Last week I got out of my monastic isolation and thoroughly enjoyed First Thursday in Seattle. I talked with the folks at Revolution Books first, so I got an injection of hard core politics to set me up for the evening.They have a great show of photographs of the Winter Soldiers by Mike Hastie, not to miss either reading the book or seeing the photographs.
Then I went to The Monarch Gallery and met the director, Benito Rangel de Maria. I really like his complex train paintings, see detail above and he showed us his studio as well. He is focusing on Latina/o art in Seattle. Brave man. Tatiana Garmendia is coming up soon, a fabulous artist whose drawings about men at war are technically and conceptually riveting ( disclaimer I wrote her catalog).
Then we ran in Elizabeth Bryant, a writer whom I greatly respect, and
a fun show of the work of Alice Wheeler at Greg Kucera’s
where I ran into Roger Shimomura.
His exhibition is opening at the Wing Luke in early September.

We also stopped by the Pratt gallery and saw some great works made with recycled materials, although I wish Carletta Wilson had been included. Her works are dazzling.
Molly Norris has a show of her cartoons at Gallery 110. Funny and smart.

The second half of my title is not really on art and politics, but just a comment. Usually I devotedly and perseveringly ride the bus. Yesterday I had to do a lot of things in different places. The difference was dramatic. I saved hours of time, got to places in five minutes in stead of 60 minutes, no wonder no one with a schedule would ride the bus. But today, back on the bus, I realize how much I love seeing all kinds of interesting people, being part of a community, talking to people. It is an experience that is in the city. Riding my car I was in my little box, fighting with everyone else to stay alive. So the art in this half of the post is the art of people just living their lives and being human beings, rather than the sterile experience of freeways and their debilitating stress.