White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Story and photos by Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for White Center Now

Last night was the monthly Rat City Art and Food Walk, with plenty of vendors lining the streets of the main business district of White Center, and many exhibitions inside local businesses. The work spanned a large variety of themes, including art highlighting the Pacific Northwest environment, queer identity, political issues, local horror filmmaking, handmade crafts, and even an artist presenting reproductions of art that was stolen from the Alki Art Fair last year. Here’s some of what we saw last night:

With a focus of portraying the Pacific Northwest, artists Amelia Serafin, Arin Rae, Erin Harris, and Richard Jahn all offered their own distinctive takes on the subject.

Amelia Serafin is a local underwater photographer who had her photos on display at Búho. She often dives off Alki and takes photos there, as well as teaching at local dive shops. She says she wants her photography to highlight the life under the water that might not be ordinarily visible to us, and the fact that it coexists with us in what appears to be an otherwise urban environment. “A lot of people don’t know that we have these colorful animals next to us, it isn’t just something reserved for the tropics.” she said. You can find more of her photography here.

Long-time friends Arin Rae and Erin Harris shared a booth outside Tim’s Tavern. They said that their art was uniquely intertwined, as they have known each other since they were around 7 or 8 years old, and had grown up in and shared a passion for the local Pacific Northwest environment. Arin has a background in science and continues to teach that, which she said is one of the main goals in her art – to show environmental themes in both an instructive and aesthetic way. Both said they were interested in their art showing “how we can respect nature, see the beauty of it, and how a depiction of the same subject in nature came come out in different ways.” You can find more of Arin’s art here and here, and more of Erin’s art here.

Richard Jahn made an appearance with an exhibit inside recently opened Wolfpack Cellars. As a life-long local resident, he creates art that also centers on themes of the Northwest environment among others, with an expressionist flair that he says was inspired by artists such as Gustav Klimpt, Pieter Bruegel, Thomas Hart Benton, and Vincent van Gogh. As mentioned above, he was a victim of theft at the Alki Art Fair last year, and was presenting reproductions of the art that was stolen.

He noted it was “heartbreaking, the way something so personal from you was stolen” and that he was glad to once again present something near and dear to him to the public again. You can find more of his art here [/] and here.

Artists Mónica Mendoza-Cawthon and Tate Eric offered art with an eye toward queer identity.

Mónica Mendoza-Cawthon (artist name Móni la Artivista, a portmanteau of both artist and activist) presented her work at Salvadorean Bakery. Mónica has a long background in both law and local political organization and activism. She is pictured here with portraits of two figures she says highlight her interest in both Hispanic and Queer identity: Frida Kahlo, the well-known 20th-century queer and feminist painter from Mexico, and Walter Mercado, an astrologer and television personality from Puerto Rico whose appearance often defied gender norms. Her other work also focuses on contemporary political issues, spanning from domestic to international. She says her art always aims to represent the theme of “A cry from the unseen and the unheard – wanting to be seen, and wanting to be heard.” You can find more of her artwork here and here.

Tate Eric (artist name tot) was outside the Crawfish House restaurant. They work predominantly on linoleum prints, with an interest in queer iconography and giving voice to transgender issues in art. For the art walk, they offered a chance to make a beaded rat lanyard in honor of “Rat City” for anyone stopping by.

You can find more of Tate’s art here.

Representing local film-making, Ean Tallent and Sam Mostovoy appeared outside the recently opened Tomb of Treasure [/] to promote their show “The Hallow Ian Horror Hour.” They said the main goal of their show is to present a variety of independent horror and horror comedy short films; they said more than 75 percent of the filmmakers they present are local to the Pacific Northwest. Their show appears on channel 28 SSCTV (Seattle Colleges Cable Television) every Friday at 8 PM. If you want to find out more about their show, you can look here and here.

Local artists Alma, Georgia Lynn, and Nora Davis were also part of this month’s Art and Food Walk, with other local arts and crafts.

Alma (artist name almanzobean) presented her work outside the Puffy Pandy pastry shop. Her work is focused on a variety of pop-art subjects, heavily influenced by anime aesthetics and fashion. You can find more of her art here.

Nora Davis offered a wide variety of sewn plush animals and other handmade goods inside Big Mario’s Pizza. Her eccentric mixture of plush animals ranged from bats, to moths, to slugs. She said, “The bats sell better than you expect. At the start of this year, I set a goal to sell 100 bats – last year I sold only 90. By July this year, I already sold 150.” She showed us that she even got a bat tattoo to celebrate meeting this goal. You can find more about her future appearances as a vendor on her Instagram page here.

Georgia Lynn Bean offered her work outside Wolfpack Cellars. Her work is predominantly acrylic on canvas, with a focus on animals and fantasy imagery. Recently, she has been working on a series of “dapper monsters.”

Pictured above is her take on the mythical Greek figure of Medusa, re-imagined here as a 1920s flapper with a fitting Art Deco inspired background. If you’d like to see more of her art, you can find her here or here.

The Rat City Art Walk takes place on the third Thursday of every month, between 5 to 8 PM in White Center. If you’d like to know more, please visit them at their website or check their Instagram @ratcityartwalk. The next one will be on October 16th.

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