Northwest Film Forum will premiere Seattle filmmaker John Helde's new film, Marcie's, on April 4 and 5, 2025. Marcie's is about a small Washington town on the outskirts of the suburbs of Seattle that is feeling the encroachment of the city and developers who want to demolish the beloved community hub of Ed's Tavern in order to bring big business to the area. I sat down with John to talk about Marcie's and his unique style of filmmaking.

In February, I was an instructor at an arts-infusion workshop for a group of Seattle Public School elementary teachers. The workshop was held at an amazing multi-arts space that I had no idea existed in Seattle: PublicDisplay.ART. Arts Impact, the organization I teach with, acquired the use of the multipurpose space at no cost—an arts space that can be reserved and used for FREE! “How is that possible?” I asked myself. I connected with Marty Griswold, the Publisher of PublicDisplay.Art (they also publish a hard-copy magazine) and he filled me in on all the details. 

March ushers in an exciting moment for Washington filmmakers and cinephiles alike as Emergence Films closes applications (and vets participants) for their debut Emerging Filmmakers Program. This is an opportunity for women filmmakers of all backgrounds to gain career experience and guidance from co-founders Sienna Beckman and Rachel Noll James, who collectively have decades of professional experience with credits ranging from independent darlings to entertainment giants like HBO. The program is open to any woman 18 years or older who resides in the state of Washington.

A.K. Burns’ current show, What Is Perverse Is Liquid at Henry Art Gallery, curated by Senior Curator Nina Bozicnik, uses materiality, speculative fiction in the form of short, multi-channel film installations, and sound to envision a future spawned from our current trajectory. Burns’ work centers the queer capacity to thrive in the face of chaos and persecution, and draws a strong connection between our own human resilience and that of nature. 

Seek out designers like Titus Ross of Thirty+ Clothing. He presents an alternative approach, embodying sustainability through the art of upcycling and strengthening community. On January 25, 2025, he showcased pieces from his current collection alongside Clementine Cimetiere of ClemCreations—who debuted on January 26—at the first-ever PNW Fashion Week. The shows took place at the QFC – Quality Flea Center and featured other local artists and advocacy vendors who promote creativity and challenge the status quo.
I spoke with Titus ahead of PNW Fashion Week to discover his inspiration for Thirty+ Clothing and find out what the future of sustainable fashion in Seattle looks like from his perspective as an emerging designer.

I found them in the middle of their half-workspace, half-gallery corner of flea market paradise. They were surrounded by their signature beso bears and clutching a black marker with a corgi sock as a custom grip. A 6x4’ painting with three bears appearing to pounce in place in a meadow with a stream hung overhead. A few sculptures—conglomerations of various scavenged items—were placed at the edges of this scene to delineate the creative zone.

“There’s Trolls in them thar hills!”

The Trolls of which I speak are, of course, the much talked about sculptures brought to the Pacific Northwest (and beyond) through a unique collaboration between Danish recycle artist and activist Thomas Dambo, Scan Design Foundation, and several Coast Salish tribes—especially members from Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie.

NB: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview, Mr. Kraken. I think a lot of people were confused when the Seattle Kraken’s mascot turned out to be…not a Kraken. Can you give us the inside scoop?

BK: Call me Brodie. Mr. Kraken is my dad and he's a huge bummer. I’m so stoked to get a chance to set the record straight, man. It’s been heavy since that little troll weirdo got picked over me.

The harmonious pairing of artist Mary Ann Peters and Alexis L. Silva has culminated in a truly outstanding show of Peters’ work at Frye Art Museum, the edge becomes the center. In this show, based on research on displacement and the Middle Eastern diaspora, Peters conducts archival research in several countries (Lebanon, Mexico, and France), then uses her artworks to contextualize her findings. I sat down recently with Peters and Silva to discuss the impetus for this body of Peters’ work and the professional synthesis between artist and curator.

It’s often said that there is the technical and the creative and ne’er the twain shall meet. But local author Lauren Appelbaum aims to show otherwise with the release of her debut novel Rachel Weiss’s Group Chat.

Keen-eyed (read Chronically Online) Seattle Artists know that something has been up lately at 18th & Union, the beloved Central District arts space.

I sat down with marketing director, Jazz Flora, for an exclusive inside scoop:

In early November, On the Boards unveiled a briefly-run but awe-inspiring performance: Indian School by ritualist Timothy White Eagle (he/him) and co-created with Hatlo (they/them) White Eagle. White Eagle is quick to confirm that Indian School is a collaborative effort, and not a solo show.

The SAM VSO Union consists of a group of 54 Visitor Service Officers, or VSOs. On Black Friday, they started their strike. Strikes are typically one of the last options a union will exercise to make clear to their employer and the general public that their working conditions are unacceptable and their concerns up until this point have been largely ignored. Before the formation of the SAM VSO Union, there were a series of escalations in organized action against Seattle Art Museum (SAM) leadership and policies.

Local filmmaker Tim Lightell has released a Manbaby into the world. The film is about Sal and Dana, a married couple who encounter a snag in their relationship when Dana reveals she doesn't want kids. Sal comes up with a harebrained scheme, he pretends he's been transformed into a baby, to try and trick Dana into getting on board with the idea of children. Yet, his plan doesn't work out exactly as he hoped.

I Watched Her Grow was filmed entirely in Seattle with a homegrown crew. Filmmaker Shea Formanes was kind enough to chat with me about the film and her process.

The story is about Ada (Michelle Colman Padron), a botanist struggling with grief over her mother Mirren's (Eloisa Cardona) death. Ada takes in the mysterious teenager Wren (Taylor Freeman), who seems to be struggling from the same affliction as Mirren did. 

Meghan Trainor’s work has always had spiritual connections. With a practice firmly rooted in her own ancestral Irish Catholic imagery and iconography in her early art-making days, Trainor found new inspiration via Mexican folk art when she was exposed to the work of Frida Kahlo and later from a nearby shop when she worked at Pike Place Market in the 1990s. Importantly, a 1980s show at Seattle Art Museum about African spiritual objects left a significant impression.

Brandon Vosika (BV): I used to live and work in a notoriously haunted building, and I guess it felt worth mentioning in my bio because I feel a deep nostalgic connection to old ghost stories and haunted houses from my youth. Now I have a new studio and only live in the haunted building! I used to put ghosts in my work a lot but I don’t so much anymore. They’ve become very popular which makes me want to stay away. In general, I’m not influenced by the PNW in my work aesthetically. Okay, I probably am subconsciously because I’ve lived here my whole life and love the rain and dark, but the typical PNW-themed art I find totally uninteresting.

Democrat Melissa Chaudhry has made it to the general election for Washington congressional district 9’s seat in the US House of Representatives. She’s challenging the nearly 28-year incumbent Democrat Adam Smith who has denied the genocide in Gaza. His largest donor by far is the pro-Israel AIPAC, the biggest source of Republican money influencing Democratic primaries. Chaudhry runs a grassroots campaign. Smith just voted to send $26 billion to Israel—$14.1 billion of which is for U.S-made weapons.

Before attending the interactive experience, Leave Only Footprints, I was unsure about what to expect: A haunted house? A murder mystery? But this spooky, fun, campy, mystery experience by The Emilys (Emily Pike and Emily Sershon), along with a dynamic cast of 40+ performers and multiple writers, did not disappoint.

The two-man band weaves together synth pads, crisp guiding melodies, improv solos, innovative drum beats, a tasteful touch of live flute, and a bass sound that gets one in touch with their body’s natural resonance frequency. Their music is made modular by the power of their linked Ableton setup and sequencers that they expertly manipulate to recontextualize different musical parts on the fly.