Belltown Bent

Have a nice yesterday

Looking out the window this afternoon brought the pleasant reminder that this upcoming weekend presents one of the Bent's favorite opportunities to go back in time.

The unmistakable lines, the perfect pace, the gentle roll of the bow wake, and the gorgeous glow of pampered bright work - not unlike this Lake Union Dreamboat, photographed on a Bent cruise through BC's Gulf Islands. I pinched myself. I wasn't dreaming.

A pre-war wooden motor yacht was making it wondrous way down Elliot Bay for Bell Harbor and the annual Rendezvous of the Classic Yacht Associations Pacific NW Fleet, one of several such events scheduled for this summer.

Saturday and Sunday, June 16-17, the harbor will be a solid slip to slip dreamland of lovingly restored and maintained wooden motor yachts, displayed up-close and touchable, many open for boarding, and all worthy of the awe and admiration they inspire.

If you're anywhere near the downtown waterfront, make your way to Pier 66, check out the classic cars on display up top, then make your way down the gang-plank to a rendezvous with boating's past, and thank the skippers for keeping it present.

The lady gets around

Since the lovely yacht Laurel last graced the Bent's view of Elliott Bay, she has covered thousands of nautical miles visited glamorous ports of call.

Wherever she went, it seems, folks wanted to know more about her. Thanks to those who found posts about her here on the Bent, and the Ship's Blog, just up the bay in Shilshole Marina, we know some of the places she's been. You can probably use your imagination (and Google maps) to fill in the blanks in the itinerary. Really, let it run wild, I did:

Cabo San Lucas in late April; Ft. Lauderdale in early May; Amador, Panama (at the entrance to the canal) shortly thereafter; jump to Venice in late June; Split, Croatia in early July; Naxos, Rhodes, Lindos, and Symi, Greece through mid-August; Civitavecchia, Italy in late August; then back to Rybovich Marina in Riviera Beach, Florida the first week of December; St. Thomas V.I. by mid-month; then Falmouth Harbour, Antigua just after the new year. (Thanks, folks, for the comments. They make this whole thing work.)

But as beautiful as those destinations must be, Laurel couldn't have looked any more lovely anywhere than she did slowly cruising Alki on this rainy Saturday morning, before she anchored off Salty's. After a trip like that, the folks on board were probably ready to enjoy some Northwestern soul food and see what Sommelier Tim O'Brien (Washington Wine Commission's Sommelier of the Year 2006) was pouring for St. Patrick's Day.

Paternity TBD

Monday morning brought with it the joyous arrival of three little eaglets, nestled comfortably in their cozy nest, under the watchful gaze of their Eagle foster mother or father (Calder never really made that clear) in Belltown's Olympic Sculpture Park.

The eaglets' birth parent(s) - we'll assume father(s) - were nowhere to be found, leaving behind only a small sign which read Eaglets - Mixed Media - 2007 and the initials pdl, accompanied by the ASL symbols for each letter.  This stylized attribution leads the Bent to believe local performance art trio Jason Puccinelli, Jed Dunkerley, and Greg Lundgren, also known collectively as Vital 5 Productions, are responsible for this gift of life.

But one can't be sure. Just last week, the trio, decked out in berets, were in Tacoma impersonating collaborative artists SuttonBeresCuller as they anonymously installed their own Ship in A Bottle at TAM. But that's a different story.

Maybe.

It's entirely possible that SBC sired the Eaglets and are impersonating-in-absentia (is that possible?) the apparently attributed acronymic parents. DNA sampling doesn't quite work in this really-mixed-media world. Maybe we could check for paint chips under fingernails to find out who's parenting, or performing, whom.

UPDATE: PDL acknowledges paternity in Seattle PI

UPDATE: 02/20 - after being buffeted about and knocked from their nest by recent wind and rain, the eaglets have been moved indoors and are under the foster care of SAM conservators.

Add people and stir

Tony Smith's Stinger (1967-68 1999) was installed in Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park last summer, five months before next weekend's public opening. I wrote, back then, about all the elements which came into alignment to create the park, and the circumstances which contributed to Smith's becoming a great sculptor.

Stinger was named after the refreshing (and intoxicating) cocktail - a Bent second-set favorite. As is the case with many great cocktails, the last ingredient added can make all the difference. In the case of the Olympic Sculpture Park, the last, important element to be added is people. Art lovers, outdoors lovers, dog walkers, joggers, school groups, tourists, neighbors, or just folks trying to get across the tracks before an endless freight train clears the intersection at Broad and Alaskan.

The official opening is January 20th, but many pre-opening events are underway, including today's press preview, even as the amazing construction team battles storm after storm to finish the park. These folks, viewing Stinger from the inside out, were a small part of a large group which came through last weekend. From the Bent perspective, it was a transforming event. No hardhats and fluorescent vests, no all-black outfits, no camera crews. Just people following the paths, children running on the grass, pausing to take in the expansive views and consider the installed art. It's finally time to add the people and stir up this wonderful place, as the new banners proclaim, "where earth meets art".

More: pictures of this week's progress | SAM's latest update

Red-eyed Canaries

These little "spear-bearers" - Aechmophorus occidentalis, from the Ancient Greek words aichme (spear) and phoros (one who bears something around) and the Latin occidentalis (western) - are commonly known as Western Grebes. Yes, they've got red eyes, but no, they aren't even distantly related to canaries. (Remarkably, two independent research teams found grebes to be the closest living relative to the flamingo. But that's another story.)

But just as canaries nodding out in their little cages alerted miners when there was too much carbon monoxide in their confined space, the Western Grebe, through its declining numbers, is telling us something is wrong with our ecology.

Since 1979, according to Puget Sound Action Team, 14 of 18 marine bird species have experienced 56% to 95% decline, and the total number of marine birds have dropped almost by half. Just check out filmmaker Kevin Probasco's documentary, Losing our Wings (25:07 requires realPlayer) which explores the decline through the work of Terry Wahl and Dr. John Bower, two of the regions foremost marine bird scientists.

I saw these two amongst a "water dance" of a hundred or so grebes (slight digression - see An "exaltation" of larks) near Pier 70 on the Belltown waterfront. I've become accustomed to seeing them every winter when they move from western* freshwater lakes to our coastal waters. Dave McBee, who was in the region long before the Bent,  recalls in Get Lost Magazine when tens of thousands would winter over in the region. But not anymore. Oddly enough, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources isn't too concerned, rating Aechmophorus occidentalis at Lower Risk/least concern on their Red List of Threatened Species™

The British mine industry stopped using canaries in 1979, only when technology made them redundant (that's nice). As recently as 2003, pigeons were used in Kuwait to warn of chemical or biological attack. The U.S. Marine Corp., apparently, put as much trust in the $60 bird (food and cage included) as in their $12,000 high-tech sensors.

We should pay as much attention, and put as much trust in our spear-bearing "red-eyed canaries".

Learn more: Bird Web | Cornell Lab of Orinthology | Puget Sound Nearshore Project

* Western means western, but these guys have occurred as far into the middle as Lake County, IL!

Alignment

Creating a world-class sculpture park is a monumental (no pun intended) undertaking. Begun with vision, enabled by wherewithal, and realized through the alignment of many teams of specialists. Designers, architects, contractors, engineers (environmental, civic and structural, aquatic, geotechnical, mechanical & electrical), landscapers, and more.

They all work together to create a space for people to encounter art of a grand scale. A space like Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park, and remarkable works like Tony Smith's Stinger.

Stinger, itself, is the result of the alignment of many aspects of Smith's life. Stricken with tuberculosis as a child, he was quarantined in a cottage apart from his family home. He often occupied himself building models from small medicine boxes. As a young man he worked in the family's tool-making business and took up paintings and drawing. He went on to study architecture, work for Frank Lloyd Wright, design private homes and teach at NYU.

In New York, he befriended avant-garde painters like Pollock and Rothko and began to paint in his own abstract style. Frustrated with architecture (clients changed designs) Smith began to sculpt. By the time he reached fifty-five, the cover of Time proclaimed him the "Master of Monumentalists." This was 1967, the year he started Stinger.

“My initials are A.P.S. (Anthony P. Smith). I used to kid about their meaning Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. But I wasn’t kidding too much; it really felt that way.” -- Tony Smith, 1966

On Saturday morning, under the watchful eye of Mike Hascall, owner of Belltown's own Artech Fine Art Services, two of Stinger's four sections were carefully aligned at the base of an artfully landscaped aspen grove.

View the installation | Learn more about Tony Smith at artnet | National Gallery of Art

Leaving a Wake in his path

Richard Serra is thought by many to be the world's foremost living sculptor. His work has been exhibited and installed (with occasional controversy) throughout the world since he began showing in museums and galleries in New York in the late 60s.

A recent piece, "Wake" arrived in Belltown's Olympic Sculpture Park last weekend. It is not a site-specific sculpture, but the chosen setting, the OSP's Valley precinct, was partially designed to accommodate Serra's vision for the installation.

While many observers apply nautical metaphors to the piece, and Serra acknowledges an affinity for the sea, "Wake" was named to reference the death of his friend, J. Kirk Varnedoe, rugby player, rower, educator, and one of the world's most influential art curators.

Learn more: the installation | PBS | ArtCritical | Gagosian Gallery |

Welcome to the intersection

At the intersection of Elliott and Broad, Belltown recently welcomed a new neighbor. The sixty-foot nurse log, relocated from the Cedar River Watershed (the source of our water), will be the central character in Mark Dion's Seattle Vivarium, commissioned for the Olympic Sculpture Park, opening October 28th.

When it is enclosed in a custom eighty-foot greenhouse with visible complex mechanical systems, Mark's work will help us explore our ideas about nature and the complexity of her cycles and processes, and reveal how difficult it is for man to duplicate what nature does on its own. All from the perspective of an urban center surrounded by natural beauty, at the intersection of art and science.

Also of interest: the arrival - more pictures | Mark Dion's Mobile Bio-Type Jungle | The drowning of Moncton

New forest on the block

Yesterday, as the sun set on the shores of Belltown, three new trees cast there shadows back towards the City's center. Many more will follow in days to come, as the Grove, one of the Olympic Sculpture Park's key design elements, takes on a character of its own.

When the park opens later this year, it will feature meadow, valley, grassland, and shore precincts, all connected by the contiguous "Z" shaped design connecting the corner of Western Ave. and Broad Street to the Myrtle Edwards Park entrance.

More trees and vegetation, characteristic of each of the park's design zones, will be showing up this month (weather allowing), under the direction of Seattle's Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture - and the birds already trying out the branches before the sun went down. More...

Opening doors - building hope

When you're homeless, living on the street, some doorways are friendlier than others. This doorway, despite the bars, is one of the friendliest in Belltown.

It belongs to the Plymouth Housing Group, a leader in the effort to  reduce homelessness. Founded in 1980, under the leadership of the late Rev. David Colwell, PHG has become one of the largest providers - 730 rental units and 17 retail tenants in 11 buildings - of very low-income housing in downtown Seattle.

And while PHG has helped rehabilitate lives, they've also played a part in the preservation of downtown Seattle's history and heritage by rehabilitating turn of the century properties which have historical significance.

More than 1,400 multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural people will be helped off the street and into housing programs owned and administered by PHG this year, dramatically improving their quality of life, and the quality of the entire community we call Belltown.

Learn more about the Plymouth Housing Group and building hope.