Steam Plant Painting

 I've had the amazing good fortune to have a "residency" at the Georgetown Steam Plant in December 2024.  The Georgetown Steam Plant was built in 1906 to draw water from the Duwamish River (which, at that time, flowed next to the plant) and through pipes, furnaces and a lot of huge heavy machinery, create electricity to power Seattle's street cars.  The plant was decomissioned in 1970 and there's a new and exciting effort to explore arts programming as a way to bring uses to the enormous and fabulous space.

I put "residency" in quotes because I generally think a residence would have heat and bathrooms.  But this is an abandoned steam plant, and it is very cold in December!  While the long term plan calls for all the amenities and ADA accessibility, in the short term, as funds are being raised and ideas floated for uses, painters and others (dancers, singers, a whole Science Fair!) have been granted time in the plant.  With heated gloves, toe warmers in. my shoes, and layers of long underwear and down jackets, I have been painting there.

My latest (and I hope not my last) painting idea came to me last week as I was contemplating the cold spaces and how some of the forms reminded me of plant stems or tree saplings.  I
proposed a collaboration with a floral designer friend to install flowers on a piece of machinery, which will then be the basis for a painting.  I've started the background work on the painting and have one week to get the flowers in, painted, and taken down before I leave for a month. 

And that's what I'll be blogging about, if you care to follow along.  First, the steam plant project.  Then a few weeks in Portugal and a few days in Copenhagen.   More on all that to come!