Thendara's Blog

The odds and ends in the creative  world of Thendara M Kida-Gee.

Through the Trees now residing in South Lake Union

These are some of the pieces included in my storefront, which should you be in South Lake Union, come take a gander! the location is on the eastern side of Thomas nearBoren in Seattle, Wa.
"Through the trees" is a fascination the edge of the forest, where the interplay of light and shade as well as a choice of stepping in or out of nature, a choice I find the most Narnian I will have in this life.
this project is created from collage that I typically create in between projects, an apparatus of artistic self soothing and meditation as I cut each strip of photograph individually by hand - this process calms and allows space for other projects to come to mind. I hope you can swing by and check out how it all fits in the city scape of Seattle.
Thanks to Shunpike Arts and the Storefronts program for the opportunity to present the first iteration of Through the Trees.

Welcome to the other side of the Sound

Shifting life from East of the Puget Sound to West of the puget sound has been a big deal for me and my family this year. We left our home in North Seattle for the past eight years to live more deliberately. To farm our own vegetables for food to be in the outdoors more then the indoors, to be out of city life.

I feel like a recovering city liver. My fascination with cities spanned many years and many cities, a love affair or series of love affairs with cities. An escape from the city of Buffalo at age 18 was not too soon enough for me, grown up with ridiculous snow every year and the ridiculous necessity for life to function as normal through said ridiculous snow. The affair was between mostly I andSan Francisco and London then an escape to Seattle where initially things felt more spacious a city wild balance I could handle, but living here the wild began t want more space in my life- to consume me to the point of a city being visited vs the woods being visited and the city always what I would return to...Seattle has grown up since I have been visiting - our relationship beginning back in 1997 when my parents moved here ending my long term relationship with the city of Buffalo as the home which would ever be returned to over and over. Seattle certainly is a different kettle of fish since I met it back then, in the 90's.

It is thriving and providing all the things people look to for a city to do. Having acquired autoimmune diseases since arriving in America- and battling through living as healthfully as possible, food as medicine it was just a question of time before the desire to grow food came into play...after over a year of searching we finally found a place to grow food, grow ourselves and indeed create! The creations can get larger as work space has improved - dedicated space to work with both messier/stinkier projects as well as the none so.

I look forward to sharing this journey but mostly, firstly, living it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Respectfully staying dry, mostly as I approach 40....

The rainy season has come and we are making up for all that dry of the past couple years.

I wait for a seasonal clearance to get back to northern state farm (photographed above by Tim Gee.) while it's wet and dark I look to the projects that have sat uncompleted and try to re find their voices to get them into completion.

The summer was easy the creative flow kept me awake at night, now we with the dark I struggle to want to be awake beyond the days tasks, thinking is much more a strength then doing.

If I could just hibernate a week I feel like I could be a new person, maybe one not so close to 40 years of age .... nearly a month left before the number devours me for a year...

whatever 40 means as a reference or a marker I don't intend to honor it as any more or less then any other year...

but it's coming and despite what I decide the world will still say you are 40...

how does it feel...

the same as five the same as ten- twenty five and thirty one...

it all has felt the same just maybe I became something more of something else as the year progressed.

I don't know what it means, that I could have lived over half my life at this point if I live the length of life my grandparents lived, that I hope I have lived healthier so I am not yet halfway, or that the vampire will come bite mebefore I become too feeble bodied to fully enjoy eternal life.

what does it mean? it means I may have to make some darker then usual art, and then forget about it and get on living....

 

 

Come one come all- Bemis Fall exhibition 2015!!!

This year I got my act into gear and applied to be a part of the Bemis Fall show!

I have been thinking on it for a few years and took action and am really excited to be a part of a show filled with great artists in a fantastic piece of historic Seattle, The Bemis building.

I will be showing my Recycled Landscapes and look forward to seeing you down south.

Come down see some art, meet some artists, maybe even take a piece home?!

More information :Bemis Arts

 

Northern State Farm

It has been awhile since I had visited this special place. To see it in such a state I was glad I came when I did.  Two different roofs collapsed, photographs there only memory of being whole.

weird to see something, actively pursue visiting some place where the decline is fast and no one is stopping it. the details wash away, distilled into some vague form of what used to be there, like having applied a photoshop filter too often and ended up with some vague recollection of what was. 

Interesting day in all the skies were filled with fire smoke from Everett Northwards, really weird, I have never lived someplace where I experienced the repercussions of forest fires before.

Can't say it makes me happy, in fact it makes me cry for the trees an awful lot but people who know me probably wouldn't be too surprised about this, I have empathy to spare, and some seem to have none.