>Many have tried to organize a neighborhood art walk like the highly successful First Thursday in Pioneer Square. After a variety of attempts by various people over the years, the 2TUE art walk on Capitol Hill has been up and running for a year. As the name suggests, the art walk takes place on the second Tuesday of the month. And the venues consist of a wide variety of art or art related venues.
What is interesting is the fact that the three most prominent galleries on the Hill - Martin/Zambito, Bluebottle and Ballard/Featherstone galleries - do not participate. Two of the Hill's most prestigious alternative spaces, Crawl Space and Joe Bar Café, also are not part of the mix.
Neither the Seattle Asian Art Museum nor the Frye Art Museum have extra hours on that day so the question remains can you have an Art Walk without recognized venues?
For Audrey McManus, the marketing-education coordinator at Babeland the challenge has been to grow the event organically and geographically into a pedestrian friendly event. Focusing on the Pike-Pine corridor, cafés, shops and community centers have turned their walls into exhibition spaces. Starting next Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. 15 venues will exhibit diverse artwork from mostly new artists.
Some of the October highlights include The Galactic Boutique, Store and Gallery, which will present the erotic work of photographer Kevin Brannaman. The artist uses the male body and all its implied sexual power as a way to create images of high eroticism.
Katherine Morgan creates images inspired by her fascination with the colors and rhythms of moving water and the surfaces over which they flow. Morgan uses colored pencils, drawing on both sides of polyester drafting film. The images are then reworked with washes of solvents, creating subtle illusions of texture and dimension. Her work will be on display at Whimsy Home Décor from Saturday, Oct. 6 through 14.
The Seattle LGBT Center features the work of 18 LGBTQ artists in a sci-fi/fantasy/horror themed group show "Vampire Pixies from Uranus." Appropriately, the show runs through Halloween. The exhibit promises to be a hoot.
Artist Marc-Anthony shows his charcoal/graphite/mixed media pieces at Uncle Elizabeth's. This show is a mini-retrospective of his oeuvre from the early '90s to the present year.
A scientist first and artist second, Katherine Reinhart seeks to capture the natural beauty of the world in her photographs at The Copper Vine. The photographer has no formal training in photography. And she refuses to have any of her images touched by Photoshop or any other digital editing program.
As the leaves start to fall and the air turns crisp, put an extra sweater on and step out on the hill to see art in unconventional venues. You might be the first to discover the next Picasso or Frida Kahlo. Enjoy a beverage and become part of "la vie de Bohème!" 2Tue takes place on Oct. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Pike-Pine corridor area from Melrose Avenue all the way up to 15th Avenue.
The list of participating venues include: Aria Salon & Spa, 1103 E. Pike St.; Bootyland, 1317 E. Pine St.; The Copper Vine, 1315 E. Pine St.; Electric Tea Garden, [Oseao Studios] 1402 E. Pike St., Faire Gallery Café, 1315 E. Olive Way; Galactic Boutique, 1213 Pine St.; GSBA Offices, 300 E. Pine St., Suite 322; Kaladi Brothers Coffee, 511 E. Pike St.; Retail Therapy, 905 E. Pike St.; Retrofit Home, 1419 12th Ave.; Salon Moxi, 1319 E. Pine St.; Seattle LGBT Community Center, 1115 E. Pike St.; Travelers, 501 E. Pine St.; Uncle Elizabeth's, 1123 Pike St.; Victrola Coffee, 310 E. Pine St.; Whimsy Home Décor, 1535 14th Ave.; and Zero Zero Hair Salon, 1525 Summit Ave.
Still finding its footing, the 2TUE can be found www.myspace.com/2Tue. Though it might help if the webmaster would stick to web-safe colors and concentrate on putting out clearly written information rather than focusing on web plug-ins that are not cross platform compliant. [Hint: not all of us use Windows].
Steven Vroom writes about the Visual Arts monthly for the Capitol Hill Times. He is the host of the Visual Art podcast "Art Radio Seattle" at www.VroomJournal.com. He can be reached at editor@capitol hilltimes.com.
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