Art, Music & Goodies!

Judging from happy faces, full tummies and well-behaved doggies, the Seventh Annual Leschi ArtWalk was a success. Despite early morning rain which washed away the chalk marks numbering the booths, Yousef Shulman and Ann Conroy rose to the challenge and found a booth for every vendor.

The stage was well positioned this year; we could hear the music across Lakeside Ave. S. Visitors especially mentioned The Rio Thing band of Brazilian jazz.

We saw many painted faces as we staffed the Leschi Community Council table and many children sporting bead bracelets, thanks to Sarah Howes, our talented craft instructor. Many prime rib sandwiches were sold and there were chocolates to nibble on from Herman Lanier, the Candy Man, who is making the world a little sweeter! And our cotton candy girl was there, spinning away as she produced sugary clouds of fluff!

There was a new event this year: a Doggie Contest! Although we told each dog that passed our table, only four made it to the park at 2pm. But Sally Wagner reports “Leschi dogs charmed the ArtWalk crowd with their costumes and tricks. Among the four pawed participants were a ballerina dog, a doctor dog, a Sea Hawk dog and a Seattle Sounder clad dog. Tricks entertained the crowd of dog lovers and every dog won a very nice prize, courtesy of the Leschi Mart and Meet the Moon restaurant. A special thanks to all the dogs and their owners and to the dog MC Carlos Arriola. See you all next year!” (Sally was the creator of this new ArtWalk feature. My dog didn’t make it; we were at the doggy iced treat booth at the time!)

We had a nice variety of art and crafts this year: the polished wood bowls, a painted pottery artist along with the beautiful handmade jewelry, soft leather bags and exquisite prints. Graphic artist Janis Howes concentrates on nature from bugs to birds! She had an exhibit at the Burke Museum a year ago and it was impressive. John Morgan also does prints, some whimsical and some a little ominous or at least brooding. I remembered his work from the Bellevue Arts & Crafts Fair years ago and appreciated his presence in our community event. The Leschi Community table saw lots of traffic; folks seem fascinated by our history and the Leschi Diary gets much attention. We hope to get it reprinted so residents may purchase the book; it has so many old photos from both the MOHAI and the UW Suzzallo Library collections that are more or less hidden from the general public.

And last but not least, the folks at the Voter Registration table were delighted to be so busy! Often that job can be tedious but they had a steady flow of folks who needed to register or change their address so we can only hope this means a greater percentage of voters will participate in the midterm elections! To quote German artist Käthe Kollwitz, “I am in the world to change the world.”

~Diane Snell