All One Life - 3D book by Jon Strongbow

Fantagraphics recently released Jon Strongbow's 3-D art book, All One Life, which was in progress before he joined the flying Aztec hunter in the sky one year ago.

"In stunning 3D imagery, All One Life is an imaginative collection of postcolonial, spiritually inflected images portraying the city of Seattle's past and present. Inspired by a 3-page comic by the French cartoonist Jean Giraud (Moebius) illustrating a speech by Chief Seattle, Seattle-based cartoonist Jon Strongbow went on a spiritual journey. He studied at the Red Cedar Circle, a community dedicated to the ancient teachings of the First Peoples of the Northwest Coast, attended a local Tibetan monastery, and was mentored by local native healers and medicine people. Deeply moved by these teachings, he sought to honor the culture of the original inhabitants and refute the devastation wrought upon them by depicting today's Seattle imbued with ghosts of the original inhabitants of Northwest Coastal natives. All One Life is a series of 29 stunningly imaginative images meticulously rendered and expertly transformed into 3D -- (glasses required and included) -- that juxtapose the city's past and present, indicating what we have lost by destroying the tribal nations. Many of the images feature masked dancers from all over the world and how they invigorate the modern streets. There are also shamanic images, especially spirit entities, such as the dream time Wandjina spirits of Australia and the Hopi and Zuni Kachinas in the Four Corners area. Strongbow also showcases endangered species: a whale swims in the streets of Pioneer Square, echoing their near extinction caused by aggressive whaling by Americans, Germans, and Japanese; dinosaurs roam the city's streets, reminding us that many creatures have had their day, and we may have had ours. All One Life is a series of stunning images chronicling the transformation of Seattle that is both imaginatively fanciful and profoundly elegiac."--  Fantagraphics

This beautifully produced work includes ultra-cool 3-D glasses, and we at Pistil Books have been enjoying the book with our friends.

Visionary Surrealism at the Pike Place Market

Seattle artist Jon Strongbow has published a new book showcasing his fellow artists who sell their work at the Pike Place Market.  The artists he presents are part of  "an ongoing grass roots art movement that could be designated as Magic Realism, or Visionary Surrealism, or what is now called Low Brow Art or Pop Surrealism in some circles. It begins back in the 1970's when the Market started allowing artists and craftspeople to participate in the market, which had previously been dominated by farmers and flower growers."

Some of the artists included are Tim Winstrom, Paul Sloan, Dharmic Engineers, Rob Schouten, Ray Pelley, Milo Duke, Winston Haycock, Kim Drew, Melanie Reed, Mark Holter, Blake Klazmer, Craig Anderson, Aaron Murphy, Dave Ryan, Robert Williams, Jesse Link, Alex Achaval, Sally Simmons, Kevin Darras, David Gould, Graham Callen, Rob D'Arc, and Scott Alberts.

Visionary Surrealism at the Pike Place Market is available to purchase here.

We also carry books of Jon Strongbow's own work.  His detailed black and white line drawings of Seattle cityscapes juxtapose realistic architectural renderings with scenes embracing indigenous cultures from all over the planet, including extinct and endangered species. Though he didn't set out to record the city's changing landscape, these drawings also inadvertently document the disappearing places of Seattle.

25 Years Ago Today

Pistil Books & News opened its doors to the public for the first time on November 17, 1993.  Our retail store was a former garage on Pike Street in an area that was in transition from "Auto Row" to retail and other businesses.  Cafe Paradiso had opened up in the same block just a couple of years earlier.  The Wild Rose, Seattle's only lesbian bar, anchored the corner, The Comet Tavern was nearby, and Ronnie's Upholstery occupied the basement of our building.

Before we opened, Sean and a hired carpenter constructed our eight and ten foot high bookshelves.  Friends helped us varnish the shelves, and we laid our flower mosaic entry way floor (which is still there today-- the space is now occupied by Bimbo's Burritos).

Carpenter Evan and Sean preparing to lay the mosaic flower floor.

We have saved our cash register receipt from our first day.  We made $120.25!  25 people visited our store that first day, and we sold a fair amount of classic fiction, including The Little Prince, A Wrinkle in Time, Shakespeare's Complete Works, and The Catcher in the Rye.

The average price of books sold our first day in business was $2.56.

Amy outside our storefront way back when.

Smoky Summer Night

Kam, our friend Barbara, and I had dinner on the balcony this evening.  The city has been very smoky for the past two days from forest fires burning, and the air is deemed "unhealthy."  This smoky atmosphere happened last year too, and a headline on the local paper suggested this might be the "norm" for Seattle summers now.  It makes for a pretty red sunset anyhow.

For dinner tonight we had hummus, tzatziki, feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, grilled sweet peppers, avocado, artichoke hearts, pita bread, and sparkling wine.

What we're reading:

I am reading a monograph on Joseph Urban, the art deco theater designer.
--Kam

 I am reading The Canon:  A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier.  The content is very interesting and it's a good review of information I vaguely remember from science classes - probability, statistics, the size of the universe, how electricity works  -- and I'm only a hundred pages of so into it, so much more to follow.  The weird thing is that Natalie Angier constantly makes corny jokes and puns, which I find a bit annoying and distracting.

I also read the last in the Rachel Cusk trilogy, Kudos.

Presenting Works by Two Seattle Artists: Jon Strongbow and Tim Fowler

We are pleased to be selling works by two different Seattle artists.

In a series started in 1992, Jon Strongbow's detailed black and white line drawings of Seattle cityscapes juxtapose realistic architectural renderings with scenes embracing indigenous cultures from all over the planet, including extinct and endangered species.   There's even a drawing with the old Pistil Books & News storefront on Pike Street in the background.

Pistil Books is carrying his two new books, City of Spirits and Mystic City: 

On our Etsy site, we are also carrying block prints by Tim Fowler, self-taught Seattle based artist, who works in woodcarving, mosaic sculpture, painting, and printmaking.  His mosaic fence and colorful mosaic, metal and wood sculptures (including Easter Island heads, motorcyclists, and devils), and antique (some would say "rusty") vehicles make his home and yard a landmark in Seattle's Central District.  We have one of Tim's wonderful mosaic sculptures - a large salmon - watching over our front yard.

Tim says, "I was drawing pictures of cars and bugs in junior high when my art education stopped, and I haven't gotten over it since."

Tim Fowler has shown his art at Mia Gallery, Garde Rail Gallery, I.E. Gallery, Studio E, and the American Visionary Museum (Baltimore).

Pistil Penthouse

We have been busy the last two months starting a new business - the Pistil Penthouse Airbnb vacation rental.  We live in a 1903 built house, turned triplex, on Capitol Hill, one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in Seattle.  We live in one of the apartments, Pistil Books is in the renovated basement, and the other two apartments have been traditional rentals until our top floor tenants recently moved to Amsterdam.  We spent about three weeks getting the place ready - some maintenance, painting, and furnishing needed to be done first.  We are located pretty much on top of Capitol Hill, and this apartment has two balconies with some amazing views looking west (towards downtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains) and south.

View from western balcony:  Space Needle, Olympic Mountains, and one of many cranes that now dot our skyline.

Although of course I was tempted to cover all available wall spaces with bookshelves and books, I restrained myself and partially filled  just one small book case with a selection of titles I thought would be fun for guests to pick up at random and leaf through:  a collection of vintage books on trees and nature, some graphic novels and comics, a book of surrealist games, some art books, and a selection of guidebooks to the city and the northwest.

Our first guests were two women in town for a comparative literature conference - what serendipity!  Comparative literature was my college major.  We received some messages from them during their stay, commenting on their enjoyment of the apartment and the conduciveness of the dining table to working on a presentation for the conference.  In their after-stay review, they said "We were in for several days, and constantly discovering creative touches around the apartment (when you find a Lynda Barry book on the shelf, you know you are in a good place)."

About a week after our first guests left, Pistil Books received an order from one of them for several graphic novels and two of my recycled blank journals.

We have the idea of using the space mid-week when there are not guests to have readings and other art events.  So far, though, the summer is getting booked quickly.

Coming Soon - Pistil Books' Outdoor Book Sale

Pistil Books' Annual Outdoor Book Sale

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

1415 E. Union in the alley

Hundreds of books in all categories, including fiction, poetry, art, science, history, biography, how-to, and many more.  Many books in like-new condition.

Paperbacks $1    Hardbacks $2

Stop by to say hello and have some lemonade, or maybe beer.  Tell your friends!

Hope to see you there--

Also, a reminder that WE BUY BOOKS.  We are particularly interested in libraries and collections of scholarly non-fiction, art, technical, university press, collectible, and unusual titles.

Ephemera

This weekend I went to an estate sale with my friend Tim.  We were planning to go garage saleing, but this being Juneuary in Seattle, it was too rainy for outdoor sales.  Sometimes sales advertised as "estate sales" are really just misnamed yard sales with small piles of crap, the sellers not realizing they have to be dead to really qualify for the more esteemed term.  This small modest house in the Queen Anne neighborhood was the real thing.  There's something a little creepy and sad about estate sales:  the literal contents of a person's life-- drawers, closets, shelves laid out for strangers to rummage through and worth only pennies. Since the estate sale was held now, in 2012, you know the person was alive fairly recently, but often their possessions seemed to have stopped changing after a certain date, in this case 1978.  So much bright polyester.   I went straight to the bookshelves, which were pretty much filled with junk, but interesting junk, nevertheless.  For instance, a pamphlet published by Reader's Digest about "Joe's Man Gland."  Lots of beat up religious titles, nonfiction pocket books from the sixties, a cool children's ex-library book from the fifties on America's Heritage from the Ancient World, that I actually bought.  The books' owner was one of those people who leave lots of little scraps inside their books:  coupons, lists, notes, a paper butterfly.

The best find, though, was the Official Program:  Treasures of Tutankhamun which was exhibited at the Seattle Center in 1978 - and which is once again exhibiting in Seattle (and there's a really cool giant Anubis statue outside the downtown train station).  I remember King Tut mania from around that time period.  My fifth grade classroom had a decorated plywood box the kids were supposed to crawl around inside with a flashlight (like archaeologists!), answering questions the teacher had stuck to the inside walls with thumbtacks.  And who could forget:

King Tut (King Tut)
Now when he was a young man,
He never thought he'd see
People stand in line to see the boy king.
(King Tut) How'd you get so funky?
(Funky Tut) Did you do the monkey?
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia (king Tut)....

This program was published by The Weekly, a Seattle tabloid that still exists.  Besides the official program information, it's filled with ads for local businesses with Tut-themed graphics and copy.

 This publication is an example of what is known in the bookselling world as "ephemera":  "From the Greek work ephemeron, meaning something that disappears quickly. Examples are: manifestos, broadsides, programs, menus, tickets, playbills, etc." (Abebooks' Glossary)

Funky.