Rearview Mirror: Storytellers in Clay, Wild Seattle, and an Alaskan Feast I am going to By no means Overlook

CLAY RELATIONS

I went to see the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s new Kondō household exhibit anticipating lovely ceramics, and there are a lot. What I didn’t anticipate was a captivating story that begins with samurai. Long earlier than pottery turned the household commerce, earlier generations guarded Kiyomizudera, a historic Buddhist temple in Kyoto. That function vanished when Japan ended the samurai system within the 1870s. Kondō Yūzō’s father later inspired him to discover a sensible craft, and he started studying pottery at age 12. He would go on to develop into a Living National Treasure, Japan’s highest honor, for his mastery of sometsuke, the blue-and-white porcelain approach.

The Kondō Family: Storytellers in Clay gathers 60 works by Yūzō, his sons Yutaka and Hiroshi, and his grandson Takahiro. Each constructed on the household’s methods in his personal means, and seeing the work collectively makes these influences particularly fascinating to hint. Takahiro’s near-life-size ceramic self-portraits, made in response to the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophe in Japan, are particularly putting. He believes artwork could be a power for change. I like that, and naturally I agree—even artists working alone are in dialog with those that got here earlier than them and with the world round them. You can see that so clearly on this unimaginable exhibition.

The Kondō Family: Storytellers in Clay is on view on the Seattle Asian Art Museum by means of Jan. 3, 2027.

POP-UP CULTURE

One of the very best issues about Seattle Center in the summertime is heading there for one factor and stumbling into one thing utterly totally different. Through September 26, Artists at the Center is bringing free pop-up performances to the Mural Amphitheatre, Upper Northwest Courtyard, and Cornish Playhouse Courtyard. The reveals are free, however the artists are paid. The program additionally supplies phases, gear, and manufacturing assist. Since it started, greater than $530,000 has gone to native artists and humanities organizations, serving to roughly 1,100 performers attain new audiences.

Check the schedule here, or simply wander over and see what you discover.

WILD WITHIN REACH

In Seattle, wildlife has a means of barging into the day. An eagle would possibly sail over the freeway; a crow will certainly steal the bag of chips you left unattended. Roddy Scheer’s new ebook, Wild Seattle: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around the Emerald City, is about recognizing these moments and realizing the place to search out extra. Scheer, a Seattle-based environmental journalist, photographer, and former Seattle journal contributor, pairs wildlife intel with seasonal outings and sensible suggestions. He additionally leads Agua Verde Paddle Club kayak excursions from Portage Bay by means of the Montlake Cut towards the Arboretum, the place herons, turtles, beavers, and river otters would possibly present up.

Wild Seattle: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around the Emerald City is out now from Timber Press.

FEAST YOUR EYES

I simply received again from a three-day journey to Ketchikan studying about Alaska oysters—how the chilly, pristine water slows their development and helps produce agency, plump, briny oysters with lovely deep cups. They had been unimaginable, and I ate sufficient to lose rely, however one of many meals I hold fascinated about got here on our final night time. We boarded small buses and headed a couple of miles out of city, then up a gravel street to Fireside Feast, an out of doors eating expertise overlooking the Tongass Narrows. Tiki torches marked the way in which, and we had been welcomed with mugs of sizzling salmon chowder—the very best I’ve ever had, thick with smoky salmon and candy corn.

We grabbed beers and iced teas and settled at a picnic desk with the bay unfold out under us. The solar hung low, making every little thing glow, and the wind tossed our hair round. The five-course dinner included heat rolls with cinnamon honey butter, smoked reindeer sausage, salmon with chive beurre blanc, shredded beef with crimson wine gravy, and roasted root greens, a lot of it cooked over the open hearth. We completed with s’mores. It was 70 levels with blue skies, and almost each Alaskan we met reminded us how fortunate we had been, which we positively knew.

These days, the world appears decided to remind us of every little thing separating us. That night time, it felt so good to take a seat in a forest beside the water with individuals who had all proven up for scrumptious meals, simple dialog, and the pleasure of being collectively someplace lovely. Should you end up on a cruise stopping in Ketchikan, ebook this dinner.