vp160601 Inspired by a new guy in town: Taking the chill off Seattle 

Several emails exchanged with a newcomer to the Seattle printmaking world, hired by the Henry Gallery to be print curator and programming person, reminds this author of the days when he was a professor at the UW, and how he welcomed Stephen Hazel to town.

Inspiration

Several emails passed between me and a newcomer to the Seattle printmaking world. He was hired by the Henry Gallery to be the print curator and programming person. The first time I approached him I was reminded of the days when I was a professor at the UW, and I welcomed Stephen Hazel and his entourage.

I think it’s only proper to welcome new people who practice in your field, but in the decades I’ve lived here, I have learned that it is exceptional to do so. People talk about the “Seattle Chill,” referring to the fact this is a generally unfriendly place for newcomers.

He’s lived here a year this month, but I didn’t learn about it until last winter, and then I introduced myself to him at the Seattle Print Arts annual meeting. I gave him my card and invited him to come and visit. He never did. Yet, I really wanted to get to know him—I had never met a print curator for any museum in Seattle.

It often occurs to me that it is strange that, if there are print curators at the Seattle Art Museum, the Frye, or in Tacoma, they never seek me out despite that I am the oldest printmaker in the region (with few exceptions) but moreover, a former professor of art in printmaking. Not only that, I’ve traveled around the world and I have met and worked with some of the old, famous printmakers, studied at the Munch Museum, and accumulated a long list of shows and the rest of the things that make for an interesting background.

Could it be that this huge resume of mine is the very reason I feel like a pariah—someone to be avoided because, as Linda Farris once said to me, “You’re too big.” Are people afraid of me, feeling perhaps that they are unworthy? Pshaw!

I’m inspired to do emails with this new guy mainly because he seems untainted by the local printmaking history. He probably doesn’t care about the history of jealousies and grudges that I know about (and try not to care about). I hope he is bigger than that, and if he wants to accomplish great things in Seattle, he probably can if—for one reason—he comes from the outside and is not dependent on local favors.