an art exhibition opening this weekend below the I-5 freeway between Eastlake and Capitol Hill

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Artist Matthew Offenbacher has chosen an unusual gallery for a painting exhibition in his neighborhood spanning Capitol Hill and Eastlake set to open this weekend.

“It really was calling to me. It’s very much like a lot of spaces the city has been sweeping encampments from,” Offenbacher says of the liminal space of the I-5 Colonnade, the sloping, 7.5 acre park beneath the echoing freeway.

Offenbacher’s Charms exhibition includes seven paintings mounted on columns that support the elevated freeway between Capitol Hill and Eastlake.

“I made these paintings using aluminum foil, holographic film and glitter, and am thinking of them as protection charms for the city,” Offenbacher writes about the showing.

A visual artists who has been creating and organizing in Seattle for more than a decade, Offenbacher said the new show is a return to creating inspired by the 2020 protests, the Seattle police and prison abolitionist groups Defend the Defund, and the Seattle Solidarity Budget.

“I took a big step back and reevaluated my role as an artist,” Offenbacher said. “This show is a first attempt at how to bring these things together.” Continue reading →

Knitting together crochet, coffee, and community, Stitch Cafe now open on Capitol Hill

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With yarns from around the world waiting for busy hands and Upright Tree Coffee brewing, Stitch Cafe is now open for Capitol Hill crafters and those in need of a visit to a “cozy little corner of the world.”

The cafe’s October artists wall is a showcase of what is possible with creations from artists our.common.thread, Stitch Tits, and Peach Needle Art Studio.

CHS reported here in July on the plans for the offee and crochet cafe from first-time owner Sarah Chae who said she was hoping to create a space where the neighborhood can gather to craft — the kind of space she has been looking for in Seattle. Continue reading →

City says annual repainting of Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter street mural to take place this month — if weather cooperates

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(Image: CHS)

The City of Seattle and the group of artists that shepherd the creation are hoping for a run of dry October weather for the annual repainting of the Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter street mural.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says the collaboration with the Vivid Matter Collective to care for the mural remains intact along with help from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture to gather every year to clean up and repaint portions of the street-tall E Pine mural.

SDOT crews were spotted at work on the the clean-up around the mural in September but a planned repainting event never took place due to rain, the collective said.

The city says the repainting “to restore the mural’s colors and vibrancy” requires good weather and is hoped to take place the weekend of October 19th or October 26th depending on the forecast. Current forecasts call for stretches of drizzle that could further delay the effort.

Vivid Matter Collective has yet to announce a new date for its 2024 effort

The Vivid Matter Collective shepherds the long-term responsibility of maintaining the Black Lives Matter mural created by artists and activists in 2020 in the first days of the protests in Seattle. Continue reading →

Miller Community Center raising funds for new wall mural

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(Image: Miller Community Center)

The Miller Community Center is launching a fundraising effort to create a new mural on the exterior north-facing exterior wall of the building. The project aims to empower local youth and inspire the community through public art.

“This project will brighten the area around the community center, playground, Meany Middle School, and our toddler playroom,” the Miller call for donations and support reads. Continue reading →

SDOT includes E Pine Black Lives Matter mural touch-up in late summer round of maintenance on Seattle streets

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Thanks to a CHS reader for the pictures

CHS has received a lot of worried inquiries around the presence of a work crew at the E Pine Black Lives Matter mural. Don’t worry. They’re just sprucing it up.

Thanks for the questions and reports from the scene. Crews are cleaning and touching up the pavement artwork as part of Seattle Department of Transportation work across the city. Continue reading →

‘Wednesdays are back’ — More than four years later, Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum back to pre-pandemic schedule

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(Image: Seattle Asian Art Museum)

Capitol Hill’s Seattle Asian Art Museum is ready to return to full power. Four years after pandemic restrictions closed its doors and after a few years of step by step return to more normal days at the Volunteer Park art venue, SAAM will finally get back to its pre-COVID schedule as it returns Wednesdays to its schedule starting next week.

Beginning August 28, the Seattle Asian Art Museum in historic Volunteer Park adds Wednesdays back to its calendar, bringing the museum to a schedule of five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm.

To celebrate, the museum is inviting the community to enjoy opening day of the new exhibition, Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection for free. Meot: Community Opening Day is Wednesday, August 28 and is free and open to the public. To attend, purchase free admission to the museum for that day.

The historic building reopened on February 8, 2020, after a three-year renovation and expansion—only to close again on March 13, 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. It reopened on May 28, 2021, with a three-day-a-week schedule and added Thursdays back to the schedule on October 5, 2023. Now, it’s back to a full five-day-a-week schedule that aligns with the schedule of the Seattle Art Museum in downtown Seattle.

CHS reported here last September as SAAM added Thursdays back to its offerings.

SAAM returned from its pandemic shutdown in May 2021. SAAM has shuttered in mid-March 2020 as COVID-19 numbers climbed. Only weeks earlier, the building had reopened after three years of closure and construction to overhaul and expand the museum.

The return of Wednesday’s will bring a free celebration of SAAM’s new Meot show featuring the work of more than 60 Korean artists.

Learn more about SAAM and the free community opening day for Meot at seattleartmuseum.org.

 

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CHS Pics | Cal Anderson Park is also having a Rat Summer

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While the city and community organizations work to put on events like this past weekend’s Capitol Hill Garage Sale Day to help activate the park, Cal Anderson seems to stay pretty activated on its own, thanks very much.

Recently, artistic rodent creations popped up in the park in a kind of rat art scavenger hunt.

Rat summer, indeed. Continue reading →

New Stitch Cafe will knit together coffee and crochet on Capitol Hill

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Stitch Cafe is bringing coffee and crochet, an unexpected creative combination, to E Pine on Capitol Hill.

This new cafe is filling a gap in the neighborhood for both crafters and coffee connoisseurs alike—a space for people to share their love for fiber arts, learn a new hobby, and enjoy a coffee all at the same time.

Sarah Chae began working on Stitch Cafe over a year ago, joining forces with business partner, Shimon Masaki, owner of Upright Tree Coffee Roasters which will be the coffee supplier for Stitch.

The project hit the ground running when they found the right location, a space on E Pine formally home to Poco Bar & Lounge. Chae connected with Poco owner Jesse Rhodes, and purchased the business to proceed with Stitch.

“I wanted to have a cozy environment where you can go to do a craft, and I noticed Seattle was missing that,” said Sarah Chae, owner/founder of Stitch Cafe. Chae is passionate about the importance of third spaces, public and social locations that are not work or home. Continue reading →