January 13, 2011
Killing the Colony
Meet the hundred artists the tunnel bureaucrats don't care about displacing.
Alice Wheeler
RESIDENTS OF ONE OF THE OLDEST ALL-ARTS BUILDINGS ON THE WEST COAST The graffiti artist Weirdo and photographer Jen Vertz.
Tools
Last Wednesday afternoon at the 619 Western building, fat daubs of oil paint sat out on palettes, barely drying at all in the unheated air. The artist, a Vietnam vet, sat in the room—high ceilings, one wall all windows revealing the industrial red cranes of the working waterfront behind the curve of Seattle's dilapidated viaduct—and told stories.
He told about that uncommonly beautiful year in Saigon, where he had a Vietnamese girlfriend he shared an apartment with on the sly. About discovering in 1981 this abandoned warehouse, at 619 Western Avenue, with rice and coffee beans and dust strewn everywhere, sitting right at the base of the Seattle street that coined the term "skid row." His studio is dotted with mosaics using colored glass collected from buildings that have been demolished in Pioneer Square over the years. One night recently, asleep in his studio—where he's slept and eaten without heat or private running water for 30 years—one of his own windows broke mysteriously, like a premonition. He never found the big shard of 100-year-old glass that fell. Ever since then, there's been only air between his bed and, across a narrow street, Seattle's original post office and steam plant with its black smokestack still rising.
Stranger Personals
On the floor directly below this was another artist telling stories—everybody was feeling nostalgic, because less than a month ago, the artists of 619 were told they're being evicted in March 2012. Some have already jumped ship, scrambling to get what affordable studio space is left in the city before it runs out. Others want to protest but wonder whether they should apply for the relocation assistance money that may be available from the government—which is taking applications this month already—since it's the city and the state that say the artists have to be out, the 100-year-old building demolished, to make way for the underground tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
"This is one of the oldest all-arts buildings on the West Coast," said Johnny O'Brady, an artist on the fourth floor. "There's a good chance the tunnel won't even happen, but people are already packing up. There's tons of confusion."
The confusion comes from the fact that the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) told the building owner about the eviction six months ago, but he didn't tell the artists. The artists found out in a meeting that was advertised with only a few days' notice—and by the time the meeting was held, the "public comment period" for the tunnel's environmental review process had already lapsed. In reviewing the environment, the state left out the heart of the heart of Pioneer Square: the artists.
O'Brady is a generation younger than the Vietnam vet. He wears combat boots and remembers SoHo in the '80s. His stools are made of skateboards broken into halves; he sat hunched over the floor, which was covered in canvases depicting the faces of old-time pinup girls. There were so many canvases that he had to step on them. It was the day before art walk—the city's original art walk and still its biggest, the one that has been held the first Thursday of every month in Pioneer Square for the better part of 50 years. Pioneer Square's art walk is said to be the oldest in the United States.
The 619 Western building is not about sheer ambition. O'Brady is not about to be on the cover of an art magazine, and only some of the 100 or so who rent at 619 Western are "about to be" anything at all. They simply are artists. Occasionally they sell something. Maybe they teach this month, wait tables on the side, or have an entire modest daytime career. (This raw place does not attract anyone accustomed to wealth.) But no matter what else is going on, they make pictures and objects within these walls and show them every month—and that alone makes 619 Western, for lots of people, the best part of the original American art walk.
After the white cubes of the commercial galleries close at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m., everybody heads over to 619. The floors creak, the elevator is painted steroidal eggplant colors (and contains a blurry painting of the Cheshire Cat), and closing time is unknown. The nearby Tashiro Kaplan Artists Lofts building was developed in 2004 as a replacement for 619, but it is a qualitatively different place, containing galleries and hosting open studios only once a year. At 619, in spades, is what every museum and gallery wants just a dose of: messy, living art energy.
The art is all over the place. It runs down the hallways and staircases. You can show anything: Japanese animation drawings, dour geometric abstraction, black-and-white photos of your mother, garish paintings of lecherous old men being breast-fed tequila shots by naked green women. That latter scene is meant to be a satire; it was made by an older artist called Johnny Wow!, who's been at 619 for several years, and all of his paintings are, well, like that.
The longest-running tenant is Edd Cox, who's been at 619 since 1981. He makes highly skilled photo-realistic paintings of flowers and people in old-fashioned cars, and he also makes looser, New Guinean–influenced scenes he calls his "jazz" style. Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, a founder of the Capitol Hill gallery/collective pun(c)tuation, rents here; so does street artist Weirdo, whose latest project (made possible by a small grant and Weirdo's cheap rent at 619) is a mural wall available to emerging artists that spans the length of a city block nearby, across from the historic Smith Tower. The businesses at Second Avenue and Yesler Way, including contemporary art gallery Howard House, have closed. The giant mural—vibrant orange, yellow, green, blue, and red—is the only thing lighting up the block besides the crackheads.
The 619 building has one non-art tenant in the upper floors where the studios are (the first of the six floors, available for retail, bears multiple FOR LEASE signs). The non-art tenant is the U.S. office of the Tibetan Nuns Project, an international nonprofit run by the Dalai Lama's sister-in-law that's supported Tibetan nun refugees in India for 20 years. Just outside its office is the crack, inches wide, that runs down the center of 619 Western and that widened during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake; in some places, you could pass a kitten from one floor to another through this crack. The building has settled in parts; spray-paint cans roll toward wavy, slumped windows. Firefighters who were visiting the building once told the Tibetan Nuns staffers that in case of fire, the wooden stairs and the fire escapes (not firmly attached) should be avoided, and advised them instead to jump out their fourth-floor windows. They laugh when they tell this story; they would rather take their chances than move to someplace duller than 619.
If you did jump out of 619, you might see the name "SU JOB" in cornflower-blue letters on your way down. Job was a redheaded artist and the soul of 619 for more than 15 years before she died in 2008 of cancer at age 52, and her name is stenciled on the building; also tattooed in out-of-the-way places on 619's skin are names like "CRIS BRUCH," another beloved Seattle artist.
It's a typical story: What makes 619 special is what makes it vulnerable when accountants, engineers, and bureaucrats come around. The tunnel is set to kill the living, breathing organism that is 619 Western.
The city council could intervene, but it has shown scant interest in doing anything but pushing the tunnel, even though voters rejected a downtown tunnel in 2007. After being contacted by the artists, a few council members visited the building recently. Tom Rasmussen, chair of the council's Transportation Committee, said he was not able to go and has never been to the building but is planning to meet with the artists soon. "We want to help," he said. But he had no specifics yet, and he recalled the deeply discouraging situation at Magnuson Park's Building 11, where 24 artists were kicked out in 2008 to make way for a commercial development in the public park.
Even though the environmental impact study is still incomplete, WSDOT signed contracts with a construction company for the multibillion-dollar project on January 6. O'Brady went to the signing. He raised his hand and asked that the artists be considered part of the environment. The ink dried anyway. WSDOT didn't respond to an interview request for this story.
Pioneer Square is a federally named historic district, eligible for strict protections. But the "council has blown us off again and again," said Cary Moon of the People's Waterfront Coalition. "It's maddening because it's not like they have to do anything controversial or difficult. They just have to hold WSDOT accountable to the laws that have existed for this purpose for decades." At the very least, "the city should demand from WSDOT that even if the building is demolished, the use is preserved" through funding or other support, Moon said.
The same environmental study that buried the pending displacement of a hundred artists also buried the fact that an additional 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles will flood downtown streets, including Pioneer Square, because the tunnel will have no exits north of King Street and will have tolls up to $4 each way. "The tunnel project could destroy Pioneer Square in several ways," Moon said. "The interchange [at King Street] is huge, suburban-scaled, and completely out of context with this fine-grained fabric." The state says this is the city's problem; it certainly is. The council has no money and no plan to deal with it.
The plight of the 619 artists is the first symptom telegraphing who's going to bear the brunt of the city's failure to protect and envision Pioneer Square. If the council won't do anything, an angel would have a legal case against WSDOT, said attorney David Bricklin. "Oh, yeah—WSDOT has been trashing the environmental law in their rush to get this project done. I think they're very vulnerable if somebody mounts a timely challenge." The state is prohibited from even choosing a tunnel—let alone displacing artists and signing contracts—before the environmental study is complete.
Will anybody stand up for the misfits of 619?
"Getting to be here has been an honor," said Carl Faulkner, who with his girlfriend, artist Redd Walitzki, shows his own and others' works in curated group shows in their 619 studio. When they moved in, the manager told them they could do anything besides throw a couch out the window. That had happened before. Anything else, he said, goes. 
1
I can't believe they made it this far, and think they're wise to put the arm on the state treasury. So pissed the owners didn't pass on WSDOT's official notice, plus am positive WSDOT let the owners know what was coming long beforehand...maybe the tenants/state/city could go after them for a bite - their business Ace Novelty may be gone but the Mayers family's still got juice - Karen Mayers Gamoran was Maria Cantwell's finance chair and is currently trying to put together a Melrose Market type urban mall at the Polson building; Jim Weisfield's with Nathan Myhrvold's IP company now...maybe some PR might do something...for chills I looked up the Stranger's 1999 article:
The health of co-op galleries like Soil, Oculus, or the Pound, and of studios like the Washington Shoe Building, 619 Western, and Noodleworks depends on cheap rent in buildings which would otherwise lie vacant. Neglectful owners like the late Sam Israel are their lifeblood, keeping their expenses sustainable; his death, and the ensuing redevelopment of his properties during a general real estate development boom threatens co-op galleries and studios greatly.http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/cultu…
2
The heart of the heart of Pioneer Square is bums, junkies, rapists, thieves and thugs. Artists are the crust on the wound.
3
Before reading this article (but after reading related articles in the other local papers) I was a little on-the-fence about the whole thing.
On the one hand - I do firmly believe artists contribute to the economy. And I think it's great that people can make a living (or maybe just scrape by) doing what they love.
On the other hand - the artists are renters. They don't own the property. They might have emotional ties to the building, but frankly they've got no skin in the game. They could be gone the minute their lease expires, tunnel or no tunnel.
Where do I stand after reading the Stranger article?
Did Jen Graves elicit my sympathy for these soon to be displaced artists?
Nope, not one bit. In fact, after reading this story, I say tear the damn building down TOMORROW.
I am so damn sick of the way the Stranger reports on these issues. It's always how someone is "entitled." We've been here 20 years, so now we are "entitled" to rent for the next 20?!?!? Or if not, then the City by god better provide us with a space?!?!?
NO, that's not how the real world works. You aren't entitled to anything. You want something? WORK FOR IT! You want an artists colony where nobody is ever going to get kicked out? Raise the money yourself!
Now, I do want to thank you for one thing. You have clearly illustrated that these artists are living in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. What with no heat and all. So I will do them all a big favor and complain to the DPD and SFD about the deplorable living conditions. This way the landlord can spend his money to make upgrades. Or, considering the building is about to demolished, he can just evict them all now!
On the one hand - I do firmly believe artists contribute to the economy. And I think it's great that people can make a living (or maybe just scrape by) doing what they love.
On the other hand - the artists are renters. They don't own the property. They might have emotional ties to the building, but frankly they've got no skin in the game. They could be gone the minute their lease expires, tunnel or no tunnel.
Where do I stand after reading the Stranger article?
Did Jen Graves elicit my sympathy for these soon to be displaced artists?
Nope, not one bit. In fact, after reading this story, I say tear the damn building down TOMORROW.
I am so damn sick of the way the Stranger reports on these issues. It's always how someone is "entitled." We've been here 20 years, so now we are "entitled" to rent for the next 20?!?!? Or if not, then the City by god better provide us with a space?!?!?
NO, that's not how the real world works. You aren't entitled to anything. You want something? WORK FOR IT! You want an artists colony where nobody is ever going to get kicked out? Raise the money yourself!
Now, I do want to thank you for one thing. You have clearly illustrated that these artists are living in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. What with no heat and all. So I will do them all a big favor and complain to the DPD and SFD about the deplorable living conditions. This way the landlord can spend his money to make upgrades. Or, considering the building is about to demolished, he can just evict them all now!
4
Cry me a fucking river. Why are ARTSTS entitled to desirable housing at well below market rates? If they're priced out of their current digs, let them move somewhere cheaper. Like Tacoma.
5
Ooooohhhh isn't it COOL you can park your motorcycle in your loft apartment and have a hip Asian girlfriend and pay only $400 a month! Just like NYC! Hey wait, I GOTTA LEAVE NOW??? IT'S NOT FAIR!!! Seattle, YOU OWE ME! Stranger, help a brotha out! Take up a collection, anything! Shit I might have to GET A JOB or something!
6
Seriously I've been reading these sob stories in the stranger for at least 15 years now. Don't worry, THEY'LL SURVIVE people!
7
Most of the artists in the building don't live there - it's mostly work studios.
Also, I don't think anyone thinks that they are "entitled" to anything just because they've been there for years. They're just looking for a place to make their art and there has been no better place in town in such a centralized location with so many other people like them.
Whether you care about the artists or not, it's a creative community that will soon be gone and not replaced.
Also, I don't think anyone thinks that they are "entitled" to anything just because they've been there for years. They're just looking for a place to make their art and there has been no better place in town in such a centralized location with so many other people like them.
Whether you care about the artists or not, it's a creative community that will soon be gone and not replaced.
8
Why can't they? They can pool their money, form a co-op and buy a building. But that's what GROWNUPS do.
And Downtown is central to what, exactly? The arts community? The coke dealers? The black-wearing sycophants and hangers-on?
There's affordable space in the city, if you aren't scared of minorities and poor people. But of course in Seattle, everyone is.
And Downtown is central to what, exactly? The arts community? The coke dealers? The black-wearing sycophants and hangers-on?
There's affordable space in the city, if you aren't scared of minorities and poor people. But of course in Seattle, everyone is.
9
Entitled? These people work their asses off to entertain YOU for FREE every First Thursday, on top of all the other uncompensated work they do in the community plus their day jobs.
What they should have done all along is charge admission then we could listen to all the "grown-ups" complain that they have to pay to see art.
What they should have done all along is charge admission then we could listen to all the "grown-ups" complain that they have to pay to see art.
10
That isn't the point. You know they're going to renovate that place and turn it into another fucking condo on the waterfront for Microsofties to practice their fingerpaintings with. And if you happen to take a tiny fucking peak around a corner now and then, you'd notice that ART is what CREATES your world. Every aspect. From the apps on your iPhone to the shit seats on the bus. Someone with a creative mind took the time to design these things. But on another note more appropriate to this, we can't all be rich pissed off assholes. We can't all take out loans and bury ourselves in debt for a fake prepressed american dream, some of us like the gutters because it makes life more interesting. This building has life. And it's going to die now, because of shiesty sneaking politics, and over-capitalist building owners. Yeah, another sob story, and sob stories suck. I'm about to maybe be evicted from my artist collective because the owner of the building wants to sell it as a vet retirement home. GREAT. Take a productive, positive, and CLEAN environment, and turn it to another fucking drab, depressing nut house where people leave every now and then to hack the face off someone with a hatchet. LIFE SUCKS these days, and shit's hard to come by. We're not looking for pity, but a good clean HEADS UP wouldn't hurt, now, would it?
12
I too cannot sympathize with these folks and this article. The Seattle art scene has always been in a vicious cycle of mediocrity and it's articles like these that help to fuel this middle ground. (I've been here for 20 years so I can speak from experience) We need buildings like 619 but I don't think anyone in this building ever expected it to last forever. This is just simply part of what it means to be an artist and frankly I think its a good thing. We need to be pushed as a community, forced to take different directions...see things from a different perspective.
Did we all forget that we now have the entire Federal building over by the old Lawrimore Project filling up with a new fresh group of artists?!?! Who knows what will come of it by I for one am excited about the possibilities.
I see this as PROGRESS people! Move On and Move forward!
Did we all forget that we now have the entire Federal building over by the old Lawrimore Project filling up with a new fresh group of artists?!?! Who knows what will come of it by I for one am excited about the possibilities.
I see this as PROGRESS people! Move On and Move forward!
13
"And if you happen to take a tiny fucking peak around a corner now and then, you'd notice that ART is what CREATES your world. "
Ohhh no, honey. Business creates our world. Art is nothing compared to business. Nothing.
Ohhh no, honey. Business creates our world. Art is nothing compared to business. Nothing.
14
How could I forget the all encompassing power of paper and movable digits.
Sorry, I meant money.
That's disgusting.
Fuck. Maybe I'm too much of a romantic.
Sorry, I meant money.
That's disgusting.
Fuck. Maybe I'm too much of a romantic.
15
Sometimes when there is a big infrastructure project, people get displaced. It's life. It's not as though it is as devastating as the 3 Gorges Dam. For Seattle to remain a viable port city, a tunnel or viaduct needs to be built. Without the port, Seattle has a laughable economy and is a joke of a city.
16
Money has done more to sustain life than all the art ever made. You can piss and sneer on money and productive people, but that doesn't change the facts. We don't care about your contempt for us, or your contempt for what really sustains our world.
You can chew moldy bread in a cave, if you want your romantic world.
You can chew moldy bread in a cave, if you want your romantic world.
17
Normally, I'd troll this kind of thing, but Then I realized..that building is the last of it's kind in Seattle,and this is really the end of an era..
When I was in my 20's I used to live at 89 yesler. You had to walk through dialogue art gallery to get to my loft. apparently Mudede lived in my basement around the same time. (the underground) Many nights, I would walk from my place over to 619 and hang out and chat, or pop over to the shoe building and have a couple of beers and shoot the shit wile salon betty played a live rent benefit.
good times.
So I'm going to go against the grain here and say I'm going to miss the 619. It was the last soldier on the front of a losing battle.
When I was in my 20's I used to live at 89 yesler. You had to walk through dialogue art gallery to get to my loft. apparently Mudede lived in my basement around the same time. (the underground) Many nights, I would walk from my place over to 619 and hang out and chat, or pop over to the shoe building and have a couple of beers and shoot the shit wile salon betty played a live rent benefit.
good times.
So I'm going to go against the grain here and say I'm going to miss the 619. It was the last soldier on the front of a losing battle.
18
I seem to remember hearing something a couple years ago about how they were going to evict all the artists? I don't know if it was to demolish the building or re-designate it but, I had friends there that moved out because of this. What was that all about and why didn't that happen? It was long before they made any decisions about the tunnel, sooo..???
19
While the loss of the Western building and its artists has long been a predictable step in the process of building the tunnel. It is the construction of the tunnel itself that poses the greatest loss to the city of Seattle and our people, both artist and non-artist (we all colored and created as children). The financial concerns of the tunnel have not come close to being satisfied. The cost overruns. Unstable ground for boring (If Seahawks fans can register on a richter scale, what does that indicate about vibration travel? And one of the larger concerns to public safety is the ventilation system. It is not equipped or designed to vent adequately in a serious fire event (actually shuts down after the temperatures exceed its design limits (such as too much heat from a fire).
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
I am a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction and then I will leave this city.
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
I am a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction and then I will leave this city.
20
Is it just me, or does "nuh uh" sound like the landlord character in "RENT" who smugly announces that "Bohemia is DEAD!"
What is "nuh uh"s rage really about here? When "uh huh" was six, did his father confiscate his watercolors and ship him off to military school?
A world without money still have art, life, community and hope, . A world with money but without art couldn't have any positive or humane qualities to it. Such a world couldn't contain any reason to smile or any reason to live. And, despite "uh huh"s sneers about people being "afraid of minorities", this has nothing to do with racism and a person who is as anti-art as "uh huh" is couldn't possibly be anti-racist. Nobody worked at 619 because they hated minorities. A fair amount of them WERE minorities. It's not like it was the Hitler Youth Art Collective or something.
And for the rest of the anti-619 crowd...what is YOUR glitch, people? It's not as if these artists were harming any of you.
What is "nuh uh"s rage really about here? When "uh huh" was six, did his father confiscate his watercolors and ship him off to military school?
A world without money still have art, life, community and hope, . A world with money but without art couldn't have any positive or humane qualities to it. Such a world couldn't contain any reason to smile or any reason to live. And, despite "uh huh"s sneers about people being "afraid of minorities", this has nothing to do with racism and a person who is as anti-art as "uh huh" is couldn't possibly be anti-racist. Nobody worked at 619 because they hated minorities. A fair amount of them WERE minorities. It's not like it was the Hitler Youth Art Collective or something.
And for the rest of the anti-619 crowd...what is YOUR glitch, people? It's not as if these artists were harming any of you.
21
While the loss of the Western building and its artists has long been a predictable step in the process of building the tunnel. It is the construction of the tunnel itself that poses the greatest loss to the city of Seattle and our people, both artist and non-artist (we all colored and created as children). The financial concerns of the tunnel have not come close to being satisfied. The cost overruns. Unstable ground for boring (If Seahawks fans can register on a richter scale, what does that indicate about vibration travel? And one of the larger concerns to public safety is the ventilation system. It is not equipped or designed to vent adequately in a serious fire event (actually shuts down after the temperatures exceed its design limits (such as too much heat from a fire).
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue (I am one of them) are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
As a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction with sadness and wait for the art that will surely come from it.
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue (I am one of them) are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
As a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction with sadness and wait for the art that will surely come from it.
22
While the loss of the Western building and its artists (I am one of them) has long been a predictable step in the process of building the tunnel. It is the construction of the tunnel itself that poses the greatest loss to the city of Seattle and our people, both artist and non-artist (we all colored and created as children). The financial concerns of the tunnel have not come close to being satisfied. The cost overruns. Unstable ground for boring (If Seahawks fans can register on a richter scale, what does that indicate about vibration travel? And one of the larger concerns to public safety is the ventilation system. It is not equipped or designed to vent adequately in a serious fire event (actually shuts down after the temperatures exceed its design limits (such as too much heat from a fire).
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
As a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction and then I will wait for the art that will come from its fall.
While the loss of the Western building and its artists (I am one of them) has long been a predictable step in the process of building the tunnel. It is the construction of the tunnel itself that poses the greatest loss to the city of Seattle and our people, both artist and non-artist (we all colored and created as children). The financial concerns of the tunnel have not come close to being satisfied. The cost overruns. Unstable ground for boring (If Seahawks fans can register on a richter scale, what does that indicate about vibration travel? And one of the larger concerns to public safety is the ventilation system. It is not equipped or designed to vent adequately in a serious fire event (actually shuts down after the temperatures exceed its design limits (such as too much heat from a fire).
The artist’s of 619- Western Avenue are just the first visible victims of a tunnel project that is destined to guarantee even larger and more complicated problems on our city’s political and financial landscapes then it already has. This one building is representational of an underlying threat to all of us in our community. Which is something that art and artists have been doing from the very beginning of art itself?
As a resident of 619-Wesrtern Avenue. And I am pleased be a part of the demise of such a dedicated group of artists. It is as big and creative as any place in our country, and it has fostered so much for many. I will watch its deconstruction and then I will wait for the art that will come from its fall.
23
Hello Jen,
My name is Leslie I am a "beertender" across the street from 619 at The Pioneer Square Saloon. I just wanted to thank you for such a thoughtful article about the plight of the artists and our neighborhood. Artists always seem to get the raw deal I'm afraid, by gentrification and or poverty. The tunnel effects not only the artists though, the other businesses , like mine, will be hurt too. We are not only losing revenue but good friends. The character of the area will be forever changed and for what? It seems to me that if the state is in such a huge budget crunch wouldn't killing a massively expensive (and invasive) project be a more progressive choice?
The building is in horrible shape, this is not the debate. The problem is about the city's seemingly endless disregard for the people who live and work here year round. Going forward I hope it isn't the demise of Seattle's last refuge for the strange and wonderful.
Before I blather on any more, thanks again. Please come down to the Saloon some evening and I will buy you a beer.
Leslie Victor
My name is Leslie I am a "beertender" across the street from 619 at The Pioneer Square Saloon. I just wanted to thank you for such a thoughtful article about the plight of the artists and our neighborhood. Artists always seem to get the raw deal I'm afraid, by gentrification and or poverty. The tunnel effects not only the artists though, the other businesses , like mine, will be hurt too. We are not only losing revenue but good friends. The character of the area will be forever changed and for what? It seems to me that if the state is in such a huge budget crunch wouldn't killing a massively expensive (and invasive) project be a more progressive choice?
The building is in horrible shape, this is not the debate. The problem is about the city's seemingly endless disregard for the people who live and work here year round. Going forward I hope it isn't the demise of Seattle's last refuge for the strange and wonderful.
Before I blather on any more, thanks again. Please come down to the Saloon some evening and I will buy you a beer.
Leslie Victor
24
"What is "nuh uh"s rage really about here? When "uh huh" was six, did his father confiscate his watercolors and ship him off to military school?"
You are so far off the mark, it isn't even funny. Art doesn't need defense, and I'm not attacking art. I'm sticking up for the creative work that *I* do, which you would not call art, but is the work of my life.
"And, despite "uh huh"s sneers about people being "afraid of minorities", this has nothing to do with racism and a person who is as anti-art as "uh huh" is couldn't possibly be anti-racist."
Excuse me? I didn't say one word about minorities. Lay off the pipe, kid -- you're confused.
You are so far off the mark, it isn't even funny. Art doesn't need defense, and I'm not attacking art. I'm sticking up for the creative work that *I* do, which you would not call art, but is the work of my life.
"And, despite "uh huh"s sneers about people being "afraid of minorities", this has nothing to do with racism and a person who is as anti-art as "uh huh" is couldn't possibly be anti-racist."
Excuse me? I didn't say one word about minorities. Lay off the pipe, kid -- you're confused.
25
"I'm not attacking art. I'm sticking up for the creative work that *I* do, which you would not call art, but is the work of my life."
what IS that, exactly?
what IS that, exactly?
26
Fuck this argument about entitlement and whether artists count for anything.
Have you ever been to a First Thursday at 619 and had a blast? Got inspired? Smoked some weed? Met some cute girls/guys? If not, do you wish you did or would you like to do so in the future?
If you answered yes for any of these, then you should support this cause, because 619 Western, and everything that comes with it, are about to stop being available to you.
If you answered no to all these questions then A) you're quite boring, B) don't support this.
Have you ever been to a First Thursday at 619 and had a blast? Got inspired? Smoked some weed? Met some cute girls/guys? If not, do you wish you did or would you like to do so in the future?
If you answered yes for any of these, then you should support this cause, because 619 Western, and everything that comes with it, are about to stop being available to you.
If you answered no to all these questions then A) you're quite boring, B) don't support this.
27
I've always loved 619, ever since I started going to art walks in the early 90s as an art student. It is, honestly, one of the only truly vibrant art spaces on the entire first Thursday walk. The 'real' galleries in the area are always filled with upper-crust assholes and really tame 'living room' art. 619 is filled with real, interesting people making art the hard way and experiencing more than just the pictures on the walls but an incredibly open and exciting community as well. Most of the art was, if not interesting, passionate and raw and great.
The last time I went to first Thursday was a while ago, but I went by myself. I didn't have anything to do, and I wanted to get out, and my wife and kid were busy. So I went. I went up to the top of 619 and meandered my way down to the bottom, sipping a few glasses of two-buck-chuck and thoroughly enjoying the art and being with and chatting with the people. I ran into three friends that night that I hadn't seen in quite a while; no plans for such an occurrence. THAT was the beauty of 619, and that is what the Pioneer Square art community will lose when this building goes the way of every other interesting old-Seattle space in the city. It's a shame. And it's also a shame that so many of you rabid fuck posters have no clue about what makes this city great.
Goodbye, favorite part of the art walk. I'll miss you.
The last time I went to first Thursday was a while ago, but I went by myself. I didn't have anything to do, and I wanted to get out, and my wife and kid were busy. So I went. I went up to the top of 619 and meandered my way down to the bottom, sipping a few glasses of two-buck-chuck and thoroughly enjoying the art and being with and chatting with the people. I ran into three friends that night that I hadn't seen in quite a while; no plans for such an occurrence. THAT was the beauty of 619, and that is what the Pioneer Square art community will lose when this building goes the way of every other interesting old-Seattle space in the city. It's a shame. And it's also a shame that so many of you rabid fuck posters have no clue about what makes this city great.
Goodbye, favorite part of the art walk. I'll miss you.
28
you don't have to be an artist to think for a moment and reflect on the fact that art = culture, or at the very least reflects culture. keep taking that away and what are you left with?
throw up a mickey D's and a few more condo buildings and all you've got is another miserable place to live in america. except with a more healthy dose of rain.
keep unapologetically killing off all art, music, and culture in this world and you'll quickly find yourself gobbling prozac whilst staring at a blank wall.
jesus christ people, take a shit on a rainbow why don't you.
throw up a mickey D's and a few more condo buildings and all you've got is another miserable place to live in america. except with a more healthy dose of rain.
keep unapologetically killing off all art, music, and culture in this world and you'll quickly find yourself gobbling prozac whilst staring at a blank wall.
jesus christ people, take a shit on a rainbow why don't you.
29
The question is not one of individual artists having a space to do art. What the artists at 619 (of which I am one) are mourning is the impending loss of a collective space, a hub of artistic energy that is infused every month by the gathering of hundreds of people. This is a unique phenomenon that evolved over *decades*, and cannot be easily built or replicated. We absolutely can "pool our money, form a co-op, and buy a building", and maybe something like that will happen, but most of us didn't make 619 what it was, we are simply a chapter (perhaps now an epilogue) in a much larger story. It is a mistake to see 619 Western as a charity case, a broken warehouse where degenerate artists have been "allowed" to squat - as old, dusty, cracked, and unprofitable as it may be, it is a gem in Seattle's cultural crown (one of precious few, frankly), and the loss of it is a loss for the whole city.
30
I'd be interested in a list of dead art spaces in Seattle. Off the top of my head- The Shoe building, "666" Bell, 1020 2nd ave, SCUD in Belltown, the Volcano building on 19th ave on Capitol hill (name?)...
31
OK, "Nuh Uh", I checked back and it was actually "xxxStevexxx" that mentioned fear of minorities. I stand corrected on that one. But you DID sound like you wanted an art-free world.
Do you OWN 619, by any chance? The way you've posted about this you've made it sound like you're set to make a killing the moment the wrecking ball hits the place.
Do you OWN 619, by any chance? The way you've posted about this you've made it sound like you're set to make a killing the moment the wrecking ball hits the place.
32
And you DID say "Art is NOTHING compared to business" so your "I'm not attacking art" line now sounds like backpedaling.
Basically, every time we lose an art space, nuh uh, we get closer to a world without a soul. That SHOULD bother everyone who wants life to be worth living.
Basically, every time we lose an art space, nuh uh, we get closer to a world without a soul. That SHOULD bother everyone who wants life to be worth living.
34
"Do you OWN 619, by any chance?"
Nope, just an ordinary guy.
"And you DID say 'Art is NOTHING compared to business.' so your "I'm not attacking art" line now sounds like backpedaling."
As I already said (can you read?), I'm not attacking art -- I'm defending business. What specific thing I do is not important. But I am sick of the preening self-importance of artists, who assert that theirs is the only creative endeavor. And I'm sick of art sycophants, who treat the rest of the real world as if it were some Stepford Wives parade forced down their throats.
Working people make life possible for, well, non-working people. Just look at the list of buildings posted here. Artists live in the crumbling ruins of businesses. Businesses are the life-blood of any city. To insult and condescend to productive life, and to elevate puerile doodles to the status of "great ahhhrt" just nauseates me.
I love Art. I support Art -- directly, with my own money. I feel no need to defend my own interest in art, or in art's intrinsic greatness. What I am responding to is the snobbery, the sense of entitlement ("Ohhh, we're artists, waaahhhhh please give me housing"), and the sense that somehow their creativity is inherently worth more than the creativity of others. I, and the people that I work with, put our heart and soul into the work that we do. And what I do is not important or relevant here. But we do it, and we don't simper and prance for attention. We just fucking do it.
Artists are always bragging about how they live a truer life, closer to some (imagined) reality. And somehow that always happens when they are poor and down and out. Well, here's your chance, guys! Go poor it up in some fresh new shit-hole.
I've been to the 619. Yeah, sure, there was some half-way decent art. But mostly, it was just a lot of crash pads and very-fucked-on beds. It's hardly the lair of the next Picasso.
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Nope, just an ordinary guy.
"And you DID say 'Art is NOTHING compared to business.' so your "I'm not attacking art" line now sounds like backpedaling."
As I already said (can you read?), I'm not attacking art -- I'm defending business. What specific thing I do is not important. But I am sick of the preening self-importance of artists, who assert that theirs is the only creative endeavor. And I'm sick of art sycophants, who treat the rest of the real world as if it were some Stepford Wives parade forced down their throats.
Working people make life possible for, well, non-working people. Just look at the list of buildings posted here. Artists live in the crumbling ruins of businesses. Businesses are the life-blood of any city. To insult and condescend to productive life, and to elevate puerile doodles to the status of "great ahhhrt" just nauseates me.
I love Art. I support Art -- directly, with my own money. I feel no need to defend my own interest in art, or in art's intrinsic greatness. What I am responding to is the snobbery, the sense of entitlement ("Ohhh, we're artists, waaahhhhh please give me housing"), and the sense that somehow their creativity is inherently worth more than the creativity of others. I, and the people that I work with, put our heart and soul into the work that we do. And what I do is not important or relevant here. But we do it, and we don't simper and prance for attention. We just fucking do it.
Artists are always bragging about how they live a truer life, closer to some (imagined) reality. And somehow that always happens when they are poor and down and out. Well, here's your chance, guys! Go poor it up in some fresh new shit-hole.
I've been to the 619. Yeah, sure, there was some half-way decent art. But mostly, it was just a lot of crash pads and very-fucked-on beds. It's hardly the lair of the next Picasso.
35
@nuh_uh: I think Picasso had a very similar setup back in his day, actually. He bedded lots of ladies in his studio. I'm just sayin.
36
"Working people make life possible for, well, non-working people."
News flash...ARTISTS are working people, too.
"Working people make life possible for, well, non-working people."
News flash...ARTISTS are working people, too.
37
follow the money on this one. this is a gift to the owner to have it demolished and vacate the artists who don't/can't pay high rates. fugly-ass microsoftie condos is the correct answer.
38
Fuck these people.
Go meet some people who've actually been displaced (political refugees, the local tribespeople) and maybe you'd realize how fucking pathetic and self-absorbed you are to be attempting to cast yourselves as virtuous 'natives' fighting the WSDOT 'cavalry'.
Just about everybody in Seattle is an artist of some kind, and most of us don't live in a nice loft in Pio Square. Find some pretentious druggies to move in with in another neighborhood.
Go meet some people who've actually been displaced (political refugees, the local tribespeople) and maybe you'd realize how fucking pathetic and self-absorbed you are to be attempting to cast yourselves as virtuous 'natives' fighting the WSDOT 'cavalry'.
Just about everybody in Seattle is an artist of some kind, and most of us don't live in a nice loft in Pio Square. Find some pretentious druggies to move in with in another neighborhood.
39
The real artists in Seattle are in Georgetown and South Park. The Pioneer Square art scene is nothing but trustafarian Cornish kids playing hipper than thou poser games.
40
I have mixed feelings about the demise of 619 Western. I went to my first Seattle "art party" there in the early 1980s, in Billy King's studio. I had not yet moved to Seattle at the time, but had just returned to the West Coast after spending several years in New York and Boston. I've painted urban landscapes out of its windows. But the building should have been pink-slipped and demolished after the Nisqually earthquake, and I often wondered which inspector's palm had been greased to keep its doors open. It isn't a safe structure, rather a serious tragedy waiting to happen. I lived in the Shoe Building during its final years. It was full of wannabees and scenesters. There were very few artists there, and its principle function was to provide Eddie Maurer and the Samis Land Foundation with a substantial income. For most of its denizens it was party-time full-time. I suspect that the Ace Novelty Building is pretty much the same, and that the last real artist at 319 Western died of a heart attack in the Paloma Cafe in 2005.
42
Let's see, you've got your Unheated Garrett, your Broken Windows, your Illegal Squalor, your Noble Poverty in the Service of Art. A Consumptive Waif would have been nice, maybe give Central Casting a call.
I hate to break it to you, but a significant number of us here at the Western Building are represented by mainstream galleries, show our work in museums, get public art commissions, have articles written about us in real publications (ahem), and otherwise lean suspiciously respectable. Quite a few of us even make our livings as artists, although any artist can tell you that achieving professional recognition and waiting tables are, sadly, not mutually exclusive activities in the art world. But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
One of your story's main villains, the WSDOT, "hid" the information about the demolition of our building on page six of the environmental impact statement released in October, along with other top-secret information like the fact that the viaduct was coming down. Sneaky bastards!
The other villain, the building's owners, have always been up-front about their intention to eventually demolish the building and develop the site as something ritzier. In fact, the doom of the Western Building was impending long before the tunnel was a glint in WSDOT’s eye. There is a clause in all our leases allowing for a 6-month notice to vacate in that event. Instead, we're getting well over a year's notice, and we've been preparing for this eventuality for as long as I can remember. Oh yeah, and the landlords also heat the building, fix broken windows (if you ask), and repair the roof when it leaks. Slumlords!
While I’m no fan of the tunnel – and rarely find myself in the position either government agencies or anybody's landlord – this story exploits tired stereotypes of pathetic, impoverished artists eschewing professional success for the Pure Pursuit of Art, seemingly to make the point that the Tunnel Is Bad. There doesn't seem to be much other point to this article other than to call attention to what she apparently views as a freak show indispensible to our cultural viability.
Speaking of which, I had no idea Jen Graves cared so much about our building. Odd that she's only getting around to writing about it and its residents now that the bulldozers are moving in. To my knowledge, she has rarely, if ever, showed up for a first Thursday and actually reviewed a show at any of the struggling, marginalized, artist-run galleries she now finds so important. (But that would make them less marginalized and therefore less picturesque.)
For many of us, myself included, this will not be the first time we've had to move for big, expensive, public projects of questionable redemptive value. We will undoubtedly have trouble finding equally affordable space in a convenient location. Even those of us who have no interest in inviting the public into our studios will miss Pioneer Square, and the neighborhood, for its part, will find its artsy identity harder to hold on to when 619 is gone.
So yes, it's a loss, but please, ease up on the drama, and check your facts, and leave me out of your cheesy "La Boheme" redux.
Jane Richlovsky
P.S. Confidential to jacques-boot: For the record, my studiomate never had a heart attack, but rather died from complications from elective surgery. While Drake probably would have agreed with much of your assessment of the building (I batten down the hatches every Artwalk, myself), he might have found your assuming the right to name who the "real" artists are a wee bit pompous. My guess is that he would have been rather amused by this whole media circus.
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I hate to break it to you, but a significant number of us here at the Western Building are represented by mainstream galleries, show our work in museums, get public art commissions, have articles written about us in real publications (ahem), and otherwise lean suspiciously respectable. Quite a few of us even make our livings as artists, although any artist can tell you that achieving professional recognition and waiting tables are, sadly, not mutually exclusive activities in the art world. But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.
One of your story's main villains, the WSDOT, "hid" the information about the demolition of our building on page six of the environmental impact statement released in October, along with other top-secret information like the fact that the viaduct was coming down. Sneaky bastards!
The other villain, the building's owners, have always been up-front about their intention to eventually demolish the building and develop the site as something ritzier. In fact, the doom of the Western Building was impending long before the tunnel was a glint in WSDOT’s eye. There is a clause in all our leases allowing for a 6-month notice to vacate in that event. Instead, we're getting well over a year's notice, and we've been preparing for this eventuality for as long as I can remember. Oh yeah, and the landlords also heat the building, fix broken windows (if you ask), and repair the roof when it leaks. Slumlords!
While I’m no fan of the tunnel – and rarely find myself in the position either government agencies or anybody's landlord – this story exploits tired stereotypes of pathetic, impoverished artists eschewing professional success for the Pure Pursuit of Art, seemingly to make the point that the Tunnel Is Bad. There doesn't seem to be much other point to this article other than to call attention to what she apparently views as a freak show indispensible to our cultural viability.
Speaking of which, I had no idea Jen Graves cared so much about our building. Odd that she's only getting around to writing about it and its residents now that the bulldozers are moving in. To my knowledge, she has rarely, if ever, showed up for a first Thursday and actually reviewed a show at any of the struggling, marginalized, artist-run galleries she now finds so important. (But that would make them less marginalized and therefore less picturesque.)
For many of us, myself included, this will not be the first time we've had to move for big, expensive, public projects of questionable redemptive value. We will undoubtedly have trouble finding equally affordable space in a convenient location. Even those of us who have no interest in inviting the public into our studios will miss Pioneer Square, and the neighborhood, for its part, will find its artsy identity harder to hold on to when 619 is gone.
So yes, it's a loss, but please, ease up on the drama, and check your facts, and leave me out of your cheesy "La Boheme" redux.
Jane Richlovsky
P.S. Confidential to jacques-boot: For the record, my studiomate never had a heart attack, but rather died from complications from elective surgery. While Drake probably would have agreed with much of your assessment of the building (I batten down the hatches every Artwalk, myself), he might have found your assuming the right to name who the "real" artists are a wee bit pompous. My guess is that he would have been rather amused by this whole media circus.
43
Ahhh, the real world. People, the problem here is really just this simple, The Pacific Northwaste is no place for artists. Period. How long does this sad and tired conversation have to go on? Truth be told, where are the collectors and philanthropists who should be acquiring and collecting "local Art" both publicly and privately? Even our own museums don't support the local art scene which would provide the "food chain-trickle down" to galleries and then artists that would give all the prosperity needed for decent lives and working situations.Make a life somewhere cheaper or move away, that is the sad reality that is our cozy and quirky little northwest world. Sorry.
44
I'm not surprised by the demise of 619 Western, but I'm slightly surprised by the vitrol toward Seattle artists in these comments. To me 619 represents everything good about the Seattle art scene, which is, to my perspective, how it remains the "un scene". Yes, you can go to the procured galleries or the expensive art marts, the McGalleries, and that's all great. Or, if you're really looking for what's new, untapped, unpackaged, possibly not-ready-for-prime time, you can visit the places where art lives and moves, like 619. It's not to everyone's taste. I can see how the business heads look at the real estate, licking their lips at the possibilities for profit. But what is lost is an organ of the neighborhood and a hive of the raw art community. I love it there. I will mourn its loss in the neighborhood and I'll be advocating for the artists. Artists need a place, not just to spread out their paints, but to commune with other artists. But unless you're an artist, unless you've struggled, you might miss that aspect of 619 all together. Just like bankers need a place to bank, artists need a place to create. And since artists aren't compensated like bankers, the rent's gotta be low.
45
It appears that the demise of the 619 building was inevitable especially since the earthquake incident. I am an artist myself and having a facility for the arts is a great asset however, it seems obvious that the 619 group of artists was poorly managed and organized. The rent was more than affordable and considering the numbers of srtists associated with the building an affordable rent should have been charged to the artists to the point of making considerable capital gains rather than just covering the rent? In which case the 619 artists could have likely moved on to better facilities today. All water under the bridge but planning for such inevitabilities could have well avoided this unfortunate demise. To think...had you charged an extra $5 a month after rent for 100 artists the group could have collected well over $120,000 over the last 20 years and likely would have moved out into better facilities long before now. I am sorry to hear they did not receive much notice.
46
I am sorry to hear of the loss of the art facility. Unfortunately it was inevitable to its demise. Poor planning and management could have avoided the untimely situation. It seems the rent was less than $5 a month per artist. Why oh why... did you not form an organized effort to increase the monthly charge, still keeping it affordable and make capital gains to be used for a better facility? This is America not Europe. Buildings that have withstood centuries in Europe doesn't happen in the states! We are a country bent on erasing history, unlike artists who are more so prone to preserving history as well as creating change. It does not appear unreasonable in this case that the building be condemned. I am sorry the 619 group did not receive a reasonable amount of notification.
48
Nuh_uh's literalist view of life is just as joyless as it wants it to be. Art makes business tolerable, not the other way around. If the fiction called money stopped tomorrow, people would still be creative when they're done with the rest of their Maslovians. Oh wait, you're right- the Lascaux cave painters were too interested in their interest rates to mark on the walls.
Very simply you are someone terrified and angry with the fact that someone found a way to make a life more interesting and rewarding than yours. But there is hope! It only ruins your outlook on life until you own your dissatisfaction with what sounds like an existence so boring and tortured it wants to lash out against people whose only crime is having the balls to squat. You angry, afraid little entity. I'm glad I can't see the world like that.
Very simply you are someone terrified and angry with the fact that someone found a way to make a life more interesting and rewarding than yours. But there is hope! It only ruins your outlook on life until you own your dissatisfaction with what sounds like an existence so boring and tortured it wants to lash out against people whose only crime is having the balls to squat. You angry, afraid little entity. I'm glad I can't see the world like that.
50
For a country that supposedly values independence, creativity and freedom, people sure like to shit on the artists, musicians, rebels and freaks.
I also wonder why in the world are people who hate the art scene and artists even reading The Stranger. Go troll somewhere else, or better yet, try to move beyond whining and dragging others down and maybe try a little art of your own. :-)
I also wonder why in the world are people who hate the art scene and artists even reading The Stranger. Go troll somewhere else, or better yet, try to move beyond whining and dragging others down and maybe try a little art of your own. :-)
51
Perhaps if you can't make enough money supporting yourself as an artist, you should do something else. People who make art can't be treated differently in society, where would you possibly draw the line?
52
Yes, my bad, business is the ONLY thing in the world. That is why the world is in SUCH GREAT SHAPE THESE DAYS. The artist community I live in is also in danger because the buildings owner made bad financial moves and is losing the property. The country I live in is in danger because the previous 10 owners made bad decisions and is falling apart. The world I live in is in danger because the entire business system is collapsing so tell me, HOW IS BUSINESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART? Everything is crumbling away not because of artists and designers, but because of greedy BUSINESS ethics. Corporations not giving a fuck. Yeah, CALL ME A FUCKING HIPPIE, a despot, a bum, whatever, at least I have the heart, soul, and DIGNITY to know what a good, moral decision is.
FUCK YOUR MONEY.
And chew on my dried leathery colon.
FUCK YOUR MONEY.
And chew on my dried leathery colon.
54
I like historical buildings and would find this a reason to preserve a space, but the rest of Seattle is finally undergoing a major price relaxation, because the housing bubble peaked later here due to people moving from other states. Prices for other buildings should be going down. My friends live on the other side of the stadiums, and there are actually plenty of vacant spaces around, even if it wouldn't be a full colony.
Moreover, downtown Tacoma is becoming more and more attractive to move. Take a visit and maybe the people there can benefit from art
Moreover, downtown Tacoma is becoming more and more attractive to move. Take a visit and maybe the people there can benefit from art
55
Im sad this place is disappearing, but maybe part of that is that people like me didn't hear about it until now. I support the arts, and have been bored by the usual art walk bit; I think this would have been interesting to me. In other cities, the underground still tries to speak to people outside their immediate circle. Not so much in Seattle.
56
@52: Ohhhhh, they're busting out the capital letters. How convincing! What a strong argument you have!
Artists love to tell me how "challenging" their work is. Well, with a few simple posts, I've probably gotten more of a reaction out of you than 99% of the milquetoast crap that passes for Art in this world.
"HOW IS BUSINESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART?" Ask that question next time someone you love needs health care. Or when you experience actual, real hunger. Not "should I have Indian or Thai tonight" hunger.
"The artist community I live in is also in danger because the buildings owner made bad financial moves and is losing the property." Sooo... perhaps money just might be important, eh? And not in an "evil greedy business" kind of way, but in a "money makes my nice art community possible" kind of way? "Irony" is your vocab word for the day.
"Everything is crumbling away ..." Emotional hyperbole. We live better than most kings ever did.
"Yeah, CALL ME A FUCKING HIPPIE ..." I never called you anything. You're the one shouting insults.
"FUCK YOUR MONEY." Go ahead. Flush it down the drain. Stop paying rent to those greedy assholes. Burn your clothes. And in six months, you'll be standing on the side of the freeway, holding a dirty cardboard sign and giving me dirty looks because I won't give you booze money.
@48: "If the fiction called money stopped tomorrow ..." You can despise it, but it's certainly not a fiction.
"Very simply you are someone terrified and angry with the fact that someone found a way to make a life more interesting and rewarding than yours." Ahhhh, I love this part. I disagree with you, so suddenly I'm soulless and angry and blah blah blah. The sneering taunt of the romantic. Bullshit. You don't know shit about me. All you know is that you hate me, and that you want to tear me down.
@53: High fives.
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Artists love to tell me how "challenging" their work is. Well, with a few simple posts, I've probably gotten more of a reaction out of you than 99% of the milquetoast crap that passes for Art in this world.
"HOW IS BUSINESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART?" Ask that question next time someone you love needs health care. Or when you experience actual, real hunger. Not "should I have Indian or Thai tonight" hunger.
"The artist community I live in is also in danger because the buildings owner made bad financial moves and is losing the property." Sooo... perhaps money just might be important, eh? And not in an "evil greedy business" kind of way, but in a "money makes my nice art community possible" kind of way? "Irony" is your vocab word for the day.
"Everything is crumbling away ..." Emotional hyperbole. We live better than most kings ever did.
"Yeah, CALL ME A FUCKING HIPPIE ..." I never called you anything. You're the one shouting insults.
"FUCK YOUR MONEY." Go ahead. Flush it down the drain. Stop paying rent to those greedy assholes. Burn your clothes. And in six months, you'll be standing on the side of the freeway, holding a dirty cardboard sign and giving me dirty looks because I won't give you booze money.
@48: "If the fiction called money stopped tomorrow ..." You can despise it, but it's certainly not a fiction.
"Very simply you are someone terrified and angry with the fact that someone found a way to make a life more interesting and rewarding than yours." Ahhhh, I love this part. I disagree with you, so suddenly I'm soulless and angry and blah blah blah. The sneering taunt of the romantic. Bullshit. You don't know shit about me. All you know is that you hate me, and that you want to tear me down.
@53: High fives.
57
#36: "News flash...ARTISTS are working people, too."
Then the conflict is resolved. Artists do not deserve artificially cheap (subsidized) housing or workspaces. If artists want lofts, then they, as "working people", can pay for them.
Now dry those tears.
Then the conflict is resolved. Artists do not deserve artificially cheap (subsidized) housing or workspaces. If artists want lofts, then they, as "working people", can pay for them.
Now dry those tears.
58
Totally into the story until accountants were mentioned as art-killers. Seriously? Amazing article, but keep away from the stereotypes. Otherwise you're just as guilty as those who think artists don't deserve the building they've been inhabiting simply because they're artists.
59
Totally into the story until accountants were mentioned as art-killers. Seriously? Amazingly informative article, but keep away from the stereotypes. Otherwise you're just as guilty as those who think artists don't deserve the building they've been inhabiting simply because they're artists.
Let's be honest, plenty of businesswomen adore legitimate artwork. And plenty of businesswomen are the people who purchase art from artists. So I'm not quite sure why we're often labeled as the collective death of art in general.
Let's be honest, plenty of businesswomen adore legitimate artwork. And plenty of businesswomen are the people who purchase art from artists. So I'm not quite sure why we're often labeled as the collective death of art in general.
60
Money is what counts, baby. And I'm taking it with me. And when I do, I'm gonna shit nickels down on your heads.
61
Ah, yes. The scourge of the mediocre "artiste" - someone who actually wants to do something valuable with the space required, and having to deal with a jerk of a landlord.
To be sure, I believe WSDOT is embarking on a beautiful performance art piece. It's called, "Get real digs, you entitled art-school dropout fuckwits, and then maybe you'll sell actual art to actual people."
To be sure, I believe WSDOT is embarking on a beautiful performance art piece. It's called, "Get real digs, you entitled art-school dropout fuckwits, and then maybe you'll sell actual art to actual people."
62
Look, I'm not saying people don't have some seriously good art. However, I'm watching Jen Graves cheerfully ride to the rescue of an "artist's colony" in the Muedede style of socialist reformer. There is no colony; just cheapass rent in a building downtown with crappy parking and a guy who, let's face it, does "art" for art's sake in a room with no heat and no running water.
I can tell stories, too - of how I spent a beautiful summer riding Percherons and heavy draft horses over the fields behind redheaded girls, of how I watched authors of the Vietnam era who'd slowly cooked their brains in low-grade acid daily for twenty years don masks of Native Americans that one of them "envisioned" on his "spirit quest" when he was driving around the country in a bus that was almost always on the verge of breaking down, of seeing the moon rise in the Sahara with a Tourareg friend over heavy sweet spice coffee, of masturbating into the batter of a cookie I baked and sent on to a very cute girl.
See? I can tell stories too. But I can also get up off my fucking ass and put some goddamn saran wrap over a broken window in the wintertime. For fuck's sake, if the dipshit can't put a bloody piece of plywood over the window, I'm not sure I WANT his stupid ass to be parked in the building.
I can tell stories, too - of how I spent a beautiful summer riding Percherons and heavy draft horses over the fields behind redheaded girls, of how I watched authors of the Vietnam era who'd slowly cooked their brains in low-grade acid daily for twenty years don masks of Native Americans that one of them "envisioned" on his "spirit quest" when he was driving around the country in a bus that was almost always on the verge of breaking down, of seeing the moon rise in the Sahara with a Tourareg friend over heavy sweet spice coffee, of masturbating into the batter of a cookie I baked and sent on to a very cute girl.
See? I can tell stories too. But I can also get up off my fucking ass and put some goddamn saran wrap over a broken window in the wintertime. For fuck's sake, if the dipshit can't put a bloody piece of plywood over the window, I'm not sure I WANT his stupid ass to be parked in the building.
63
"For fuck's sake, if the dipshit can't put a bloody piece of plywood over the window, I'm not sure I WANT his stupid ass to be parked in the building. "
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.
64
From a positive perspective - Tacoma DOES need some uplifting artists to move into the area. ...and these people aren't really entitled to the property - seems like they shouldn't even be IN the building.
Just using that "logic" thing.
Otherwise, it actually sucks more for Seattle. Seattle should tear down the piece of shit Alaskan Viaduct and take a queue from San Francisco on how to rebuild a beautiful and even MORE vibrant waterfront (hint, cars should be a secondary priority, people the first priority)
Just using that "logic" thing.
Otherwise, it actually sucks more for Seattle. Seattle should tear down the piece of shit Alaskan Viaduct and take a queue from San Francisco on how to rebuild a beautiful and even MORE vibrant waterfront (hint, cars should be a secondary priority, people the first priority)
65
@59: See nuh_uh's comments; a lot of people who buy-into money as an end unto itself ("Money has done more to sustain life than all the art ever made.") are condescending pricks who believe that because they're engaging in behavior that our seriously dysfunctional social-economic system rewards with lots of money, they're Right and everyone else is Wrong. Certainly not everyone in business, accounting, etc. is this way, but almost by definition people who view money as an end don't view it as a means to, say, purchase art. Also, the people who tend to be most successful at exploiting our seriously dysfunctional social-economic system are people who care about money at the expense of everything else, so Business as a whole tends to be the enemy of anything not conceived as an optimal profit-making endeavor (e.g. most art, environmental conservation, knowledge for its own sake).
So many trolls: it's like the doll shelf in my bedroom circa 1992.
So many trolls: it's like the doll shelf in my bedroom circa 1992.
66
@65: More ad hominem attacks. And as usual, in the passive-aggressive language of the liberal.
"... but almost by definition people who view money as an end don't view it as a means to, say, purchase art." Most people view money as the means to their survival. Surviving, or even thriving, is the central goal of every being.
Only when basic needs have been satisfied can a being spare the energy for art. Food, clothing, shelter -- business makes all of this possible, on a scale that provides for billions of people. It's not perfect, but then no human endeavor is. And yet you show naked contempt for this.
I reject the narrative that art is something that self-nominated "artists" do. Everyone who creates, who puts some of their effort and skill and creativity into, is *doing* art. The notion of "artist" separate from "the rest of the sheep" is an elitist, self-serving idea. Read some of the other comments above -- a lot of people have contempt for this elitist idea, and especially the idea that self-nominated artists deserve some kind of special break (cheap housing), that the rest of us uncool people somehow don't deserve.
"So many trolls ..." So disagreeing with you means I'm a troll? Hardly. You just can't accept that someone doesn't think the way you do. Which is exactly what you accuse me of. Which makes you (yet another) lefty hypocrite.
"... but almost by definition people who view money as an end don't view it as a means to, say, purchase art." Most people view money as the means to their survival. Surviving, or even thriving, is the central goal of every being.
Only when basic needs have been satisfied can a being spare the energy for art. Food, clothing, shelter -- business makes all of this possible, on a scale that provides for billions of people. It's not perfect, but then no human endeavor is. And yet you show naked contempt for this.
I reject the narrative that art is something that self-nominated "artists" do. Everyone who creates, who puts some of their effort and skill and creativity into, is *doing* art. The notion of "artist" separate from "the rest of the sheep" is an elitist, self-serving idea. Read some of the other comments above -- a lot of people have contempt for this elitist idea, and especially the idea that self-nominated artists deserve some kind of special break (cheap housing), that the rest of us uncool people somehow don't deserve.
"So many trolls ..." So disagreeing with you means I'm a troll? Hardly. You just can't accept that someone doesn't think the way you do. Which is exactly what you accuse me of. Which makes you (yet another) lefty hypocrite.
67
I just read (I know, I know- it was at Crosscut, but still) the WSDOT estimates the cost of saving this building at $30 MILLION DOLLARS!
Evidently the way the pilings supporting the foundation are done, they have all rotted out, and it would require an incredible, expensive effort to replace them while the building still stands above.
I have no doubt that, after the landlord got his $30 million improvement, rents would go up, and the artists would get the boot anyway.
Spend ten percent of that on funding artspaces, individual grants, and helping set up artist co-ops.
If we really cared about artists, we would do more projects like the TK building, where artists get permanent live work spaces, and subsidized gallery spaces at street level.
Evidently the way the pilings supporting the foundation are done, they have all rotted out, and it would require an incredible, expensive effort to replace them while the building still stands above.
I have no doubt that, after the landlord got his $30 million improvement, rents would go up, and the artists would get the boot anyway.
Spend ten percent of that on funding artspaces, individual grants, and helping set up artist co-ops.
If we really cared about artists, we would do more projects like the TK building, where artists get permanent live work spaces, and subsidized gallery spaces at street level.
68
I'm a creative artist and writer, who lived happily in Seattle for six years. I know a lot of artists there, so I'd like to wish all of the artists being inconvenienced by this big move much success.
Moves are great! You heard me right. I've moved around a lot in my life and have found each new door I've opened full of great new adventures, surprises, and life experiences.
I've recently moved on from Seattle to Southern, California, and now onto NYC, where I'm totally loving life. If anyone there is thinking about NYC as a possible place to move to- I say yeah- do it! It's so great here for artists and you can still find affordable rents if you're the frugal searcher like myself. I'd be happy to give you more information if you contact me. http://www.youtube.com/gioleedy
Change for any artist is fuel for the soul. I've never been one to call any place my home forever. I've felt it very important to fuel my creative talents, by keeping my life as simple as possible, remaining as mobile as possible, staying flexible, and keeping an open mind towards new ideas, insights, experiences, people, and places.
By remaining open and continuously moving on as I have, I've experienced great growth both personally as well as an artist. I've also had tons of fun and excitement in my life, have never been bored like most people (it seems), and keep creating new things.
Fear is always the hardest thing to deal with when moving. Whenever I want or have to move on, I ignore those fears, think positive, pack my bags, and leave. By knowing that I'm off to start my next big adventure, I'm always raring to go.
As an artist, I've felt it very important to keep it all simple. When I moved here to NYC, all I brought with me was my luggage! I also think it's very important to remain very frugal and always look for the cheapest rent possible.
Looking for cheap rent has often landed me in areas that are soon to be up and coming.. where if I stayed too long, I'd be forced out due to rising rents and such. Honestly though, I've never really stayed too many places long enough to experience much of that, but some of the old funky places I've lived are certainly now major yuppie high rent areas.
Whenever you've got cheap rent it's great. Enjoy it, but you've also got to accept the fact that it's probably not going to last forever. Cheap rent rarely does.
I realize that it can be scary for some to move on, especially if they're not used to moving as much I do. But I assure you that there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of about moving. Like the saying goes, nothing to fear except for fear itself.
My advice is to ignore whatever fears you have about moving on, venture out to find that next cheap place down the road or across the planet, and go start your next big adventure. Whatever you do, have fun, keep your heads up, and good luck!
More...
Moves are great! You heard me right. I've moved around a lot in my life and have found each new door I've opened full of great new adventures, surprises, and life experiences.
I've recently moved on from Seattle to Southern, California, and now onto NYC, where I'm totally loving life. If anyone there is thinking about NYC as a possible place to move to- I say yeah- do it! It's so great here for artists and you can still find affordable rents if you're the frugal searcher like myself. I'd be happy to give you more information if you contact me. http://www.youtube.com/gioleedy
Change for any artist is fuel for the soul. I've never been one to call any place my home forever. I've felt it very important to fuel my creative talents, by keeping my life as simple as possible, remaining as mobile as possible, staying flexible, and keeping an open mind towards new ideas, insights, experiences, people, and places.
By remaining open and continuously moving on as I have, I've experienced great growth both personally as well as an artist. I've also had tons of fun and excitement in my life, have never been bored like most people (it seems), and keep creating new things.
Fear is always the hardest thing to deal with when moving. Whenever I want or have to move on, I ignore those fears, think positive, pack my bags, and leave. By knowing that I'm off to start my next big adventure, I'm always raring to go.
As an artist, I've felt it very important to keep it all simple. When I moved here to NYC, all I brought with me was my luggage! I also think it's very important to remain very frugal and always look for the cheapest rent possible.
Looking for cheap rent has often landed me in areas that are soon to be up and coming.. where if I stayed too long, I'd be forced out due to rising rents and such. Honestly though, I've never really stayed too many places long enough to experience much of that, but some of the old funky places I've lived are certainly now major yuppie high rent areas.
Whenever you've got cheap rent it's great. Enjoy it, but you've also got to accept the fact that it's probably not going to last forever. Cheap rent rarely does.
I realize that it can be scary for some to move on, especially if they're not used to moving as much I do. But I assure you that there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of about moving. Like the saying goes, nothing to fear except for fear itself.
My advice is to ignore whatever fears you have about moving on, venture out to find that next cheap place down the road or across the planet, and go start your next big adventure. Whatever you do, have fun, keep your heads up, and good luck!
69
A note on Bldg 11 in Magnuson Park.
24 artists weren't kicked out but 'caved' to what was a clever and crooked move on the part of the developers.
I never stopped paying rent and I'm still there now after more than a year of these 'developers' taking control of the bldg. They've yet to do anything with the space which was my fear all along:
Say they're moving in and by stating that possibility, then half the artists mass exodus b/c it's so hard to find affordable creative space.
Once everyone's gone they can make the claim that the bldg's falling apart (which is wholly untrue) and just sit on the land and bldg until the market turns around collecting their tax breaks and subsidies on 40 year leases that will have them putting less money into the bldg than we already put into it every year by the residents who've yet to exit.
Come to bldg 11!
24 artists weren't kicked out but 'caved' to what was a clever and crooked move on the part of the developers.
I never stopped paying rent and I'm still there now after more than a year of these 'developers' taking control of the bldg. They've yet to do anything with the space which was my fear all along:
Say they're moving in and by stating that possibility, then half the artists mass exodus b/c it's so hard to find affordable creative space.
Once everyone's gone they can make the claim that the bldg's falling apart (which is wholly untrue) and just sit on the land and bldg until the market turns around collecting their tax breaks and subsidies on 40 year leases that will have them putting less money into the bldg than we already put into it every year by the residents who've yet to exit.
Come to bldg 11!
70
I like the angle of the article, even if it is as old as usury itself. Art professors or "sacred clowns," or whatever you like to think of archetypal "teachers," should teach students the importance or real estate, even though it doesn't matter to the art anymore than a frame or "frame story" will make shit smell better.
"Money is what counts, baby. And I'm taking it with me. And when I do, I'm gonna shit nickels down on your heads."
As 60 above said. That's the kind of bitterness it takes to stay angry enough to succeed when you have even lost the urge to be an artist. Why live? Indeed, why try? These artists need to be taught a lesson; Romanticism died with Goethe.
"Money is what counts, baby. And I'm taking it with me. And when I do, I'm gonna shit nickels down on your heads."
As 60 above said. That's the kind of bitterness it takes to stay angry enough to succeed when you have even lost the urge to be an artist. Why live? Indeed, why try? These artists need to be taught a lesson; Romanticism died with Goethe.
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