Appetizer

It’s been at least thirty years since Nyel has been in Seattle for the First Thursday Art Walk and me more like not ever. But yesterday, there we were staying with our friend Linda in the Emerald City and off we went to Pioneer Square to partake.

But first we took a little detour to Ballard for the Happy Hour at the Bastille Café and Bar in Ballard. (Make that Bars with an ‘s’; there are two, one in front and one in back under a great, glittering chandelier.) As the name indicates, it was très très French. Their Happy Hour menu was extensive and I had a hard time choosing – finally settled on the moules (Taylor Shellfish Mussels) that came with its own cone of pommes frites. Plus a bowl of fancy schmancy almonds and another of olives to share. Heaven!

Pommes Frites

It was hard to tear ourselves away to make it to Pioneer Square before the eight o’clock closing time. But we had a chance to visit the Alki Gallery where Linda’s friend Layne Cook was having an opening – apparently a very successful one as there were several red dots on her paintings,.

We then nipped into the Foster White Gallery – lovely as always. I thought about Jim Howell, my son’s uncle, now a well-known minimalist in New York City with galleries in Switzerland and elsewhere, and the years he yearned to be at the Foster White.

And, of course, we thought of Polly and her Friedlander Gallery and gave silent tribute to happy memories. It seemed fitting, somehow, to be there knowing that Polly’s memorial service will be next weekend at the Oysterville Church. I idly wondered what part Polly had played in the beginnings of Art Walk in 1981.

Layne Cook’s Show

According to their website:First Thursday in Pioneer Square is the first Art Walk in the USA. In 1981 a group of Pioneer Square art dealers printed handout maps, did small-scale promotions, and on the first Thursday of the month painted footprints on the sidewalk outside their galleries. First Thursday soon evolved into a beloved fixture on the local arts calendar.

 All-in-all, it was a lovely way to begin a long summer get-away weekend! Nourishment of the highest order for both body and soul!