Here are some photos from Party at the Park–Set the Table for SAM, the fundraiser for Seattle Art Museum at the Sculpture Park I participated in last week. I was very happy with the way my table turned out. It was very nice to be included with some big names in the art scene along with a bunch of emerging artists. Here’s the way the program read: Tamara Codor, Claire Cowie, Chris Engman and Chauney Peck, Troy Gua, Alfred Harris, Victoria Haven, Luke Hayes, Joy and Reffry, Cameron Anne Mason, Joe McDonnell, Nicholas Nyland, Joe Park, George Rodriguez, Ginny Ruffner, Carolina Silva, Maki Tamura, Trimpin, Joey Veltkamp, and Claude Zervas and Leo Berk.

the table set and ready for dinner

The museum handled all the details very well and certainly made me, as an artist, feel appreciated. As participants we got to go to the event with delicious food, a full bar, music and a lovely view, not to mention valet parking. Our dinner was cooked by Renee Erickson of Boat Street Cafe and the Walrus and Carpenter (which we love and which just got a fabulous review in the NY Times). We had dinner with some uber rich folks who were also very nice. It was great to meet a lot of these artists and to reconnect with the ones I already knew. Alan and I really enjoyed hanging out with Trimpin. He is just as quirky and charming as you’d imagine and we hung out with him and his wife Cheryl for a while. He had this very amusing tribute to Liberace as his theme which included a “baby grand piano” and musical champagne glasses which he controlled using an app on his itouch.

Trimpin's Liberace table

It’s not the kind of party we usually attend, much more hoi polloi than our usual bbq crowd but it was really fun and not stuffy at all. It was a chance to both rub elbows with the rich and famous and hang out with a bunch of artists with access to an open bar. I would definitely do it again next year if they ask me.

I think Alan had a good time, too.

I’m participating in a fundraiser for Seattle Art Museum tomorrow night, Set the Table for SAM. It’s a dinner party preceding their Party in the Park event. Eighteen artists were asked to “set the tables” for a dinner party. We then get to attend the event, have cocktails and dinner, and sit at the tables that we decorated. I’m really excited about my table concept, Rare Earth. I dyed some velvet and I’m using some of the Earth Forms. I’m going to fill in with stones, sedums, beach pebbles, pods, moss, and candles. It’s been a perfect project to focus on since I got back from Rio, short and not too much work. I’m really looking forward to it.

votive holders I covered with dyed silk

rocks, velvet and vessels, oh my!

Zeca and me with my work at the show in Rio.

Phew! What an amazing trip that was. I’m still getting back on my feet and back in my time zone, but I had a wonderful time. Zeca Medeiros and the other folks at the show did wonderful job putting together the show and making Barb Fox and I feel welcome. The show was beautiful and the audience was very engaged, taking photos and looking very closely at the stitching, composition, and surface design. Our talks went very well. It was a hoot to have an interpreter and people listening through headphones. I felt like a speaker at the United Nations! I’ll get some more pictures up soon of my trip, but here are ones of the show for now.

crowds looking very closely at the artwork

snapping photos

Barb Fox with her work

our wonderful hosts, Zeca, Alvaro, and Henrique!