What I Saw..

Yesterday, I said bye to the folks at People for Puget Sound. Today, I became a tourist on a mission.

I saw, I saw:

• The paintings and posters in Post Alley. Also Bubblegum wall. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures of the wall, (or of the rest of the day, sorry, and keep watching this page for updates!). But it is a wall where people have over the years stuck bubble gum so that now it is no longer yucky, but Art. Imagine first, a covered alley with brick walls and cobbled streets that looks like it might house Jack the Ripper. And then, one wall festooned with multi-coloured bits of gum- some just daubed on, some stretched to make patterns. There’s even a figure on a cycle! Someday, soon, I will go and take photos..

• The permanent exhibits at SAM- like with most museums, some left me cold (portraits of the rich and famous), some disturbed me (7-foot tall black rat, anyone?). And some enthralled me. One of those was a jacket from a display of Japanese theatre costumes. The jacket illustrated a story of rabbits preparing for a moon viewing party. The rabbits were showing gathering sake, grass, and I-forget-what for the party. What charmed me is that the rabbits were not walking like the ones in the children’s stories I have seen, they were gambolling! The figures were shown hopping like real rabbits, with the slight difference that these were carrying dishes. I loved it! One could just about imagine it- the softness of the rabbits, the excitement, the anticipation.
  

• And if there was one piece I thoroughly coveted, it was Dishes. This is a painting of dishes drying in a red wire rack. The surface there are set on is blue, the dishes are yellow, pink, green, blue and clear glass. There is a lot of light in that painting. And one can feel that it is a sunny morning, the meal has been shared with friends, and can almost hear the clinking and the laughter. I looked at this one for ages, and tomorrow, as I wash my dishes, I will look at them with new eyes.

• And in the Islamic arts. A photo/calligraphy work. Shows a figure in a white kameez sitting with her back to us, writing on a wall. there is writing on the kameez, on the floor, on the wall, on the writer's hand. Separate, but linked. Missed my sister and how much she would like that. Her words and life merge like that too, I think.

• The exhibition of Roman Art: As Chhotu would say, 'yes,yes, very interesting'. But the faces, esp that of Augustus, were strangely familiar. and loved.

• Came across and watched the beginning of the Labour Day March. It being Seattle, variety and freedom of expression were key. The slogans ranged from ' we charge Bush and Cheney with genocide' to the gently nostalgic 'make love not war'. Well, I saw all this, and the march passed me, and then I turned to cross the street- and did a double take. Ambling towards me, around 4 blocks down the street was a Polar Bear. It was late for the parade, poor thing, and had decided not to bother trying to catch up. So there they were, four men on a protest march of their own- two of them being a bear for a day, and the other two guiding it. (We go UP now, and then down- there is a post ahead).

• Waterfall Park: WHY did noone ever tell me of this? a little garden, surrounded with high brick walls near Pioneer Square. One enters, and there is a huge thundering waterfall, with algae covered rocks and ferns in the crevices. with a little effort, I could almost imagine myself in the Western Ghats. But the garden is Japanese, and the trees are maples, and it is beautiful.