At some point I started seeing the oil spill everywhere. I wrote about that, focusing on three new shows in Seattle, in this week's paper.

In other art-and-oil-related news, recent Mayor's Arts Award recipient Juan Alonso (congrats, Juan!)—inspired by Aaron Bagley, who painted this week's stark, aptly Rorschachy cover image of an oiled bird—is also donating money from sales of his art to the National Wildlife Foundation.

The other day Seattle-based writer and artist Yoona Lee forwarded me a couple of sketches she'd made the night before in response to the crisis. They were "done fairly quickly on newsprint with compressed charcoal, which has that uncompromisingly stark black that I wanted."