This week was mostly about the Eastside Culture Crawl, a must-do event for someone trying to grow an artist community — yes, that’s me!

Viewing

My second Culture Crawl was such a contrast from last year. While it was still a maze of route planning, I was delighted to realize that this year, I saw someone I already know, each day of the event. Plus, I got to catch up with people I’d missed last time, and find new connections too.

Here’s a sampling of artists I found in, art that caught my eye, and places I remembered to take a shot.

In addition to the art I managed to get pictures of, there were more connections & delightful conversations:

• Paul Newton remembered pointing me at a printing place, and had beautifully presented photos from his recent trip to the Oregon coast.
• Dana Cromie indulged me with musings on his geometric art, and has been a steady support as I try to help with the First Saturday site
• Danielle Bobier‘s abstracted landscapes were spectacular in person, after I missed seeing them at the Vancouver Art Rental Gallery, and we hit lots of commonalities while chatting.
• Linda Suffidy‘s carved and textured work does need to be seen in person, which I finally got to do, while being delighted that we are mutual followers on social media.

Meetings & Making

In my spare time between studio visits this week, I pondered my 4-in-1 process. It was time to cover up a lot of the chaos, but — with what? I settled on a pale blue, shown here still drying. Note that at this point, I’m not at all in love with the results.

When I separated the pieces again, that pale blue became the concept of a sky, and just needed a bit more collage and mark-making.

Now this — this is starting to feel like my language. Lots of attempts at communication, mostly obscured and obstructed. Sounds about right!

Up Next

I’m going to wrap up this long stay in Vancouver and head south next week for an extended Seattle visit, where I’ll get to catch up with friends in person. But I am pleased that my efforts at virtual connections have kept me going all year, and before that. Just this week, it felt like BlueSky became even more viable, when I connected with an artist over how we all stay connected and on track. Jen Russell, who hosts a delightful site called Wise Lasagna, is up for supporting each other’s websites and blogs — she’s got me looking into webrings, which I somehow missed in the early days of the Internet? How do you keep in touch with, and expand, your viable community? I’d love to hear.

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