Sounding off on the Seattle Art & Seek

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of art waymarking but I have a few problems with the new "Seattle Art & Seek" category. Although I like the fact that Seattle is using waymarking to show off its art, having its own special category doesnt' seem to meld with the direction that waymarking has gone. In fact, I remember several months back a new waymarker in the forums had asked about creating a similar category for Denver's public art and the people of the forums overwhelmingly said no. The reason being is that almost any sculpture or artwork can be waymarked in the existing art categories.

Seattle has an incredible collection of art and a large community of art patrons that make sure that collection continues to grow. Just look at the Olympic Sculpture Park, a park full of world class sculpture that was almost entirely gifted to the community and unlike most parks of this caliber, you don't have to pay to visit it. But I went to Chicago last year and they have a collection that is equally deserving. I'm just back from D.C. and the sculpture there was awesome. My point is that nearly every large city around the world has a collection of art worth waymarking. Do we really want a category for every city's art collection?

Being fond of filling out my waymarking grid, I can't help feeling bad for the other gridders out there who aren't so conveniently located to Seattle as I am. I would be supremely irritated if say, an "Art of Atlanta" or a "Sculpture of Sydney" category started. I started the abstract sculpture category on waymarking.com and the goal was to see public sculpture around the world. There's already a ton of Seattle art in that category, I know because I waymarked a lot of it. Maybe I would have less of a problem if this special waymarking promotional category were a non-grid category. Leave the grid for the categories that have a more global or at the minimum, a national reach. This sets a precedence that I don't want waymarking to follow, and if you read my last post, you'll remember that precedence in waymarking is something that folks oddly hold sacred.

Lastly, the category seems to have been created by a geocacher. What's with the gps photo requirement, huh? Waymarking has happily moved away from the "prove you were there as a waymarker, not a tourist" attitude and now this? Since the category is already in place, I'm not going to get all uptight and boycott it or anything, however, I won't be able to add much to the category because I don't have gps photos of any of the many sculptures that I have waymarked in Seattle. And I'm not going to waste the time and the gas to drive around getting gps photos of things I've already waymarked. I'm not a caching coin addict, so the waymarking coin is not a big enticement for me. Tacoma News Tribune did a waymarking contest (using existing categories) and I won a book there - much more useful.

So there are three artworks in this weeks list of art that I won't be crossposting thanks to the lack of a gps photo: Seattle Mural, Neototems, and Olympic Iliad. Olympic Iliad is shown above. Next time I happen to be up in Seattle for some reason I'll try to find a sculpture to waymark in the area that I'm visiting, but until then I won't be able to participate. I'm a Washingtonian who lives in a suburb of Seattle. I'd love to hear what you Midwesterners and East Coasters think.

Posting a Waymark from a Waymark

Have you ever posted an Internet cafe or wifi waymark from the waymark? I suppose those of you who pay for wifi on their cellphones or PDA's find nothing interesting about this, but it was kind of cool to be sitting inside an internet cafe and doing the write-up describing my surroundings. I felt a bit like a restaurant reviewer and was trying my best to not seem sneaky, but I didn't want a waitress looking over my shoulder and seeing a bunch of pictures of the place on my computer. I didn't feel like explaining waymarking - I just want to kick back on their comfy couch, drink my coffee and post away.

I sat there and posted waymarks for the building (an old Odd Fellows Lodge,) and for Dog-Friendly Restaurants, Internet Cafe and Wifi hotspots (the One Heart Cafe that I was sitting in.) What a cool location. The Merlino Art Center is this great old building that was built in 1925 as a fraternal lodge but is now an art hotspot in the very artsy town of Tacoma. The building holds a non-profit indie film theater, a cafe, 2 art galleries and a bakery on the retail level and above it is filled with artists studios, most of which are open to the public on the third Thursday of each month. I hear the bakery, Corina Bakery, is excellent and I'll have to go back and waymark it, along with Two Vaults Gallery - one my favorite art galleries in the city.

So it goes without saying that a pretty artsy crowd hangs out here. Typically I wouldn't be too out of place here, however last night I was covered in Nike swag given to me by my sister who works for Nike at their HQ. What can I say? It was free and comfortable. I had my t-shirt, pullover, and hat on and "swooshed" my way through the restaurant while onlookers stared. The uniform of choice at the Merlino is funky mismatched clothes, Converse hightops, and multiple piercings so I stuck out like a sore thumb. That's the funny thing about the arts community. They get very pretentious about not being pretentious. :)

Some of the above waymarks are still waiting to be reviewed, so you might not be able to view them immediately.

Waymarking Photos

It's always a disappointment to me when I have to photograph something for a waymark on a gray day (which happens quite often here in Washington State.) The difference between a sculpture set against gray, versus one set against a brilliant blue sky is amazing - it brings out an energy in the object being photographed, and the colors just pop!

Yesterday I spent the day in Seattle visiting the new wing of the Seattle Art Museum and taking a friend to see the Olympic Sculpture Park for the first time. Last time I was at the park it was pretty gray but this day was a day for taking photos. I took pictures of EVERYTHING! The colored glass "shadows" on a gravel path, a vandalized pane of glass in the "Seattle Cloud Cover" piece, every possible shot of the Calder sculpture with the Puget Sound in the background... When I started taking pictures of the gravel path my friend wandered off to make sure people didn't realize she was with me. ;) The shots turned out great though and now I need to get around to adding them to the galleries of all the different sculptures that I have waymarked in the park.

Oh - little photography tip for those taking photos of landscapes. Divide the image you see in your lense into 3 rows both horizontally and vertically. Never have the horizon line, or main horizontal line of the shot running straight through the middle of the picture. Either have it at the imaginary line at the top or bottom third of your shot. Also, if there is a subject that is part of the landscape shot - say a lighthouse on a bluff near the coastline - don't center the subject! Frame it so the subject is on the left or right "1/3" line that you've drawn vertically through your shot. Seems picky, but it will make a world of difference in your landscapes. So often I see waymarking pics come through that would be magazine quality shots if only they had been framed using the "rule of thirds".

The above photo is of the piece "Seattle Cloud Cover" that runs the length of the pedestrian bridge in the park. The light was being cast in all of these wonderful colorful shadows and I must have taken about 30 or more photos of the gravel alone. This shot shows the end of the piece and the shadows that it casts. I liked the perspective of the shot.

Mom's Day Waymarking

For Mother's Day this year I asked for a morning in Seattle at the Olympic Sculpture Park and then a quick stop at the Seattle Public Library to visit Rose Red's waymark there.

What a glorious day of waymarking. Troy and Hunter actually enjoyed the sculpture park (I was a bit worried) and we spent over an hour wandering the park from top to bottom. The only disappointment was missing the pavilion, because it didn't open until 11 a.m. Oh well, that leaves a few sculptures for someone else to waymark.

It's a magical place. Truly amazing and photographs can't do it justice. One of the greatest accomplishments of the designers is the vistas and perspectives that are created as the park steps down the hillside to the waterfront. Sculptures can be enjoyed up close, from a distance with the water as a backdrop or on the other side, from a distance with the city as a backdrop. The photo at left is a close-up of "Seattle Cloud Cover" looking through the piece to the Space Needle and city beyond.

Troy's favorite was the sculpture "Love & Loss". It's much more interesting in person than can be displayed in a photo. The piece uses 2 benches, a table and chairs, a reflecting pool, and a tree to form the words "love" and "loss" with both words intersecting at the letter "o", which is a reflecting pool. Spinning above the words is a red, neon ampersand.

Other stops included Henry Moore's, "Vertebrae" and the Rem Koolhaas building for the Seattle Public Library.

Above you see the neon ampersand from "Love & Loss", and Calder's "Eagle" framing the Space Needle.

Above is Richard Serra's "Wake" and Henry Moore's "Vertebrae".

So even though I spent Saturday tearing my hair out while writing code for a Website, Sunday was a beautiful day full of world class art and REALLY good coffee and muffins at Macrina's. (I can't believe there isn't an independent bakery category yet. Someone needs to get on that so I have an excuse to go back to Macrina's for another orange-hazelnut twist and some of their delicious coffee.)