Friday 2.12.10

A Poetry Break

I wandered through the office today with a sign around my neck, "Take a Poetry Break," and an envelope full of poems. Psst—want a poem? Floor 3 was partly empty, but I wandered around anyway, offering my wares. Many were too busy to partake, some were on the phone or engaged in their work so I left them be. I found more success on floor 2. It felt like a good thing to do, to throw out the seeds of poetry. It felt remarkable too, that so many were reading poems simultaneously in this one building. I imagined the temporary, palpable community it was forming, the way freak weather (heavy winds, hail, brown-outs) forms community. The way a community formed when a truck hung in the balance off of I-5 and everyone came to the windows to take pictures and talk. A brief but deep community based on a shared experiences of the world.

The Color Stone @ NBBJ

I invited a friend to join me tonight to write about the color wall or Color Stone at NBBJ. There is a 2-story wall which changes colors throughout the day. One side of the wall faces towards the alley and is made of opaque panels to show the colors, the other side of the wall faces the Giant Steps and shows color through only two slim apertures, a vertical one near the base of the steps and a horizontal at the top. This gives a bit of Villa Savoy and Dan Flavin feeling to the wall.

We chose to meet in the evening as we thought it would be the best time to observe the colors. Vanessa Dewolf is a modern day Gertrude Stein, at the center of the performance art scene in Seattle. She runs a studio on Capitol Hill and acts as a hub for dancers, writers and performers of all kinds (improv, contact improv, actors, dancers, performers, playwrights, directors, poets and more). It is Vanessa who begins the dialog about the artist’s practice and about the ways in which we can improve our viewing of art. I’ve known Vanessa for 3 years and, in that time, she has worked and performed in Seattle, Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania and Germany and has facilitated Field sessions, taught classes at DAGMar and provided countless artists with residencies, showings and feedback opportunities. She is a boon to the arts community.