Bad Wig and Ugly Tracksuit Walk - Happy New Year at Green Lake

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2012 "Annual Bad Wig and Ugly Tracksuit Walk at Green Lake (left) Cory Gooch (right) Jana Rekosh"

For more photos from this deliciously fun day,  follow me to flickr.

Just watched Portlandia for the first time last night. I would say Seattle can easily give Portland a run for it's money. Shout out to Marlow Harris and Jo David for keeping this new years event alive and well.

Occupy Wall Street - the 99% must be heard

From Westlake Park, Seattle Occupy Wall Street Protest, 2011. All rights reserved, Ann-Marie Stillion

 

 

It has been widely reported that Homeland Security has been coordinating the Occupy Wall Street crackdowns. Today I sent the following to  President Obama.

Dear Mr. President,

I have been a strong supporter and writing this pains me. How could you allow the government to play a part and coordinate the police against Occupy protesters? Attacking media, hurting old people, destroying books. Really? The White House should be coordinating conversations not crackdowns. We are your people and using the police against us is wrong.

Please find a way to stop attacking the people who elected you.

Thank you.

Occupy Seattle 10.08.11

Photograph by Ann-Marie Stillion. All rights reserved. 2011

If anyone at the Occupy Seattle event on Oct. 8, 2011 in Westlake Plaza knew what was going on, it was this little marcher. Headed up the street with hundreds of others of all ages and backgrounds, it's hard to imagine a sterner or more purposeful look on a child. I couldn't stop to talk as people flooded over the corner of Pike and 4th headed out for the beginning of the march. But when I looked at the shots later I wondered what this little girl would say now and in the future. I hope she sees this someday.

For more images of Occupy Seattle from that day take a look at this slideshow. The images render a difficult truth for some politicians and business groups alike: this group of people is purely grassroots, on a message of their own, as well as educated and smart enough to keep on bringing it. If you are in Seattle, stop by and lend a hand. You can get started at the Occupy Seattle website.

Fall afternoon at Green Lake

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2007

Any afternoon, depending on the season the time may change, but any afternoon there is this timeless moment at the edge of Green Lake. Such a remarkable place.

Happy Fourth of July

"Georgetown, Seattle, an artists' trailer park, 2011" by Ann-Marie Stillion.

Rally to Restore Sanity--Seattle

(Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion/arttrek.com, 10-30-10, "Laugh More")

I met up with excellent editor and beautiful friend Sherri Schultz at the Rally to Restore Sanity in Seattle. When we got to Westlake the plaza was filled (more than 6,000 by the rally organizers count) and the mood was high. We laughed while standing for sanity and articulate and thoughtful debate. When the rally broke up at noon as the rain poured down, the "protesters" scattered and one lone sign remained leaning against a retail shop, a lost balloon bobbed nearby. The sign called out "Laugh More" and the yellow balloon's message, "Enough," fell with a whisper to cold blue pavement.

Lots of other signs made me laugh that day like "Hitler is Hitler" but "Laugh More" pretty much sums it up.

Asian Guys' Hair

From "Asian Guys' Hair" by photographer Ann-Marie Stillion -- a series of images shot in impromptu street studios in Seattle's Chinatown in 2006-07.

Hard to imagine a month has gone by since I posted here - whoops! Playing catch-up since hanging the show at Habitude. Have been working on building out my website with some of my earlier projects. Am trying for an overview rather than just being current. In the newest version of arttrek.com I including the series, "Asian Guys' Hair," and am thinking of going back to Chinatown for another day or two, setting up the street studio. Looking at these images today proved inspiring. If you are interested in being a subject, send an email.

Merry Christmas from Seattle

The carousel is a fixture in Westlake Plaza in downtown Seattle. Sweet memories of photographing children and families with Lisa Ahlberg, watching them rushing to get their photos completed at Nordstrom. Cold and crisp. Wishing everybody infinite peace and joy. Get ready to blast off in the new decade.--ams

Eva's fashion statement

This is Eva's Filipino outfit as she calls it. It was in the front window of the dress shop when she first saw it. I have given up trying to find her a home and must trust that she is fine where she is. Every solution or offering is met with some kind of resistance. Thirty years on the street have molded her to a fierce defiance of everyone, and I respect that. I am trying now to document all of her outfits. She complains a bit now but so far shows up in one of fifty she says she has.

Never lonesome or without a place to go she forces me to stop worrying over her welfare as I sense that is what she wants. She intends to outlive all of us. When she resists my latest idea of photographing her fashion statements, I push back. What is her real life after all? Picking up the out of date dim sum in Chinatown or conjuring up new ways to wear her hair. I say it is both.

The video I shot of her last spring is set to open at 4Culture in downtown Seattle in February. I am looking for a place to hang a selection of stills that I have of her now.

Reception for opening of the 4culture electronic gallery 09-10 season

Above: frames from Ann-Marie Stillion's "Eva Washington: sweet are the uses of adversity", about the life and times of Eva Washington, a 77-year-old woman who has lived on the street for almost 30 years. The video will screen for a year in downtown Seattle at the 4Culture Gallery.

Update: You are invited to the reception for the opening of the 4culture electronic gallery 09-10 season at 101 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle. The reception is Thursday, Sept. 3 from 6-8 p.m., part of the First Thursday Art Walk in downtown Seattle. Thirteen artists, including myself, representing a range of video and animation have been selected to screen in their cool street gallery.

Many thanks to all the people who have helped get Eva's video off the ground including Ali Hobbs, Joe Shapiro, the folks at Northwest Film Forum, and the Mt. Baker Senior Center.

Throughout the year, the works will rotate, including one from my ongoing project on Eva Washington. "Eva Washington: sweet are the uses of adversity" is a five minute piece which visually explores her clothes, hands, face and a night bus shelter where she sometimes sleeps.

In the video, Eva tells some of her story and life. She was born in Seattle, raised in the Central District and now at 77 years old has lived on its streets for almost 30 years. Despite the enormous obstacles and challenges that she faces everyday, Ms. Washington's story is hardly a tale of woe. She combats her circumstances with style and a rich connection to culture and others.

You see and learn more about Eva and my journey with her over the last year here.

I have continued to explore solutions to finding her housing. As always, if anyone reading this post can lend a hand, please contact me at annmarie@arttrek.com. Eva lives on a small social security payment from her many years of office work; she has no interest in public housing and does not take any form of public assistance. She is a proud woman who would most likely be honored in some societies. In ours, sadly, she cannot find a home. Her dream is to go to Africa.

Angry faces of resistance

I went along today with Dave Hirning, one of the local leaders of MoveOn.org. MoveOn was supporting the 34th district's town hall on health care. Several hundred people turned out in support of health care while only 4 showed up to oppose. Are we really going to bow down to what appears to be crazy people or hired actors when it comes to our future with health care? More photos here

Eva's still out there

Living on the street more than 30 years now, Eva Washington hates the word homeless and I have learned to use her preferred word "casual" instead. She has also taught me not to ask her how she is, it is a meaningless greeting to her. It's summer now but I dread the coming of another fall and winter, for her. She claims that she can make it fine. But I still cannot believe that. The system has no place for her and she has no place for the system which has turned away from her most basic needs. Any decision which is not hers is greeted with fury and so I often remain silent these days.

I have decided to catalogue her dozens of outfits, maybe 50 plus in all which each include a unique hair treatment. The outfits are housed in a storage unit which costs her exactly half of her social security check. She did the right things in life and always earned her way until she began to age and inflation, the cost of living began to skew heavily against her. Eva cannot seem to grasp that her labor hasn't earned enough for her to live and rages against the "rent equation" as she calls it. She describes this outfit as "the zebra." We met at Seattle Center last night and this was photographed in the square above Fisher Pavilion.

If anyone reading this post has a meaningful idea to help this 77-year-old woman find a place to live, please don't hesitate to contact me. After photographing Eva for almost a year, I have to admit that I am beginning to despair. Every suggestion is met with resistance either by her or the social workers I have talked with. Somehow I hope to find an answer which I know must go beyond merely a financial solution. It is not only funding she needs but compassion and understanding. Last night she told me she is thinking about the possibility of adding to her income by modeling for local art schools. I know she would be great at it.

Long Shot at PCNW--an exhibit and update

As I posted a few weeks ago, PCNW did a 24 hour shoot, inviting photographers to shoot Seattle beginning June 16. Night Flight, my photo above shot in White Center, will be part of the exhibit and fundraiser on July 16.

Help this great photo institution grow and thrive. Join us.

Happy Birthday Martin

Yesterday Seattle celebrated Martin Luther King Day. Afterwards, they went inside to warm up. Sitting with his grandfather, this little boy held his tiny handmade sign covered with images of Obama and shiny with tin foil.

SoCal

Last summer

At White Center at dusk.

Eva's story

I met up with Eva last week again, this time at the food bank in Wallingford in Seattle. She spent the afternoon talking with Derry from one of the agencies in the area, telling her stories of living on the street most of the last 30 years. Here are some images from that day.

At Dick's on Broadway in Seattle

Where are we in time? Actually is is 6:15 p.m. in October, 2008 but this image feels like 1950--Ann-Marie