Free Sheep Foundation Breathes Life Into Belltown

I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a huge fan of Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Sure, there are a few cool things like Shorty’s, Roq La Rue, and The Big Picture, and it was once (or perhaps soon again) the home of the legendary Crocodile Cafe. Sure, sure. But for every one of those cool things comes one annoying, expensive, hoity-toity club or restaurant. It’s probably one of the places in Seattle I’d least like to spend my time in.

Nonetheless, Free Sheep Foundation has opened up a new gallery in the husk of an abandoned building in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. The location is just a couple blocks from the Roq La Rue / BLVD Gallery section of Belltown, and they are [temporarily?] doing some pretty amazing things in this stripped down space.

I’ve been sitting on these pictures forever and this opening was earlier this month, but I hope you enjoy them, weeks later.

Static Invasion / Scntfc installation, commenting on the ‘progress’ of Seattle’s new crazy building expansion projects. Static Invasion is a group of artists that use vinyl clings to promote street art as opposed to permanent methods. Pretty amazing.

No Touching Ground installation.

D.K. Pan installation.

Experimental music takes the stage in one of the back rooms.

Click here to view more about the gallery. Hollar.

Femke Hiemstra & Travis Louie at the Roq La Rue

Go to the Roq La Rue. NOW! Their current body of art might not be all that colorful, but it is technically amazing and has incredible framing.

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Femke Hiemstra of the Netherlands can pretty much make anything look good. Shown above is a graphite drawing. Reflections aside, it’s incredibly detailed and remarkably smudge-free.

More work by Hiemstra.

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Travis Louie can paint detailed portraits for non-existent creatures, and he can also craft hilarious stories for them. Here are some from his recent showcase at the Roq. The descriptions are typed word for word.

“Minty was a rather affable Victorian Ogre.
Instead of stealing sheep and terrorizing the English countryside (as other Ogres were
known to exhibit such behavior), he was well known for being a storyteller of sorts.
Unfortunately, his stories were remarkable long and the concept of “beginning”,
“middle”, and mostly “end” alluded him. There was no logical conclusion to any of his
yarns, but many a passersby would learn about the day to day lives of the most
unimportant people in English history.”

“Albert was a happy monkey boy.
Her worked for an organ grinder , dancing in a trance like state with a
tin cup in his hand.
Quite often, he would climb up a lamp post and do a back somersault off
of it.
When someone tried to put buttons in his cup instead of coins,… he chased them down
and made them eat them. He was not to be trifled with.”

“Maurice was one with the sheep.
Wherever he went, the sheep would follow him.
It became a problem when all the sheep of his native
Scotland migrated to his farm. They couldn’t help themselves.
Eventually Maurice was forced to leave his farm and settle in lands
that had no sheep.”