ARTS COVERAGE TO END ALL ARTS COVERAGE >>>
At this point it goes without saying. If you're looking for coverage of local arts in Tacoma, Olympia, and all points in between, the Weekly Volcano is THE place to find it. Our goal is to consistently provide the best local arts coverage possible to our fantastic readers -- always be on the lookout for ways to shine a light on all the awesome creativity we see around us.
Here's a look at the Volcano arts coverage waiting for you this week in print and online.
Holly Senn works undercover by day as a librarian at Pacific Lutheran University.
By night, Senn creates amazing artwork.
Senn is both an installation and sculpture artist. Her medium? Largely paper from old library books, with occasional splashes of cardboard and other materials. Senn's installations have filled spaces 16-feet tall, while many of her sculptures could fit in your hands. All of her works, big and small, involve rescued library books - books often scheduled for the recycling bin.
"My work is inspired by the life cycle of ideas," she says. "How ideas are generated, how they get dispersed, if they're forgotten, or if they're referenced or remembered again." ... -- Kristin Kendle
VISUAL EDGE: FOUNDATION ART AWARDS
The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation Award is a big deal. Being nominated is an honor bestowed by one's peers, and being chosen as the award recipient is an even greater honor. The choices are made by a committee including Tacoma Arts Administrator Amy McBride; Jeremy Mangan, recipient of last year's award; Rock Hushka of the Tacoma Art Museum; local artist Susie Russell Hall and others. It's just about the biggest award granted to local artists. As such, it's a shame that it doesn't merit a major gallery or museum showing such as what used to be given to the Neddy Award nominees. As a matter of fact, since the Neddy has taken its show away from Tacoma Art Museum in favor of a Seattle venue, maybe the Foundation Award show could replace the Neddy at TAM.
Instead, it's a window show in the Chamber of Commerce building at Pacific and 11th. Not exactly the best way to show such honored work.
The nominees this year were: Jennifer Adams, Sean Alexander, Nick Butler, Lynn Di Nino, Oliver Dorris, Kristin Giordano, Ellen Ito, Matt Johnson, Rick Lawson, Nicholas Nyland, Elise Richman, Peter Serko and this year's winner, Jessica Spring.
Spring is the founder of locally-based Springtide Press. Her piece for the Foundation Award, titled "Ingrained," is an art book created on handmade paper made from ancient Western red cedar logs and printed with poetry written by Spring. The pages hang from a display rack similar to those used by stores to display flooring. ... -- Alec Clayton
MOVIE BIZ BUZZ: MICK FLAAEN AND THE GRITTY DETAILS
As the title of his Welcome to Parkland suggests, Mick Flaaen loves the local scene. Besides acting this year in two episodes of the ongoing theater series Java Tacoma, Flaaen made a short documentary about the city's graffiti artists called Paint. The project grew out of work he had done as a student at Clover Park Technical College. His instructor at the time, Austin Iverson, encouraged Flaaen to complete Paint. Its soundtrack includes music from Iverson's band Hands of Toil, infusing the piece with a lot of energy. ... -- Christopher Wood
PLUS: More Local Theater Than You Can Shake a Stick At