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An Avenue of Stars Near Alki Beach
Find a guide to the night sky under your feet in West Seattle
This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the March 2020 issue. Click here to subscribe.
Walking down Beach Drive SW just south of Alki Point in West Seattle, you’ll likely keep your eyes fixed on the unobstructed panorama of Puget Sound before you. But look around and you’ll see the many artistic features of Constellation Park and Marine Reserve, including a tide pool sculpture and a wall of tiles illustrated with local algae and shellfish. Set your eyes on the sidewalk for a peek at the Avenue of Stars, a series of 27 bronze, in-ground artworks, each depicting a constellation that can be seen from the park on clear nights at about 10 p.m. Local artist Lezlie Jane designed and installed the constellations in 1999. Another star map appears under your feet every few paces as you walk from 64th Avenue SW to just before Benton Place SW. Beside each installation, a plaque notes the constellation’s name and the season in which it is most visible from this vantage point, serving as a nighttime guide to the stars or a daytime reminder of what exists beyond the far-off horizon.
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Seattle’s Artists of Color Expo Offers an Inside Look at the Creative Life
The October 9-11 gathering features live art-making and hands-on workshops, with Seattle artist Damon Brown delivering the keynote.
More than 100 artists participate each year in Seattle’s Artists of Color Expo & Symposium (ACES), which brings exhibitions, artist talks, live art-making, and workshops under one roof. Visitors can learn a technique from an artist or hear how a childhood memory became the starting point for a piece. This year’s event takes place October…
Seattle Author Kristen Millares Young Follows Her ‘Desire Lines’
Blurring the lines between desire and expectation, her debut memoir explores what women inherit, sacrifice, and claim for themselves.
In her debut memoir, local author Kristen Millares Young dives straight into precarious experience of being a woman. Blending myth, history, personal essay, and travelogue, Desire Lines (Red Hen Press), out October 6, is an unflinching look at the challenge of balancing one’s own desires with the demands of motherhood, marriage, and work, and the…
Rearview Mirror: Big Laughs at Seattle Rep, a Sloth Surprise, and a Good Read
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
AGREE TO DISAGREE Earlier this week, I took my teenage daughter to see Eureka Day at Seattle Rep, and we both loved it. Jonathan Spector’s Tony-winning comedy is set at a progressive private school in Berkeley, where the people in charge insist on reaching agreement before making decisions. Then a case of mumps forces a…
Studio Sessions: Kelly Bjork
Fresh off the opening of a solo gallery show, Kelly Bjork talks working in pencil, the turning point in their career, and staying authentic in their art.
A longtime fixture in the local art scene, Kelly Bjork creates works that are intimate, relatable, and that hum with emotion. Working with pencil and paint, Bjork’s illustrations—often vibrantly colored and patterned—give viewers a glance into scenes of domesticity, highlighting simple moments between humans (or between a human and a place) that make up daily…