Good morning. It is allegedly Thursday, and possibly the last day of April. March took 100 years, April was five minutes—got it.
We cannot dwell on time's discombobulations. The only thing to do today is to fixate on the brilliance of Kathryn Rathke. You've seen her lines before. She often draws craggy-faced authors for places like The Economist or Vanity Fair. Have you heard of Wendy's? She drew Wendy. (The "mom" thing was unintentional.) Are you into relaxation? Watch her continual line drawings. The point is, you've seen her work because she's everywhere because she's bonkers brilliant.
Today—amazingly—10 people (as in TEN!) are going to have the chance to own a Kathryn Rathke drawing of something in your life.
Now! There are some requirements, a few hoops you gotta jump through, and one of them is: It needs to be an object with you in quarantine that you're sick of looking at. Something in need of sprucing up. For instance, Christopher Frizzelle, an editor at The Stranger, sent Kathryn a photo of this lamp in his apartment...
And, well, you'll see:
Now, you may be wondering: Why is Kathryn attacking Christopher so viciously throughout the video? This is what a lot of people have been wondering. As for that thing about how, in the past, Christopher has had mice in his apartment, and also that he doesn't like to do the dishes, or whatever? Horrible things to say, as well as true, The Stranger has confirmed.
Kathryn's turn toward Edward Gorey there with the mouse suicide is almost upsetting, but watching her delete that line through the mouse's body is more relaxing than words can express. It gives us life.
One of Kathryn's major contributions to Seattle culture is that, through her work with The Stranger and City Arts, she has immortalized Seattle's artists and leaders with distinctive wit and lifelike realness.
OK, so what do you have to do to get your lamp, or ugly couch, or boring view livened up by Kathryn Rathke? You have to make a donation of some kind to a cause that needs it, and send the receipt to Kathryn, and the first ten people who do that will get digital Rathke originals based on a photo that you snap and email to her.
Interested? Make contact with her this way and let her know where you're going to make your donation, and she will reply to that email, and you two can figure it out from there. Good luck!!
**THANK YOU, KATHRYN!!**
What an amazing gift you are giving the city. This has to be the most generous message since John Osebold's announcement he was making an album out of sounds we all send him.
Despite the things said about him in this video, we can confirm that Christopher at The Stranger can't wait to print out your drawing of his lamp in heels walking a dog. He's going to frame it and hang it on his wall.
If you have a talent, use it to make the world better today. That is the example Kathryn sets.
Good luck staying in, everyone.
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Previously in this series:
