The Art of Possibilities

It all started as a simple “like”… double tap…

Jess Tupper, Seattle Dessert Geek, and I started following each other on Instagram liking and commenting on each other’s content and I found myself to be quite intrigued by Jess, for on Instagram, she was the friend I never knew I had, down-to-earth, witty, and simply adorable.  Not long after of exchanging correspondence via Instagram and emails, we met in person and my initial perception of her was spot on and we continued to root each other on in the worlds revolving around food and life.  Jess is not only a specialized dessert geek, but she’s quite the extraordinaire with expertise ranging from the culinary world to a social media educator.

Recently, Jess has began a new endeavor on YouTube and invited me to join her on an adventure to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and then over to Fremont to visit Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery & Brewery where we found ourselves making three impromptu stops at Taco Chukis, Pie and Theo Chocolates.

It was a day full of friendship bonding through artistic expression at the museum and in food culture.

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Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery & Brewery invited Jess to visit their Fremont location  to be lavished in the creamy frozen delectables they have to offer during hours of non-operation and kindly enough they did not mind me biting in on the action.

Crossing over the threshold of the small rustically dated microcreamery shop, a hugging warmth pulls you in as the lingering scent of waffle cones circle the air; immediately, you know this is the place to sit for a spell.

Enamored, I find myself dancing around in a daydream state as Jess is professionally bantering with Cody, our gracious host for the afternoon, all the while coordinating her filming setup and interviewing structure; it truly was fantastic to observe Jess in her creative process.

Having the honor of carte blanche at a microcreamery, I would assume is a fantasy come true for most; however, with a hint of guilt, I limited myself to a few spoonfuls of sampling as not to be glutenous although the devil on my shoulder whispered against using constraint.  The remainder of freshly made waffle cones, a milkshake and sundae, behest the request and collaboration of Jess and Cody, was shared with and devoured by yours truly… it would have been quite rude of me to not partake in finishing off those sweet delights!

A deeply sincere thank you to Bluebird, I genuinely appreciated the hospitality and will be visiting the Capitol Hill location in the very near future!

Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery & Brewery

SAMPLES

(click on each image to take a closer look)

Milkshake with Remlinger Farms Marionberry &CB’s Nuts Roastery Peanut Butter

Hot Fudge Ice Cream Sundae with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, whip and sprinkles

Freshly made waffle cone… still warm…

Impromptu Stops: Pie & Theo Chocolates

In-between the museum and after Bluebird, Jess and I found ourselves making a few impromptu stops at Taco Chukis as we juggled a scheduled timeline and then later on at Pie (next door to Bluebird) and then Theo Chocolate.  All food locations were new to me and the experience with Jess was more than memorable and definitely has me planning future trips back to highlight more experiences and tasty treats!

(click on each image to take a closer look)

(Taco Chukis photo is not included due to time constraints we were under)

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SEATTLE ART MUSEUM (SAM)

Working backwards, Jess and I started our day at SAM and not being able to take video footage in the museum left us to our smartphone cameras (and the museum lighting) to capture art in all forms that impacted us the most.  In the following captures are exhibits I personally found to be of interest and all exhibition notes below are from the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and are not of my own words.

Whether it be a museum of any capacity in Seattle, your hometown or one you visit on your travels, I hope you find pieces that speak to you on a personal level for art is never one sided.

Breakfast Series, 2006

Breakfast Series, 2006: Five Boxes digitally printed on Fome-cor©

by Sonny Assu Gwa’gwa’da’ka Southern Kwakwaka’wakw (Laich-kwil-tach), Wei Wai Kai band, born 1975

Sonny Assu’s Breakfast Series appropriates the form of the familiar cereal box and emblazons its surfaces with commentary on highly-charged issues for First Nations people – such as the environment, treaty rights and land claims.  The pop art-inspired graphics on the five boxes in the series contain recognizable imagery but upon closer inspection, we see that Tony the Tiger is composed of formalize design elements, the box of Lucky Beads includes a free plot of land in every box, and contains “12 essential lies and deceptions.”  The light-hearted presentation, upon further investigation, exposes serious social issues.

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Gift of Rebecca and Alexander Stewart, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2006.93

Breakfast Series, 2006 (click on each image to take a closer look)

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The Porcelain Room

Vast quantities of translucent, elegantly decorated white-bodied porcelain from China and Japan, arriving in Europe in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, heightened Europeans’ fervor for these wondrous wares.  In royal palaces, great houses of the aristocracy, and homes of the rising merchant class made wealthy by trade, specially designed rooms showcased porcelain from floor to ceiling as crowning jewels in an integrated architectural and decorative scheme.

Brimming with more than one thousand magnificent European and Asian pieces, this Porcelain Room has been conceived to blend visual excitement with an historical concept.  Rather than the standard museum installation arranged by nationality, manufactory, and date, our porcelain is grouped by color and theme.  Today, when porcelain is everywhere in our daily lives, this room evokes a time when it was a treasured trade commodity – sometimes rivaling the value of gold – that served as a cultural, technological, and artistic interchange between the East and the West.

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In Memory of De Ette MC Ausland Stuart whose generosity and vision inspired the Seattle Art Museum to establish a gallery devoted to European porcelain.

The Porcelain Room (click on each image to take a closer look)

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Associate, 1981

Associate, 1981: Oil on aluminium

by Robert Ryman, American, born 1930

Some people say they look like clouds, or that they look blank.  But that’s because they’re looking at them as if they were pictures of something.  So, of course they’re going to see nothing, or they’re going to see something that is white. – Robert Ryman, 2007

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Gift of Mrs. Corydon Wagner, 82.75

Associate, 1981 (click on each image to take a closer look)

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Film Is Dead…

Jennifer West: Film Is Dead…

Part of a generation that witnessed the seismic shift from analog to digital technologies, Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West mines the dual properties of film: its materiality (as celluloid film strips) and fleeting immateriality (when screened).  West considers herself “an interloper in the Hollywood moviemaking machine, utilizing the refuse leftovers from the film labs and industry.”  Expanding on video artist Tony Conrad’s experiments in which e pickled film in vinegar, West’s venture plays with the physicality of film with a feminist twist.  She paints and breaks down the discarded analogue 70mm film strips with various household substances – including inks, salt, mud, nail polish and spray paint – and perforated and scratches them with forks, vegetable peelers, hole punchers and more.

If popular Hollywood movies take us on narrative journeys, and conjure romance and desire through the characters’ actions, West brings the body in direct contact with the filmic material.  Consider the difference between two actors kissing onscreen and the artist and her assistants creating color patterns by kissing stretches of film, or the violence depicted in an action flick compared to the stabs and slashes delivered to a piece of celluloid.  In a reversal from standard movie experience, West’s screened results are transfigured and appear as rich studies in abstract – but the sensuousness of the colors and the staccato patterns that puncture the moving image bear the physical imprint and subliminal memory of the process itself.

Film Is Dead… (click on each image to take a closer look)

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Mann Und Maus

Mann Und Maus, 1991-92: polyester resin and paint

by Katharina Fritsch

[I have] a strong affinity with the magic quality of surrealism.  But I find it too psychological, it doesn’t really account for this sort of astonishment I’m interested in… I am concerned with the point where you start to wonder about the existence of things. – Katharina Fritsch

Looming over a sleeping man like an all-too real specter from a nightmare, the rat in Mann and Maus inspires many interpretations.  Although the delicate figure is seemingly crushed under the giant rodent, the man appears to slumber soundly.  Frisch is representative of a new generation of German artists who emerged in the 1980s and ’90s deeply distrustful of dominant social and historic narratives and breaking from the art movements that preceded them.  Frisch wields her dark strand of irony as a tool for critical commentary.

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Gift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum 2007.118

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The art of possibilities extend to many aspects in our lives from building friendships, admiring the beauty that surrounds us and the food we share.  Just maybe, you have a friend you never knew was out there until you extend beyond your comfort zone and reach out with sincere intentions and an open mind.

A sincere and deeply heartfelt thank you to:

Jessica Tupper, Seattle Dessert Geek & Bluebird Ice Cream Microcreamery & Brewery

…it was truly an honor on my behalf.

Jess juggling her equipment in all her glory