McLeod Residence Blog

Our bar is now open to everyone!

Dear Friends,

We've waited a long time to be able to say this.

That's right. McLeod Residence's bar is now open to members and non-members alike. And we'll be open 6 nights a week! Even though a lot is changing, we're going to keep the spirit of the place the same, and continue to give members a reason for being members.

McLeod Residence believes in things.

1. We believe that by combining a real art gallery with a real bar, we get something that's greater than the sum of its parts. Right?
2. We believe that encouraging creativity and collaboration can sometimes benefit with a drink or two.
3. We believe that Seattle is full of interesting people, incredible art, and brilliant ideas.  Obviously!
4. We believe in lots of other things too.  Like pandas.

McLeod Residence keeps trying to get better.

If you haven't been to McLeod Residence lately, there's a lot of new stuff to experience. We have new bar hours (now open 6 nights a week!), beautiful art that switches out regularly, our bar now accepts credit cards (charge it up, friends), our photo booth is inching up on 20,000 pictures taken (whose will it be?), we're gonna be OPEN SIX NIGHTS A WEEK! (did you get the message yet?), we have more kinds of liquor, beer, and wine stocked than ever, and we have a whole bunch of new regularly scheduled events launching soon (like Sunday night karaoke hosted by Ade!).

Thank you for helping us get to where we are. Please come and help us continue to the next thing. Six nights a week! Seriously. We're really excited about this. It's a perfect time to become a member!

Sincerely,

The McLeods

New exhibit at McLeod Residence opening this Friday!

We have a new exhibit coming to McLeod Residence next week!

Encausticated and The Possibility

Opening Reception: Friday, February 8, 6pm-9pm

Read the press release…

McLeod Residence is pleased to collaborate with two different curators for its February exhibits. Encausticated, curated by Megan Woo, is a showcase of artists working with encaustic paintings and mixed-media works. The Possibility is a photography exhibit by Shoot for Change and is organized by local youth mentoring program Community for Youth. Sales of the photography will benefit Community for Youth. In addition, Cait Willis will show her roller derby paintings.

All exhibitions will open Friday, February 8, from 6-9pm and run through March 29, 2008. The opening will feature a performance by local musician Levi Fuller at 8pm.

McLeod Residence Anniversary Party this Friday!

Anniversary Party and Exhibition

Friday, January 4, 6pm-Midnight Read the press release…

Happy New Year! And happy birthday to us! That is right, on Friday, January 4 (2008!) we will celebrate our anniversary with a party and exhibit opening. The party features a special musical performance by Cynthia Norton, an artist exploring the boundaries between domestic crafts and new media, to coincide with the opening of her video quilt installation Apple Suckling Tree. Also showing during January is an interactive textile grid by USA Fellow Maggie Orth and a stereoscopic photography installation by Ingrid Schultz.

The one-year anniversary party takes place on Friday, January 4, 2008, from 6pm - midnight and the performance of Apple Suckling Tree begins at 8pm. The exhibits run through February 2, 2008.

Giant Squid Opens December 7!

Giant Squid
Cassandra Nguyen

Opening Reception: December 7, 6-9pm

With poetry, live drawings and other activities by the Cephalopod Appreciation Society; squid snacks; and inky cocktails.

The mysterious and elusive giant squid resides in the deepest water of the ocean and is usually not seen by humans, but a few will make a rare appearance at McLeod Residence this December thanks to New York artist Cassandra Nguyen. Giant Squid will open with a reception on December 7, 2007, from 6-9 pm, and runs through December 29.

Cassandra's squid are actually stuffed animals, created in a variety of fabrics including ultrasuede, velvet, brocade, felt and toile. The three at McLeod Residence will each be about 20 feet long, the size of an adolescent giant squid. Cassandra became interested in giant squid after seeing a documentary on the cephalopods. The idea of being the largest creature on earth and yet never seen fascinated her. When she couldn't find anyone selling a stuffed squid, she decided to make her own and eventually refined a pattern that includes a secret pocket. Eventually she plans to make one that is 60 feet long, the size of a full grown giant squid.

Her squid are available for adoption at McLeod Residence during the month and a portion of the proceeds from each adoption goes to charity. Cassandra was recently featured in Giant Robot magazine and is also showing her squid at the Royal/T gallery and cafe in Los Angeles.

Members of Seattle's Cephalopod Appreciation Society will be on hand at the opening party to help disseminate facts and enthusiasm about the elusive giant squid, and will facilitate live drawing, squid poetry, and other activities to help creatively further our understanding.

Squid-inspired poets and performers will include:
A.K. Allin
Anne Bradfield / Elizabeth Bradfield
Levi Fuller
Rachael Harper
Rebecca Hoogs
Rachel Kessler
Travis Nichols
Melanie Noel
Avery Slater
Deborah Woodard
and more!

Going on its 6th year, the Cephalopod Appreciation Society has been meeting annually at the NW Film Forum to learn about and celebrate all things cephalopod. (Cephalopods = Squid, Octopus, Cuttlefish, Chambered Nautilus.) Past annual spring gatherings have included film, poetry, song, art, musical slideshows, dance, stickers, scientific lectures and impassioned speeches. This September, the Cephalopod Appreciation Society was invited by the Burke Natural History Museum to curate a cephalopod-inspired poetry reading for the grand opening of its new In Search of Giant Squid.

Also showing this month is Glimpses from China, a series of photographs by Sami Khoury. Sami lived and worked in China for six months this year and documented his journey in these vivid images from a country undergoing a rapid transformation.

The South Room features a "best of" exhibit of the year's light box images. The Lounge features McLeod Residence's ongoing installation of neon work by Jeremy Bert and Jen Elek and furniture by Gary Andolina. The Water Closets will continue to house the Barbarian Group's McLeod Mirror Series 1: See Yourself In Others. Maggie Orth's Petal Pushers and the Barbarian Group's Biomimetic Butterflies will continue to be shown in the McLeod Room and, at accessible price points, make excellent holiday gifts for beginning art collectors.

New exhibit at McLeod Residence opening this Friday!

We have a new exhibit coming to McLeod Residence this week!

Fixed Value

Member Preview: Thursday, November 1st, 6pm-12am
Opening Reception: Friday, November 2nd, 6pm-9pm

Read the press release…

New York artist Kharis Kennedy explores the subjective versus the objective with her series of paintings Fixed Value at McLeod Residence. The series addresses the use of subjective terminology to critique artwork and opposes the notion of "artistic value," instead offering empirical value and measurement for each work of art. Fixed Value opens with a reception on Friday, November 2, 2007 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and runs through November 24.

Also showing: Glimpses of China by Sami Khoury, and a continuation of The More You Know with Jeff Bender and Jason Huntley.

McLeod Residence, located at 2209 Second Avenue in Seattle, Washington, is a home for extraordinary living through art, technology and collaboration. Proprietors Buster McLeod and Lele McLeod founded McLeod Residence in 2006. McLeod Residence is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Thursday-Saturday from 6pm to midnight for member happy hour events. For more information, contact McLeod Residence at 206-441-3314 or visit www.mcleodresidence.com.

Sincerely,

The McLeods

---

PS. Learn more about memberships at McLeod Residence. We have weekly happy hours, lots of unique perks, and feel like it's a great way to meet and engage the people of our city. Our member lounge is open up to members and invited guests Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, so get your membership now if you don't already have one.

This Week at McLeod Residence

Please join us for this week's events:

Open to the public:
Tonight: Speed Geek, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Net Tuesday is where social change and technology meet for drinks!

For members and guests (and those who ask for an invitation):
Weds: Short Film Night, 7pm-9pm
Thursday: Queen Clam McLeod's Special Announcement Celebration + GuerrillaWarHair - Haircuts by Sean Lowry, 6pm-midnight
Friday: Birthday Celebration for Seattle Metroblogging's Josh! 6pm-midnight
Saturday: Seattle Neutrino Society Party, 6pm-midnight

Please email us for an invite: mcleodresidence@gmail.com.  We would love for you to join us.

This Week at McLeod Residence

Wednesday, August 1:

Conversation with the Artists: Maggie Orth and Joel Kollin
6-8pm, Hors d'oeuvres will be served

Please join us for a conversation with Maggie Orth and Joel Kollin to learn more about their work in our current Interactivity exhibition.

Maggie Orth is an artist, technologist, and entrepreneur who creates and invents interactive and electronic textiles. Orth is considered a pioneer in the emerging field of electronic textiles, interactive fashions, wearable computing, and interface design. Her groundbreaking work in electronic textiles has been published and exhibited in a range of venues worldwide.

Joel S. Kollin is a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Contextures is his series of work that engages the viewer’s visual system by challenging its ability to form a stable image.

Thursday, August 2: Indie Biz Night, 6pm-12am
Join Seattle's indie business community for an inspired evening of mixing and meeting other Seattle independent business people in a creative atmosphere.

Friday, August 3: Rock Lottery 03 Appreciation Celebration, 6pm-12am
Join the musicians of the Rock Lottery to reminisce and celebrate their achievements!

Saturday, August 4: Westcoast Kickball League (WKL) Play-offs Party, 6pm-12am
The Westcoast Kickball League "encourages deep, dark rivalries, intractable grudges, and an obsessive, unhealthy desire to achieve kickball supremacy." Sounds like fun...

Lounge events Thursday-Saturday are open to our members, their guests, and by invitation.  Please email us for an invitation.  We would love for you to join us.

This Week at McLeod Residence

Please join us:

Thursday, July 19, 10 p.m. - FREE

The Adventures of Bubble Girl and Accordion Boy (aka Shayne Eastin and Nate Lashes)

Saturday, July 21, 8:30 p.m. - $8 suggested donation

Dedicated to Chaos, a multi-media performance piece with live music and painting created by Jessica Lurie and Danijel Zezelj. The performance features Lurie on saxophone, accordion and voice and painting by Zezelj, with Will Dowd on drums and Paul Kemmish on bass.

Dedicated to Chaos is described as a visual and musical journey unfolding in slow-motion before the audience. The performance is built on a formal duality of music and painting, adding the dimension of space to music and the dimension of time to painting. The painting is done in black, white and red acrylic on boards or canvas, and the music is a combination of composed and improvised pieces rooted in energetic free jazz.

Our current exhibition, Interactivity, will be available for viewing.  Please come for these special events, or feel free to visit during gallery hours Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Interactivity: A Success!

Thank you so much for attending the opening of our new exhibition, Interactivity!  If you have photos of the new show, please add them to our growing McLeod Residence Flickr pool. 

I know that many of you have questions about the new pieces, and I hope that I can help answer them.  We've added quite a bit of information about The Barbarian Group's Biomimetic Butterflies HERE, and we've also added this video:

More information about McLeod Mirror can be found on its own new site: www.mcleodmirror.com, which has a video starring our very own Rockstar McLeod.

If you HAVEN'T seen the new show, well... you MUST.  It is open until September 1st. Chris Weber and I will be around every Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm.  We will also be open late tomorrow for Seattle Net2 Tuesday and late Thursday for a special performance in the South Room: The Ghost of Kyle Bradford & Corridor.  Friday is Rock Night / Member Night as usual, but Saturday evening our member lounge will be closed for Chris Weber's Rock Lottery at Neumo's.  It's going to be fun -- join us?

Interactivity: Opening July 6!

Interactivity
Artists working with Technology
Technologists working with Art

Member Preview: Thursday, July 5, 6pm-12am
Opening Reception: Friday, July 6, 6pm-9pm

Interactivity explores the convergence of art and technology with an entire gallery full of electronic art that patrons are invited to play with. Featuring Magnetic Structure prints and Biomimetic Butterflies by The Barbarian Group, interactive textiles by Maggie Orth, a laser installation by Joel S. Kollin and mixed media work by Felix Livni, Interactivity opens with a reception on Friday, July 6, from 6-9pm. The exhibits will be on display until September 1. The Lounge features McLeod Residence's ongoing installation of neon work by Jeremy Bert and Jen Elek and furniture by Gary Andolina and James Reinhardt.