Long Live the King!

Elvis in 1957

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.

 At 10 years old, Elvis received his 1st guitar, an inexpensive model purchased by his mother at the Tupelo Hardware Store.  His father, Vernon Presley, worked odd jobs and in 1948 moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee hoping for better prospects.  In Memphis, Elvis was exposed to the music that was happening on Beale Street; black rhythm and blues and gospel music.  The influence of that music and the people he met in Memphis can't be over emphasized.  Due in part to where he grew up and the people he had access to, he became the hottest entertainer America and the world has ever known. 

Everybody loved Elvis.

 I was born in 1954, just when his career was really taking off. 

 My parents were not Elvis fans: my dad had a big jazz band collection and my mom listened to Broadway show tunes. They were just a little too old to be screaming teenyboppers when Elvis hit his stride in 1956.  The 1st time I heard his music, I was  a college student listening to the radio in Ellensburg, Washington.  In the 1960s and 70s, KXLE, the local radio station, played country-western during the day and rock from 7 to 9 at night.  I think the 1st Elvis song that I noticed was In The Ghetto and I also remember hearing my favorite Elvis song of all time  Kentucky Rain. 

 Three of  the fabulous costumes Elvis wore on stage in the 70s shown here in the room at Graceland that is completely covered in gold and platinum albums.

 Custom jewelry made for Elvis, including the belt buckle which was presented to him by the International Hotel in Las Vegas, in recognition of his breaking all Las Vegas attendance records with his 1969 engagement there. 

 When Elvis died in 1977, everybody mourned.  In 1978 I moved to Athens, Georgia for graduate school and in the spring of 1979 a group of us went to Memphis for a conference. We made a pilgrimage out to Graceland and took a group photo by the gates (I was holding the camera).  It wasn't the tourist attraction then that it is now. In 2006, I returned to Graceland and did the whole tour with hundreds of other people. By that time I was more acquainted with his larger body of work and understood his contribution to American culture.  What was so special about Elvis?  The music critic, Lester Bangs, wrote in his obituary published in The Village Voice on August 29, 1977,

 "Elvis was probably the last thing we all are going to agree on."

 Amen to that. Long live the King of Rock 'n Roll.

Head East For an Eye Feast

Sometimes the best cure for the Christmas crazies is a long road trip. Once you get past Issaquah, Interstate 90 can be a peaceful drive any time of year, but especially during the winter. Currently on exhibition at the Jundt Museum of Art on the Gonzaga campus in downtown Spokane, is

Magic of the Objects:The Art Work of Leslie W. LePere.

Les LePere is an artist who wears many hats. Half of the year he works the family wheat farm near Ritzville, Washington and the other half of the year he is a full-time artist. Leslie has an MFA from WSU and is probably best known for designing all of author Tom Robbin's book covers.

However, book covers are just a wheat kernel in the grain elevator of close to fifty years of disciplined investigation.  The Jundt survey exhibition includes his student work, commercial art, watercolors, drawings, prints and enamel collaborations he did with his friend and art partner, the late Ken Cory, known together as the Pencil Brothers.

Robert E. Lee Disliked Cabooses 1971

Lepere's work combines the ordinary with the surreal, vast landscapes with intimate domestic interiors, silliness and humor with formal art principals. It is American, it is Western and it is archetypal. You don't have to be an arts connoisseur to see that this man can draw.

Broken Dreams, Fulfilled Promises 2001

So hit the road for a delectable eye feast. You can find good food along the way at The Valley Cafe in Ellensburg, Micheal's on the Lake in Moss Lake and the Starbucks's in Ritzville. Spokane has many fine eateries and restored historic buildings downtown. Treat yourself. 

Antidote to the Christmas Crazies

For those of us lucky enough to live in the Pacific Northwest, there are four fantastic museum shows currently up to give us an antidote to the insanity of the Christmas season. Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and Moon, is a knockout blockbuster at the Seattle Art Museum. This is the quality of show you can usually only see in places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. People, this show is better than King Tut. Besides the amazing horde of ancient gold jewelry, masks, regalia, and liturgical objects,

Lambayeque gloves decorated with standing figures and geometric motifs

750-1375 A.D.

there are fabulous ceramics, textiles, paintings and photographs. Hiram Bingham, the archeologist who "discovered" Machu Picchu, took an enormous black and white photograph sometime between 1911-1913, recording what the place looked like before tourists showed up and some of his original field notes are also on view. The exhibit is only up through January 5, so hustle over there soon. Best times to avoid crowds are 10:00 a.m. when the museum opens, or later in the day before it closes. Go on a full stomach and plan for plenty of time; this is a large exhibit. The stunning catalogue would make an excellent holiday gift.

Downstairs from the Peru exhibit on the 2nd floor is a long over-due retrospective of Haida master artist, Robert Davidson, entitled  Robert Davidson / Abstract Impulse. This man is the best contemporary interpreter of the Haida aesthetic and one of my personal heroes. He is also an accomplished jeweler and a selection of his silver bracelets are on display in the exhibit.  His work will be up through February 16 at SAM. Don't miss it or the gorgeous catalogue. 

Across the pond in Bellevue at the Bellevue Arts Museum, A World of Paper, A World of Fashion:

Isabella de Borchgrave Meets Mariano Fortuny, is a shimmering, visual delight. Isabella Borchgrave is a Belgian artist who creates paper homage to historic costume and couture. This exhibit celebrates the work of the early 20th century fashion designer, Mariano Fortuny and especially his famous delphos dress, a clingy, pleated gown wore by famous women of the time ( Isadora Duncan, Sara Bernhardt, Mrs Conde Nast, etc.) The exhibit is up through February 16th.

Sir Henry Raeburn, portrait of Lady Annie Moir

Last but not least, a short drive away in Tacoma at Tacoma Arts Museum, will bring you to an oasis of serenity at Sitting For History: Exploring Identity Trough Portraiture, on display through January 12. Curated by Margaret Bullock, "This exhibition challenges people to take a minute and contemplate the hows and whys of portraits both past and present to help us better understand the images that others share of themselves and how we choose to depict ourselves.” Tacoma has less traffic, convenient parking and nice places to eat. Go there. Happy Holidays!

Pumpkin Carving: An American Folk Tradition

It's almost Halloween and time for shaking off your inhibitions and carving a pumpkin or two. Our family has always made a night of it and every year we draft a few more people into this annual ritual.

 In my opinion, the best carvers are little kids. This is because they have not yet been subjected to the Martha Stuartization of American decor. Because of Martha, pumpkin carving has become a contest of who can do the most "professional" carving with subtle layers cut with surgical knives creating shading and intricate patterns.

 PLEASE RESIST HOLDING YOURSELF TO THOSE STANDARDS!

What contemporary pumpkins need now is more personality and less virtuoso technique. 

Below are some of my favorites from over the years.

 George, the Nice Boy, by Ellie Wild-Works 2011.

The Barfing Pumpkin, by Sophie Wild-Works 2011

Thor, by Tucker Beasley, 2013

Pumpkin with Asymmetrical Ears, by Miranda Beasley, 2013

Pumpkin carving tools can be purchased at most drugstores. They are now including books of patterns to trace with the tools. Caution! Destroy these patterns before they can do more harm. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

 

My Favorite Time of Year

I'm sure many of you share my disgust with the activity or lack of it in Congress right now. Every morning I read the paper, get mad and then try to focus on something positive as an antidote. Fortunately, the trees in my neighborhood are putting on their annual fall show.

 Most mornings I pass this tree on my way to work, but I only notice it in the fall. A little bit south of this tree is Kubota Garden, a little known jewel in south Seattle just off of Renton Ave S and Norfolk.

Kubota Garden began as a labor of love for Fujitaro Kubota. In 1927 he bought 5 acres of swampland in Rainier Beach and increased it to 30 acres in 1930. Kubota Garden served as a cultural center for the Japanese community in Seattle as well as a home, office and nursery for his landscaping business. His work was well respected and his company designed and built the landscaping on the Seattle University campus and the Japanese Garden at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Then, during World War II, the garden was abandoned for 4 years as Mr. Kubota and his family were interned at Camp Minidoka in Idaho. 

After the war, his sons Tak and Tom rebuilt the business.  When I first moved to Rainier Beach in 1983, the garden was overgrown and neglected. Fortunately, the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board declared the core 4.5 acres to be a historic landmark for the City of Seattle and in 1987 the city bought the garden from the Kubota family. It has now been fully restored and is maintained by the Department of Parks and Recreation and volunteers from the Kubota Garden Foundation.

   Come visit Kubota Garden and enjoy the mature colorful plantings, bridges and fountains. It's open every day from dawn to dusk. Don't forget to bring your camera.

Something for Me

I've been making and designing jewelry for a long time, but most of what I make ends up at a gallery for sale. Very rarely over the years have I made something for myself. Recently, I designed some pendants just for me. They are sentimental talismans about two important people in my life who are no longer living.

 The pendant shown above is a photograph of my grandmother, Alice Clement Worden, at age 40. My grandmother believed in me and paid for my college education. She loved good clothes, fine leather goods, furs and jewelry. She also traveled by herself at a time when married women didn't do that sort of thing. Below is an image of the back of this pendant, just a touch of mink.

Another pendant is about my sister, Linda Worden Moon. This image is the two of us when I was about 4 and Linda was about 2. We were together all the time then and my mother often dressed us in identical dresses. Since those were the days of hand-me-downs, that meant Linda got stuck wearing both hers and mine.

On the back I put a lock of her hair under plastic. When I wear the pendants, everyone from grocery cashiers to stock brokers comment on them with enthusiasm and they have inspired several commissions.

So how much would it cost for us to make a custom pendant for you? They start at about $1200. depending on how much work we have to put into the photo and the material choices. These two pendants happen to be made in brass, but we are making some in silver too. The original images are scanned and Photoshoped to clean up the image and size it for a pendant. If you are thinking about something special for Christmas, send me an email at wordenjewelry@gmail.com. We need at least three weeks lead time to make a pendant. 

How I spent My Summer Staycation

Last month I took some time off to rest, recharge and be a tourist in my own area. I went to four museums; the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the Future Beauty exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, Buster Simpson’s retrospective, Surveyor, at the Frye Museum of Art and twice saw Patti Warashina’s retrospective, Wit and Wisdom at Bellevue Arts Museum. 

Baindrdge Island Museum of Art, Winslow, WA

The new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art is really easy to find, just take the ferry to Winslow, drive out of the parking lot and there it is on your left. I went especially to see the work of the late Heikki Seppa, an internationally known silversmith who taught at Washington University in St Louis for many years and retired on Bainbridge Island. Unfortunately, the display of his work is in a cramped hallway and one third of the work was in display cases too high to view properly. The other exhibits are a survey of Northwest art and crafts with no big surprises. In fact, the actual building and grounds are so gorgeous that they kind of upstage the art.  Check it out, I think they have the best museum shop in the region.

Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons

Future Beauty at the downtown SAM is only up through Sunday Sept. 8^th and it is a stunning and thorough selection of Japanese fashion in the 1990’s. Even if you don’t care about fashion, you will love this exhibit as the clothes are more sculpture than wearable. My daughter Avery and I ooohed and ahhhed our way through it and bought the catalogue. Hurry down if you haven’t seen it yet.

Buster Simpson Secured Embrace

Buster Simpson has definitely earned a retrospective at the Frye, but this show isn’t for everyone. The unfortunate reality of much conceptual art is that the documentation of an event or temporary installation rarely does justice to the original experience. What I liked about the show was the memories it brought back of the Belltown neighborhood in the 1970’s and 1980’s before that area of town became gentrified. Buster’s awareness of the challenges in that neighborhood and others are an important historical record, interpreted through his unique voice.

Patti Warashina Bottom Feeder

Patti Warashina’s retrospective Wit and Wisdom is hands-down my favorite museum exhibition of 2013.  I have been through it from start to finish and finish to start two times now and will undoubtedly go again. It encompasses her student work from the 1960’s through to the present day and covers the entire third floor of the museum. It would be hard to name a more prolific artist; the woman raised two kids while teaching full time and has made more art than anyone I know. The ceramic sculptures range from miniature to huge with thoughtful narratives frequently implied. My favorite objects were the sake sets, many with political overtones. Wit and Wisdom continues through October 27, 2013. Do Not Miss This Show!