Heather Davidson Featured At Venue For June Artwalk

Jewelry artist Heather Davidson of The Doodlebug Project is featured at Venue this month. Originally from the Midwest, Heather grew up in Nebraska and went to college in Minnesota. She has been a Seattleite ever since and is very happy with the change in climate.  

Heather has been making art – from drawings to oil painting and ceramics - using many different mediums since as long as she can remember. The jewelry she’s been focusing on currently has brought her back to her original love of pencil drawing and her love of nature – both flora and fauna. All of her original designs are created in shrink plastic, and most of it is drawn by hand.

She makes several sketches of each design, but no two are exactly alike. Even her printed jewelry designs that include stud earrings and necklaces with glorious pattern work have variations depending on which part of the design she decides to focus on. It can be difficult to create an image that works on such a small scale, but Heather finds that the finished designs give her a sense of peace and balance.

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Sophie Gardner At Venue For May Artwalk

This month at Venue come meet the newest studio tenant - jeweler Sophie Gardner. Sophie Gardner’s jewelry creates an aesthetic bridge between ancient and modern worlds. 

She incorporates the intricate details of Spain's Moorish architecture, tiles, arabesques, and portals; the repetitive beauty of East Indian textiles; and the strength and simplicity of Japanese illustration and stencil design. Most recently she has been working with Fossilized Wooly Mammoth ivory and ancient scrimshaw techniques, applying an innovative and a modern approach to prehistoric material.

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Christine Olson at Venue For April Artwalk

Christine Olson is Venue’s featured artist for the month of April. Christine studied art from a young age, inspired by her mother and grandmother who were both artists. She was formally trained at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and for the last fifteen years she has been working on mastering non-subjective compositions using acrylic on canvas. 

Many of Christine’s new paintings focus on meditation. When Christine paints, she works hard to let go of her present feelings and finds her flow through each piece. Balance with color and composition are important for Christine - the pieces can be hung horizontally or vertically because she is constantly rotating the canvas. The art is non-subjective with some natural elements from nature that do appear. 

Her current collection offers some smaller sets of paintings as well as larger pieces. Christine also has greeting cards of her current series and limited edition framed giclee prints on archival quality paper. 10% of all of Christine’s art sales will go to support the Melanoma Research Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Venue
5402 22nd Ave NW

Patina Resin Collection Showcased At Venue For February

At Venue this month we are featuring jewelry artist Erika Laureano. With her current Patina Resin Collection, her focus is on texture, color and found objects captured with resin. Within the line there is an array of necklaces, earrings, statement cuffs and rings.

Copper, brass, sterling and gold are embossed for texture then married with color, which is created through various patina recipes that Erika has experimented with over the years. Finally, it's all captured with clear resin and sometimes you might find tiny objects suspended in the process (glass balls, bronze cast coral, plastic tiny bubble balls.). The organic colors that surface through the patina process, combined with Erika's bold cutting edge designs allow for a unique one-of-a-kind style of jewelry.

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Venue Begins 2014 Marking Days

Visit Venue this month and see an expanded collection of 2014 calendars (including one perpetual calendar) all designed by local artists, as well as a participatory calendar project.

Walter Share's Washington State and Washington Parks Watercolor calendars

Baylie Peplow's Seasonal Vegetable Calendar

June Chang's Perpetual Calendar

Inspired by the quote, "A week has seven days and 'someday' isn't one of them,"  - add your own ideas for what you'd like to do "someday..." on Venue's calendar wall. 

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Baylie Peplow Brings Playfully Elegant Designs to Venue for December Artwalk

This December, Venue is happy to introduce designer Baylie Peplow to Ballard. Creating under the company name Red Umbrella Designs – Baylie describes her company as a small creative studio that strives to be playfully elegant and elegantly playful in all things. Founded on the belief that we are all children at heart, Red Umbrella Designs prefers hand-made, human-centered, and simple in an increasingly high-tech, fancy-pants world.

With a degree in architecture, a background in Montessori education, and a belief that there is beauty all around us - Baylie creates handmade cards, gifts, toys, and paper goods. Her Alphabet Cards and Monster Blocks are already a big hit for holiday gifts at Venue and her simple holiday cards with whimsical lettering are a perfect reminder that sometimes elegant simplicity is all you need.

Venue

5408 22nd Ave NW

Colored Pencil Work by Eileen Sorg will be Showing at Venue for the Month of November

~ Eileen Sorg ~ 

Colored Pencil Artist

Eileen Sorg's art is a visual representation of the stories that are in her imagination. She enjoys collecting old objects and weaving a tale around them. 

Seattle Crow

Birds are the main conduit for these stories, but insects, amphibians, and mammals are also frequent players.

Seattle Frog

Seattle Hummingbird

The story is really the subject matter in Eileen's work, but it is supported by a solid structure of composition and light. Her colored pencil work is collected internationally and is known for its complexity and vibrancy. Eileen is a Signature member of the Colored Pencil Society, the Society of Animal Artists, and the International Guild of Realism.

Venue

5408 22nd Avenue NW

Mixed Media Artist Jeni Nelson Showing at Venue for October Artwalk

Venue’s featured artist for October is mixed media artist Jeni Nelson. After receiving a BA in Fine Art from George Fox University in Oregon, Jeni spent four years living in France working on her art and being influenced by French design sensibilities and the lovely days spent in her the brightly-lit covered balcony that was her art studio above a boulangerie. 

Back in the Seattle area she has been pursuing wedding photography and floral design, but has also been expanding her mixed-media art. In speaking about her current collage series, Jeni says, “I love detail and pretty things, and of course I will never forget my shaping experiences in France. You will see these loves represented in my work.”

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Little Worlds Captured By Photographer Christopher Boffoli At Venue During September Artwalk

Join Venue in welcoming a photographer who was nominated for a James Beard Award for his food photography. Christopher Boffoli will be at Venue during this month's artwalk for a booksigning of his new book from Workman Press, Big Appetites. 

Christopher creates little worlds in his wonderful photographs using food and tiny people with inspired captions. It's smart, funny and quirky vision of what it means to play with your food - a man uses a jackhammer to open up pistachios, a farmer shovels a pasture full of cow pies (aka chocolate chips), and deep "tea" divers take the plunge in a cup of tea. The book features more than a hundred scenes from breakfast through dessert and makes a wonderful gift.

Christopher's Big Appetites series of cards, stocked by Venue, has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR, The Chew, the Huffington Post, Oprah.com and other media outlets around the world.  

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

The Photographer Erynn Rose will be Featured at Venue for the August ArtWalk

Erynn Rose, Photographer

Erynn Rose started taking pictures in the early 90’s, mostly because he was surrounded  by a family of photographers who he felt were always taking pictures of the wrong thing. He picked up the camera to show them what they were missing. Now he can be found wandering Seattle with a variety of digital and film cameras to try and capture Seattle in all her glory. He specializes in tilt-shift* views of the city, making it look like a detailed architectural model. You may have seen his work in Seattle Magazine, or Where Seattle books and maps.

Fremont Bridge

Seattle

Gasworks

 *What is tilt-shift? Tilt-shift imposes a fake depth of field on the image, resembling what you would see in a close-up image of small objects, tricking the eye and making it look like a miniature scene. This is achieved either by tilting the lens off the body, leaving just a line of the image in focus, or in post-production blurring all but a tight section of the image.

Venue

5408 22nd Avenue NW

Shawna Feiling of 17 Knots is the Featured Artist at Venue for the July ArtWalk

Sailors are keenly aware of caring for oceans and waterways, so renewing, recycling, and reusing is nothing new to them. Puget Sound sailor, Shawna Feiling of 17 Knots is working on “re-sailing,” making totes, satchels, and wine bags from retired sails and scraps from sailmakers. Shawna is expanding her collection this month at Venue as the featured artist. Shawna believes that the repurposed sails bring the customer a taste of adventure, while also providing a great environmental benefit.

We’re all looking for the perfect bag for carrying gear to the boat, groceries to the house, or traveling on the next adventure. And doing it “green” has extra appeal. Bags are made from authentic recycled sailcloth from local vessels and handcrafted in Seattle, Washington. 

The 17 Knots collection includes totes, wine bags, satchels, iPad cases, and even holiday stockings. Customers can request a personalized item with a special date or initials. No two will be exactly alike, and they often have signs of hard sailing and high seas adventure.

Venue

5408 22nd Avenue NW

Destination Products Rolls Into Venue for June Artwalk

Designer Leslie Pierson loves travel, typography, and distinctive design - and Destination Rolls are a powerful synthesis of her favorite things. The inspiration for the featured line of Destination Products came from a find in a vintage shop of a British destination roll that had been used on a train in the early 1900. These rolls were hand cranked by the conductors to display the next stop. The nature of Leslie’s simple design allows customers to create customized lists bounded only by imagination.

This month at Venue, Leslie will be showcasing some great destinations in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest on black & white destination rolls, prints, stretched canvas, greeting cards, and even pendants.

Leslie says, “Two of the most exciting questions you can ask anyone are: ‘Where are you going?’ and ‘Where have you been?” Her Destination Rolls can document your favorite places in the world – or the future travels of your dreams. Bon voyage!

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Diana Fakhoury's Jewelry Showcased at Venue during May Artwalk

Diana Fakhoury has loved jewelry since she was a little girl playing with her mother’s jewels. Growing up in the Middle East, her family's home was full of traditional paintings, sculptures and ornaments which gave her an appreciation for handmade goods and an inclination to create. Her Middle Eastern roots are now infused into her aesthetic. 

Diana's path to jewelry design was not a linear one. She began her studies in engineering, but later continued with a degree in Art & Design, practicing woodworking, screen-printing, and painting along the way. 

Designing jewelry perfectly embodies Diana's love for geometry, color, pattern and sculpture.  Expanding her collection at Venue this month, we see in her jewelry geometric and exotic elements combined in a playful yet romantic spirit.

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Pause for a Moment: Patti Christie at Venue during April Artwalk

New at Venue, artist Patti Christie uses chalk pastels to create art that is meant to evoke a moment of repose.  

Her work is an interpretation of what she sees and knows. Mostly about shape and color, her goal is to simply put the viewer at ease.

The enjoyment begins for Patti with the carpentry of building the boards, applying the ground, and visualizing what the next series may be.  She draws from recent experiences and then begins with the layering of color.  She works as a child might, allowing the piece to evolve purely on its own. 

Venue
5408 22nd Ave NW

Floating Stone Mobiles by Dave Smart On Display at Venue for the March ArtWalk

Dave Smart

 Floating Stone Mobiles

 

Dave Smart is a local acupuncturist and artist. He explores the limits of balance with natural components in his elegant kinetic sculptures. Using stone, feather, glass and wood he creates finely-tuned contemporary mobiles that are beautiful indoors and out. 

 

 

 

Dave will also collaborate with you to create a custom design to display your own favorite collection of stones.

 

 

 

 

Venue

5408 22nd Avenue NW 

Liven Up Your Wardrobe With Handmade Clothes From marmalade originals During Venue's February ArtWalk

marmalade originals  

designs and hand makes women’s skirts and little girl's dresses as well as twirl skirts.

“We don’t inventory tons of fabric that could potentially go out of style - we create originals,” says designer Geraldine Varvaro. “To us, an original means fresh, genuine, and creative, with a touch of vintage inspiration.” 

We all love our standbys but it’s always fun to add something to your wardrobe that is original.

With over seven years in business, marmalade originals skirts have become well known for their creative designs, unique fabrics and excellent fit.

Venue
5408 22nd Avenue NW