City Hostel Seattle Room 301

Towards the end of July, my friend Jen Vertz approached me about the project she’d volunteered to curate. Taking the lead from San Francisco’s Hotel des Arts and similar projects, City Hostel Seattle reached out to Jen and her partner, spray-paint maestro Jeff Jacobson aka “Weirdo”. Jen’s job: to quickly find some 50 artists to each take a room, and the rooms had to be completed in time to open on August 14. Needless to say it was a whirlwind of activity, during which I was also reconnecting with half a dozen friends from my 1st high school in the deep South via Facebook, plus I got into a bit of excitement with, and I can’t publish it, a man friend.

The hostel project was a joy. I arranged to have some days off of client work towards the end and it was fantastic. Painting all day and being in the company of so many other artists was just about as much fun as I could handle. I could fill a few blog posts on the issue of compensation and the sad state of a society that encourages an unquestioning willingness in artists to essentially volunteer for a for-profit project. Two factors motivated me, however, one was the opportunity to paint directly onto the walls of a room. I painted a small trompe l’oeil in the sink nook. I could never get away with that at a gallery show, it would be panned as low brow, but in this context, the audiences seemed rather pleased, and that’s the other factor. This work has a guaranteed audience for several years to come. I took great delight in creating imagery reflecting the purpose of the room. I felt a responsibility to create pleasing and thought provoking work and I liked feeling that sense of responsibility. It’s art with a purpose that has some longevity. One of the artists had a Warhol quote hanging in his space: “Why do people think artists are special? It’s just another job.” I felt that blue collar around my neck and was proud. Now we just need to foment a labor movement so that we can get paid.

Here are some photos of my room at City Hostel: