Art Radio Seattle broke it first yesterday and later Regina Hackettquietly slips a report into yesterday’s paper that The Stranger, has rounded up their 2005 geniuses for Genius Awards:
Visual arts: Sutton,Culler,Beres
Film: Michael Seiwerath, Northwest Film Forum
Literature: Rebecca Brown
Theater: Gabriel Baron
Arts institution: Frye Art Museum
According to Regina this is the last year there will be any essence of tobacco funding for local geniuses:
Because Lucky Strike abruptly pulled out of Seattle arts funding, the Stranger has barely enough tobacco money left to fund the five grants. Other sponsors, including the anti-tobacco group Art Patch, have stepped in to cover the party, which will have a $21,000 budget
Here is more and more on the projects of Beres, Sutton and Culleras, reported previously by Vroom Journal.
Author Rebecca Brown has incidentally covered Seattle artists in her own work, a case in point being her selection in the Clear Cut Futureanthology, memorializing Seattle artist Helmi Juvonen in a piece called Finnish for Pearl.
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(Persistence of this image?)
I’d also like to point out Vroom Journal’s excellent coverage of the round table discussion that John Boylan hosted last Monday night at the Capitol Hill Arts Center called: “Persistence of Painting in a Digital Age“. Vroom has an admirable memory for what occurred that evening and I will add my own thoughts, stating it is remarkable that 80+ people found a topic important enough for discussion to leave the comfort of their homes on a Monday evening. This gathering trumped any on-line bulletin board or forum I have witnessed. As one might expect for the subject, there was a slight bias in the room. When Boylan asked for a show of hands how many people in the audience were painters, it was like stepping inside a windmill factory, so many arms were chopping in the air. However, there was not as much disdain for the digital world as I have heard in previous conversations on the topic. I tried to broach this subject myself this summer while running a seminar in North Carolina, but ended up feeling like I was selling Amway in Amish country.
At any rate, the discussion at CHAC was lively and it was nice to see an event could pull such a broad range of ages into one setting. People passionately responded with care about what was being said. I think Seattle is lucky to have such an intelligent presence as Liz Brown in our midst. I am used to just seeing Brown introduce artists at Henry lectures and it was great to hear her point of view on a variety of topics during the course of the evening.
Another fine thing, I found out by the end of the evening I had been sitting next to a particularly lively and funny person who turned out to be one of my favorite painters- MaryAnn Peters, whose work I hope to see more of in the future.
Mary Ann Peters, ITALY DIARY 2004
As far as where do I fall myself on this topic? As much as I love the Internet, and there have been years where I have loved the Internet, a weekend falling down the rabbit hole building a website is never as enriching as hours spent painting or drawing. I guess I like dirt under my fingernails, which I become particularly clear on this summer.