Hana Lass as Juliet, John Farage as Friar Laurence and Michael Place as Romeo in last year's Wooden O production of "Romeo and Juliet". (Seattle Shakespeare Company)

Summer seems so far away right now but it's time to get out your calendars and turn to July. That's when Shakespeare in the park returns.

Seattle Shakespeare Company announced today its Wooden O outdoor summer play schedule. Most of the free shows for "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Richard III" are in Seattle/King County but you'll be able to catch "Shrew" in Federal Way and Bonney Lake.

Here's how the company describes "Shrew":
 

With a sharp tongue and a volcanic temper, the headstrong Kate bows down to no man.  But then a fortune-hunting suitor named Petruchio swaggers into town with a mischievous plan to reach her guarded heart.  Through bickering and brawling their comic courtship is a no-holds-barred battle of the sexes that results in a love and understanding that neither one imagined. 

Last year over 10,000 Bard lovers attended the summer shows.

The full performance schedule for "Richard III" and "The Taming of the Shrew" can be found at the company's website but here's the info for our local free "Shrew" shows:

Federal Way: 6:30 p.m., Wednesday July 22 at Steel Lake Park

Bonney Lake: 2 p.m., Sunday Aug. 2 at Allen York Park

Ever had a hankering to have your art displayed big as a billboard for all the world to see? Here's your opportunity.

You can help paint a 180 foot mural of a winter scene inside an historic building at the Foss Waterway Seaport where the first ever Tacoma Winterfest will be held Dec. 13 and 14.

According to the folks at the Seaport: "The event will feature unique gifts and delicious foods sold by local businesses, complimented by live entertainment, a fashion show and many wonderful kids’ activities to top the bill."

Mural organizer Angela Jossy sent us the details:

=> Read more!

Over at the Adventure Guys blog, I'm writing about my Olympic Peninsula trip. I've lived in Washington for almost 35 years, but I'm a Peninsula noobie.

In a strange twist of fate, about two weeks before I left, Bob Stokes' spokeswoman sent me a note about some of the things the Northern California artist is doing up in Port Angeles. Under optimal circumstances, I don't think The News Tribune is delivered in that part of the state. But since I was about to trek around "the loop," I decided to check out some of Bob's artwork.

According to his spokeswoman, Bob is a multimedia artist whose client list includes the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, flimmaker George Lucas and Pope John Paul II. A few years back, Bob shut down his "thriving California design company" and set sail on his boat. In 2004, he visited his sister in Port Angeles and he hasn't left yet. Instead, he's been "shaking up the former logging town... with his artistic vision."

In August, Bob unveiled his "Avenue of the People" project, 15 larger-than-life steel sculptures that are part of the Port Angeles Downtown Associations "Art About Town" initiative. Nearly two dozen other outdoor sculptures from other artists also are part of the collection.

Bob's sculptures line Laurel Street, "formerly the city’s hot spot for gambling and drinking," according to the spokeswoman. He modeled the pieces after Port Angeles residents.

Bob also is involved in a project he calls "Art Front." He's renovating a 1920s Moose Lodge to include working artists' studios, a wine club and a permanent art gallery. His spokeswoman quotes him as saying, “We’re working to raise the profile of the artist community to a level that it becomes a draw for people outside the area, as well as for locals.”

If you're headed up to Port Angeles, take a stroll down Laurel Street.

Murals by Alexis St. John (left) and Maura Desimone await installation on the exterior of the Tapestry Covenant Church building Wednesday evening. (Craig Sailor/The News Tribune)

Can you have too many murals? Folks on the Hilltop don't think so.

The Martin Luther King Housing Development Association is presenting the second Music and Murals festival Saturday, from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at People's Park, on S. 9th St. and MLK Jr. Way. The event celebrates the power of collective art to unite, beautify and invigorate a community: live music will play all day in the park, while local artists paint murals to be mounted on Hilltop buildings.

Last year the Festival not only saw the unveiling of the Tacoma Works Storefront Mural Project, four plywood murals on boarded-up storefronts along MLK Jr. Way between 11th and 13th, but generated three new murals for the side of the Tapestry Covenant Church building, at 824 MLK Jr. Way (just north of the Park.) These were only just mounted this week, but the Storefront murals have been up for a year and the response, say organizers, is positive.

"We believe the proof is in the pudding because none have been tagged!" says co-organizer and artist Maura Desimone (left, installing a mural Wednesday evening.)

For Saturday's festival, muralists Bob Henry (who painted the Martin Luther King mural opposite People's Park), Dionne Bonner (painter of the street octopus at 6th Avenue and Pine Street) and Alexis St. John (who did the salmon on Radio Shack at Proctor) will be painting new murals, this time intended for the walls of the Allen Renaissance Building at 1301 MLK Jr. Way. MLK HDA is funding the murals.

Meanwhile, Henry is donating two canvases, which two of the Storefront Mural artists, including Desimone, will be donating their time to paint for more of the Tapestry church walls.

Mexican and BBQ food will be available, as well as a kids' zone with a jumping castle, puppet show and face painting. The ten-band line-up includes Michael Powers and Just Dirt, and there will be performances by Northwest Tap Collective and a hip-hop dance team.

Music and Murals is a free event from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at People's Park, S. 9th St. and MLK Jr. Way, Tacoma.

Bronze moose at Northwest Trek, by Jeff Oens. Image courtesy Northwest Trek.

If you like this life-sized bronze moose out the front at Northwest Trek wildlife park, you might like to see more nature-themed art this fall. On September 27 and 28 the Trek will hold a juried art show featuring 15 Oregon and Washington artists, demonstrations, a silent auction and a visit by the moose's sculptor, Jeff Oens.

The show is organized by Karen Lucas of Lucas Art, The Gallery on the Hill, in Graham, and focuses on Northwest wildlife. Featured artists include:

· Chris Gunter, painter
· Jennifer Hermanson, photography
· Paul Langston, woodburning/paintings
· Pam Lovelace, clay sculpture
· Jason McCissack, painter
· James Montgomery, steel sculpture
· Robert Raymond, painter
· Nathan Schreiber, photography
· Donna Schroeder, painter
· Julie Thompson - "Feather Lady," paintings on feathers
· Gail Turner, painter
· Jack Westerfield, decoys

Says Lucas: "I'm really excited. The variety of artists this year is really big."

Lecturers and demonstrators in the Forest Theater will include:
· Saturday Sep. 27: Dale Thompson will lecture on and demonstrate painting birds in watercolors, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
· Sunday Sep. 28: Gerald Sticka will demonstrate his wildlife painting techniques and display his work.
Sculptor Jeff Oens will be there for the entire event near the entrance.

There's also an Audience Choice award of $100, voted for by visitors. The theme this year is elk: each artist has included a work featuring that animal.

Northwest Trek, accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, is a 723-acre zoological park dedicated to conservation, education and recreation by displaying, interpreting and researching native Northwest wildlife and their natural habitats. The wildlife park is a facility of Metro Parks Tacoma and is located 35 miles southeast of Tacoma off State Highway 161. For more information, call 360-832-6117 or visit www.nwtrek.org.

Well, I just got back from Showcase Tacoma. The annual downtown arts festival certainly livens up Tollefson Plaza and the UW back alley, and this year's stuff was a good mix of all disciplines. Really nice to see so much emphasis on actual art (live, installed, interactive or whatever) rather than sales stalls, but the crowds weren't huge.

But gosh, the art certainly was. One of the things that made Showcase different from last year (and, in fact, any other Tacoma festival) was the presence of adventurous contemporary art. Prize for the biggest installation goes to Peter Lynn and Sean Alexander from the Helm Gallery, who created this whale out of a wooden frame and gray-spraypainted cardboard.

Sean Alexander and Peter Lynn, "Whale."

It straddles the old railway tracks, looking cleverly like a train carriage from the front, and gradually displaying more cetacean features as you move around it.

Next biggest was "House and Home" by UWT prof Tyler Budge, working well with the water in Tollefson Plaza.

Tyler Budge, "House and Home."

Prize for Most Fun definitely goes to the folks from Fulcrum Gallery, for this aerial map of Tacoma done in relief from recycled materials. Not only could you walk on it (careful, don't stomp the Dome!) but they'd thoughtfully included some golf balls, a club and a hole on the Hilltop. Quite a difficult par, as my kids found out.

Here's the Port of Tacoma view:

Oliver Doriss and Fulcrum Gallery, "Dream Time Tacoma."

Finally, Justin Gorman created a much more interesting bus stop than usual, filling it with multimedia documentation of his Seattle commutes. Thanks to Justin, you don't have to actually ride the bus, just the bus stop.

Justin Gorman, "InTransIt."

Oh, and how could I forget--the knitting project! I didn't figure out where Amy Thomas and the drop-in knitting sculpture was. But here's an example of the cute little swatches she's been hiding at various locations around town. This one was pretty close to the Whale.

Amy Thomas, "Close Knit Community."

Not much to report from Tacoma Art Museum's Iron Artist competition. The idea's a fun one, and yes, there's some voyeuristic pleasure in seeing people trying to create something meaningful in one hour from pipe cleaners, tissue paper, old art books and corrugated cardboard. But basically, out of 15 entries, only a few stood out as anything beyond grade-school art project standard, and the dwindling crowd at the prize announcements testified to that. (Plus, thanks to the loud atmospheric burble of The Helio Sequence in Tollefson, you could hardly hear anything.)
First place: Team Ironic. Second: Primo alla Scala. Third: Holy Ghost Busters.
You can see these items at TAM tomorrow, I think.

Spotted in the crowd: Northwest Sinfonietta conductor Christophe Chagnard, sporting a summer beard and chilling to Pearl Django. Director David Domkowski, overseeing a not-too-exciting theater production by some of his SOTA students. TV Tacoma host Amanda Westbrooke, looking snazzy as always.

The festival continues from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. tomorrow. Remember the sunscreen, and practice your party piece for the Click!-filmed talent show.

Chambers Creek Central Meadow, University Place. Image courtesy Broadway Center for Performing Arts.

There's a new venue in town, and it's outdoors. The Chambers Creek Central Meadow, a 22-acre park and performance amphitheater located on the Chambers Creek Properties in University Place, opens this weekend with a concert on Saturday night and a community picnic on Sunday.

The concert's a big one: the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra with folksinger Judy Collins. Those of you who were around in the '60s might remember Collins' album "Wildflowers," with a Joni Mitchell song that got her into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1975 she was credited for winning Stephen Sondheim his Grammy for her rendition of "Send in the Clowns," and she sang for President Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1983. This Saturday she'll sing with the Tacoma Symphony. The opening act is folk-rock singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke, with some undiscovered Woody Guthrie numbers.

The event, aside from ushering in the latest step in the evolution from gravel pit to public park at the Pierce County-owned Chambers Creek, is a nice example of collaboration, with the Broadway Center for Performing Arts and Chambers Creek Foundation combining to organize an ongoing concert series benefitting both arts and environment.

The big downside is the parking: there is none. At least, there's parking for the $80 Gold Circle tickets, but they're now sold out. The general admission, still pretty hefty at $50, includes a shuttle ticket from nearby parking lots at Charles Wright and Curtis Junior and Senior High schools. You can bring chairs and a blanket, though high chairs will be moved to a separate area. You can also bring in food and non-alcoholic drinks; beer, wine and food will be for sale at the Meadow.

Gates open at 4 p.m., the concert starts at 6 p.m. Saturday Aug. 9. To buy tickets, visit www.broadwaycenter.org or call 253-591-5890. Parking lots are at Charles Wright Academy, 7723 Chambers Creek Rd. West; Curtis Junior High, 8901 40th St. W.; and Curtis Senior High, 8425 40th St. W., University Place.

As for the picnic, it's free, running from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday Aug. 10. Food vendors will be there. Two entertainment stages include everything from bagpipes to string quartets to a magician and a steel drum band. Bring your own food, leashed dogs are welcome, and shuttles will run between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. from the school parking lots. Handicapped picnickers can park at the Pierce County Environmental Services building at 9850 64th St. W., and take an accessible shuttle from there. After the picnic, take a hike around the walking trail, or just admire the Fox Island/Puget Sound view.

For more information on the Meadow or picnic, visit www.piercecountywa.org/pc/abtus/ourorg/ccp/eventprograms.htm.

Tyler Budge and family assemble "House and Home" in the pools at Tollefson Plaza.

He's artist and UWT professor Tyler Budge, and (with the help of his family) was down at Tollefson Plaza in downtown Tacoma this afternoon constructing an installation as part of the upcoming festival Showcase Tacoma. (You can read more about this online and in GO on Friday.)

Budge's "House and Home" involves a steel frame about the size of a living room, with two doorways, wrapped in flimsy white fabric and supported by orange sandbags.

Here's a shot of the sandbags:

"House and Home," by Tyler Budge, during installation.

Says Budge:

"I was asked to participate in Showcase Tacoma while we where being inundated with news images of flooded homes along the Mississippi River. Having most recently moved from Illinois...I realized that the people of Illinois and I were participating in the same effort—preservation of house and home. I find myself packing sandbags with no real assurance that they will truly hold. As I struggle to keep the house above water, home becomes illusionary and illusive."

Being around 90 degrees on the plaza today, it also seemed a really good excuse for Tyler's six-year-old son Ezra (see top photo) to get as wet as possible.

On the sidewalk next to Pacific Ave, Oliver Doriss and his team from Fulcrum Gallery are creating a relief aerial map of Tacoma using recycled materials. Made of cans, pallets, cardboard and foam, among other things, it'll be pretty representational, says Doriss--as in, you can look down and say, "Hey! There's the Tacoma Dome!" Being on the sidewalk, you can also walk right over it. Which is fine, says Doriss, pointing out that how else could you walk right over from Gig Harbor to the Port of Tacoma?

Here's the map it's based on (GoogleEarth or somesuch):

Aerial view of Tacoma. Image courtesy Oliver Doriss.

And here's Doriss' general intention:

"The goal of Dream-Time Tacoma is to challenge current perceptions of what Tacoma is and what it could be, by using public art and space as a tool to strengthen civic life. Dream-Time Tacoma asks you to step into it and actualized the lives we live behind our eyes, the Tacoma we envision while sleeping."

That's assuming we dream about Tacoma, of course. I generally dream of other places. Call it escapism. Doriss et al will be down there Thursday around 5 p.m. to set it up, if you want to check it out.

Right next to "Dream-Time Tacoma" will be the prosaic reality version: a multimedia installation by Justin Gorman inside the bus shelter on Pacific. Gorman's not only been bus-commuting to Seattle for a year now, he's been documenting it as well, and "InTransIt" will include video, stills and audio of the gritty experience. According to co-organizer Amy McBride, Gorman will also be making live appearances as "the weirdo sitting next to you on the bus." There's a lot of it up on his blog right now.

Just next to Tollefson, across from S. 17th St, will be an interactive installation, "Fiber Plant," consisting of knitted swatches "growing" up a wire. Whether you can or can't knit, you can be part of this two-day project by Amy Thomas. Other fibrous components of "Close Knit Community" will be scattered around the city--Here's a park-bench sample, courtesy of Di Morgan-Graves.

Knit Swatch art, Amy Thomas. Image courtesy Amy Thomas.

See more on Amy's web album. You can pick up a knit-location map from Amy's knitting area at the festival.

Finally, Peter Lynn and Sean Alexander, who run the funky but struggling art space The Helm Gallery, are building a large cardboard whale, which will be "beached" somewhere grassy on the UWT campus.

Here's what Sean had to say about it:

"As for what it is about, who knows? We just hope it looks like some hippies dropped it off there. Also, we have no experience building a sculpture of this scale. We are nervous about it. We decided to participate in the show because they asked us to and it seemed like something that we couldn't say no to."

So if you're down around that area, keep an eye out for intriguing stuff going up. Post a photo if you can! And don't miss Showcase Tacoma, from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, from Tollefson through the UWT.

I made my way down to the 6th Avenue Farmers Market this evening. I'm sure all you folks-about-town have already been there, buying cheese from Estrella Family Creamery and sausages from Cheryl the Pig Lady.

Though today was only the second week of the market's existence, a sure sign of its future (besides the crowds that were buying out entire stands of berries) was an artist painting a mural on the side of a building.

Jennevieve Schlemmer, a mosiac artist, was working on a scene showing a delivery truck towing a trailer full of fruits and vegetables. The mural is sponsored by the market and the 6th Avenue Merchants Association.

Schlemmer, of Tacoma, said she'd be painting the mural over the next few weeks.

The next time you're stocking up on blueberries check out Schlemmer's live art show.

Christopher Mathie, Red Raku Pottery.

Local ceramicist Christopher Mathie has been invited to show some pottery at the annual fundraising art sale "Behind the Shoji" at Portland's Japanese Garden, which opens this Saturday.

Says Mathie:

I was very excited to be asked to participate this year and created a collection of new Raku pottery for the show.

Locally, Mathie shows often at Two Vaults Gallery on S. Fawcett downtown.

"Behind the Shoji" runs through September 2. The Garden is open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, 12-7 p.m. Mondays, and the sale is free with admission, which is $8 adults, $6.25 seniors and students, $5.25 6-17 years, and free for six-and-unders. There are artist demonstrations from 1-3 p.m. most weekend afternoons through summer.
611 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland. 503-223-1321, www.japanesegarden.com/events/behind-the-shoji