Amid the snow and ice, a couple of Tacoma galleries stood staunchly open last week – and Brick House was one of them. The upper downtown gallery had just opened a self-portrait show by 20 established local and regional artists, and while there are a few unremarkable works, most take on the topic of self from unusual viewpoints.

Two of those come from Alan Hopkins: The Bay area artist uses himself as a metaphor for larger human issues with inventive grace. In “Painting Through It,” Hopkins positions an iconographic, waist-up nude of himself behind a thick wire screen. Despite interesting composition (a Buddhist-inspired pose, with arms bent at 90 degrees holding a paintbrush and mirror with tapered, delicate fingers) the portrait is static and uninspiring, until you realize that Hopkins has in fact painted it through the screen itself. The crisscrossed wire casts prison-like shadows on Hopkins’ body, the flatness of the portrait takes on a new metaphorical dimension, and paint dabs on the wire blur the boundary line. Read more »

This Sunday visitors to the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle can watch and learn about contemporary Coast Salish art from practising artists. Included are demonstrations and talks about weaving, carving, printmaking, multi-media and more.

Here’s the schedule:

10:30 am: Talk with Qwalsius Shaun Peterson, Tulalip/Puyallup (carving, printmaking, multi-media)

11:30 am: Talk with Jason Gobin, Tulalip (carving, printmaking, multi-media) Read more »

PLU’s annual One Act Festival

Three one-act plays combine education and entertainment at Pacific Lutheran University’s annual APO One Act Festival “Loss…and Found,” beginning next Wednesday night. PLU’s chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theater honor society, produces the festival; plays include “Recklessness” by Eugene O’Neill, “Otter Pops” by Alex Eddy and “Poor Little Doggy” by Myia Johnson. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25, 26, 27 and 28. $5/$3 students. Eastvold Mainstage, Pacific Lutheran University, Park Avenue South and 123^rd Street South, Tacoma. 253-535-7325, www.plu.edu

UPS folk-inspired cello concert

Prize-winning cellist and University of Puget Sound artist-in-residence David Requiro performs a recital of cello works inspired by folk music tonight, along with violinist Maria Sampen and pianist Tanya Stambuk. On the Eastern-European program is music by Janácek, Tsintsadze, Kodály and Bartók, including his “Rumanian Folk Dances.” 7:30 p.m. tonight. $12.50/$8.50 seniors, students, military and UPS faculty and staff/free for UPS students. Schneebeck Concert Hall, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma. 253-879-3419, tickets.pugetsound.edu Read more »

Cindy Arnold, director of Live Paint, has cancelled the free theater workshop scheduled for this Saturday afternoon at the new temporary Tacoma Hilltop location for the non-profit kids theater group, citing a family emergency.

The workshops are intended for all ages, running for the next couple of months, and are free as part of the Spaceworks program, which puts art into vacant downtown Tacoma commercial properties. You can find out more about it here on my blog or at www.livepaint4kids.com

The University of Washington Tacoma has teamed up with the Museum of Glass to offer a new glass art class, held at the museum. Giving a basic introduction to studio glass making methods within the context of glass as a visual art material, the class is a first for the university, being piloted this winter quarter.

This quarter’s course runs in tandem with the current Paul Stankard exhibit at the museum, and offers students access to the galleries as well as the Hot Shop. Read more »

The South Sound has a lot of big-time stuff – a volcano, a wildlife refuge, museums for cars, glass and art, our state’s own history museum and even a major golf tournament coming up. What we don’t have yet? A guide book. Which is something three local artists have just begun to fix. Writer Ken Miller and artists Chris Sharp and Sean Alexander are collaborating on the South Sound Users Guide, which has just launched on kickstarter.com, and already has 15 per cent of its budget pledged by 46 backers.

“I’m excited about the book, in part because it helps identify our region as a special part of the world,” said Miller by email. “Everything we write about will be unique and local.” Read more »

Torsen Necessary, a senior at Curtis High School in University Place, has won the Tacoma Concert Band’s 2012 Student Soloist Competition. The prize includes $500 and a performance as soloist with the band at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater on Feb. 25.

Held since 1990, the competition honors the late Wayne Timmerman, former principal trumpet with the band, and encourages both young regional performers and their school band programs.

“The Student Soloist Competition is the Tacoma Concert Band’s way of contributing to the development of fine young musicians,” said TCB founding director Robert Musser in a press release. “Even the …

Read more »

Today’s the new Asian year – the Year of the Dragon. And for the ninth year in a row, Tacoma’s Monkeyshine folks have gotten out and about late last night to do their anonymous, slightly crazy glass art thing: hiding hundreds of hand-blown glass floats stamped with this year’s animal in front yards, trees and odd places around Tacoma for lucky citizens to find and keep.

Begun in 2003, Monkeyshines is a collaboration between local glass artists, glassblowers at the Jason Lee Hilltop Artists in Residence program, and willing volunteers who fan out late one night to deposit the floats all around the city. I’ve done it one year, and it’s fun finding creative places to hide the floats: under bushes, in tree branches (securely, of course), inside newspaper boxes… This year there are over 500 balls and medallions, each stamped with a dragon. Read more »