♪♪
- Hi, and welcome to Art Zone.
I'm Nancy Guppy, and this week we are coming to you
from Populous Seattle, which is a hotel
in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood.
Now, you may be saying to yourself,
why are they shooting at a hotel?
Well, the short answer is art with a capital A.
We'll have more on that in just a moment.
First, though, here's what's coming up.
♪♪
-Exciting things were happening.
We were having success.
-DJ Kevin Cole hits the big screen.
-At the same time, I was just destroying myself.
-Jeff Kleinsmith gets a much deserved retrospective.
-I was kind of a junior designer for the first two years, and
I became the art director.
And so I was art director for a year.
My dream.
-This is called “Dirty Shame.”
-And The Cowboys reunite at Tacoma's Spanish Ballroom.
♪♪
All right, the reason we are at Populous Seattle
is that this place is chock full of beautiful
large-scale paintings by mostly local artists.
It's a cool program the hotel has set up,
very beneficial to artists, And here to talk about how it
came about is the curator of the collection, Dominic Nieri.
♪♪
-Today we're at Populous Seattle here in Pioneer Square.
The building is a 1905 historic warehouse that has been
adapted to a 120-room hotel.
It also is serving as a gallery and so immediately as you enter
the hotel you're greeted with these five large
canvases above you.
♪♪
You'll ascend the stairs and the restaurant has pieces, the
cafe has pieces, the hallways have pieces.
Each elevator landing on every floor
has pieces.
The rooms, they all have artwork.
♪♪
The artwork at the hotel is all for sale and so
if you find something that you appreciate or you
love you can take it home and what that does
is not only support the artist that made it but it
creates a future opportunity for another artist.
The environment that we've
created here with the artwork is intentional to honor
the history of the neighborhood and the artists that have been
a part of this for a very long time.
All of the artwork in the hotel was created next door.
We would bring in artists in groups
of like 10 to 15 over a period of three months and set them up
studio space we handmade all the canvases for the
project and so the artists would really come in
you know and develop their painting.
I’m particularly interested in artists who haven't
arrived at like an answer, so I’m always interested
in art that is still asking questions itself and
so the artist process is in development you know
they're working through the ideas and techniques
and process that isn't a definitive statement,
but it's a point on their timeline of discovery.
And so a lot of it, you know, is expressive.
A lot of it you'll see is either abstracted
or altered in a way that it's not a realist picture of,
you know, a mountain.
It's this energy in exchange of concepts.
There is over 40 artists that are represented in this initial
collection, which has translated to over 50 original pieces.
And then there's, I think, over 200 limited edition prints
that were created out of a small collection of
originals for the rooms.
♪♪
Opening a hotel was very interesting, but now that
it's alive and guests are really the people who
bring life to the space.
So if you haven't been, I really encourage you to come down
and experience it for yourself.
♪♪
-The Populous Seattle lobby, restaurant and bar are
open to the public daily and self-guided art tours
are available on request.
For more information, including hours and location,
go to PopulousSeattle.com.
♪♪
Up next is the exceptionally talented artist and graphic
designer, Jeff Kleinsmith.
♪♪
-I'm never happier than when I'm working on something
that is related to music.
I do plenty of design work outside of music, and I'm not
sure if that has to do with my childhood or what.
I just have a strong relationship to music.
♪♪
I'm a local graphic designer.
I've worked at The Rocket, and I've worked at Sub Pop Records.
My role at Sub Pop Records is VP of creative.
I work on album covers, I work on advertising.
My technique, it's a mix of digital and analog.
So I will cut up things, I will draw out type and images
and then scan it in and then mess with it in the computer.
Kind of a messy collage style.
I don't really know exactly what I'm gonna do
until I kind of get into it.
And so the process itself kind of helps dictate
where I'm going.
I have kind of a sketch in my head, but that process
of collaging, the happy accidents along the way, are,
I would consider, my style.
Each row is separate from this, so you don't need to
line that up with that at all.
Do this Sonic Guild poster next.
Maybe a little closer, but yeah, there you go.
Perfect. I tend to be more inspired
by what's around me.
There was a period of time when I was first making posters
that anything that I sort of saw on the ground,
I'd pick up.
Xerox, really big.
A Band-Aid was really compelling to me.
It was a bloody Band-Aid that I turned into
an Afghan Whigs poster.
So for me, almost anything is inspiring.
I did art my whole life, ever since I was little.
I was grounded a lot as a child, so I spent a lot
of time in my room.
So I did a lot of art.
I made my own album covers, I made my own T-shirts,
I made my own cassette tapes.
I started designing posters in 1986
for my first band, The Funeral Party.
♪♪
About halfway through college, probably my junior year,
I took a graphic arts class, and it was in that
class that I realized that everything was designed,
and I had this epiphany.
And so everything after that was all art classes,
And that's kind of how I finished out college.
♪♪
I worked at The Rocket from 1990 to 1994.
The Rocket was a local music publication.
So I was kind of a junior designer
for the first two years, and I became the art director.
And so I was art director for a year.
My dream.
It was my dream, you know?
Like that's what I dreamed of doing in college.
And here I was, I had to pinch myself.
♪♪
We're at the Sub Pop waterfront space
that we are currently trying to open right now.
I'm orchestrating the hanging of some artwork
that we had from our headquarters.
I did this one when Mudhoney played on top
of the Space Needle.
In 1994, the owners at Sub Pop reached out to me
because they wanted to start an art department,
and they asked me to be the art director.
So on a daily basis, I work on records.
So I spend most of my time working on album
covers, talking to bands.
Working with bands is some of the most
gratifying work that I do.
They are incredibly creative people themselves,
and so I often take a back seat to some of the work
that comes in from them.
And it's a real joy to have their artwork come in
and get to work on it and get to work on it with them.
I love to collaborate, and so it's a great process.
Pigeonhead, Mudhoney, Postal Service,
Nirvana, Beach House.
I mean, I could name a million.
♪ ♪
I've got an upcoming exhibit at Sparklebarn.
It's a gallery in Ballard.
There's gonna be a lot of new posters
that I've done in the last few years.
For the most part, it's just gonna be a retrospective
of everything that I've done since I started
doing graphic design.
Come by and see some things you've seen a million times.
You know?
I'll have film posters, I'll have rock posters,
I'll have album covers, I'll have CD covers,
I'll have ephemera.
You would be amenable to that?
Just junk I had in my storage unit and threw it out.
When people see my work, I want them to experience
somebody who's experimenting with graphic design
in a way that maybe some other people aren't.
I want them to feel inspired, but mostly I just want people
to have a really good time.
♪♪
The best advice for young people is
just go do what you wanna do.
Like that's what I did, is I just started making posters.
Just stick with it, do the thing that you wanna do,
And it will happen.
♪♪
-Jeff's current exhibit, "Tragedy, Ecstasy and So On:
Art, Albums and Ephemera," will be up at Sparklebarn
in Ballard through most of the summer.
Hours and location are at sparklebarn.com.
♪♪
-I have no idea what I'm going to play next.
I'm trying to create mixes on the fly.
I'm trying to make sense of what I'm doing.
I'm trying to feel the energy.
I'm trying to channel the energy.
-”Radio Heart: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole” is a dynamite
new documentary that tells a professional and
personal story of this much beloved KEXP DJ.
The film had its premiere at this
year's Seattle International Film Festival to sold
out screenings and rave reviews.
Here's the trailer.
-Kevin Cole with you on the afternoon show.
♪♪
-You've got the best mix of people.
I mean, it is the top nightclub.
-Kevin would play a record and he'd kind of look over at me.
Is this cool?
You like this one?
-You're playing songs that people can't even dance to.
-This guy's pretty cool.
-Kevin did what he wanted.
♪♪
-Revolution Radio!
-We were basically silenced by our competition.
Did you know KEXP?
Do you listen to KEXP?
-We needed a champion.
-He opened up the music community so that it could
truly be a global experience.
-I went to my paper calendar and I wrote,
call Kevin Cole and find out if he's happy.
♪♪
-Exciting things were happening.
We were having success.
At the same time, I was just destroying myself.
-It was kind of surprising to hear that he had left town.
♪♪
-All it takes sometimes is just that one person to see you.
-That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
♪♪
- I'm gonna play this for the last time.
♪♪
- The dude's got a story for everything.
♪♪
- I think it was love at first sight.
I'd cried.
-They don't make people like that, really, not enough.
♪♪
-Check, hey, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.
Records are falling over.
♪♪
-”Radio Heart” will be playing in film festivals throughout
the country all summer long.
The complete screening schedule is at RadioHeartFilm.com.
♪♪
The Cowboys were an exciting and prominent Seattle band in
the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Although the band broke up in 1985, a few former members
decided to reunite last fall for an unforgettable performance
at Tacoma's Spanish Ballroom and Art Zone was there
to capture the magic.
(♪♪)
(♪) Spend my life keeping company with misery (♪)
(♪) This ain't exactly what I had in mind for me (♪)
(♪) I lived my life from day to day (♪)
(♪) Feel like a brand new stray dog (♪)
(♪) And it's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) It's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪♪)
(♪) Coming in last place in the human race (♪)
(♪) I'm feeling like a total disgrace (♪)
(♪) I'm in the hole without an ace (♪)
(♪) This wasted life is a hard life to face (♪)
(♪) And it's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) It's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) Oh it's a shame (♪)
(♪) It's a shame (♪)
(♪♪)
(♪) Coming in last place in the human race (♪)
(♪) I'm feeling like a total disgrace (♪)
(♪) I'm in the hole without an ace (♪)
(♪) This wasted life is a hard life to face (♪)
(♪) And it's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) It's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) Well it's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) It's a shame It's a dirty shame (♪)
(♪) Come on baby come on baby come on baby now (♪♪)
(♪♪)
(crowd cheering and applause)
Hey, thanks a lot, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, y'all.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks for coming out.
(crowd cheering and applause)
-Enjoy the Cowboys' entire concert at
seattlechannel.org/artzone.
I want to take a moment to remember Dave Baab,
a wonderful artist and a good friend who passed
passed away April 9th, 2026.
♪♪
Dave was a talented watercolorist
and his beautifully rendered paintings
often focused on familiar places in Seattle
like Green Lake and the Arboretum.
Dave had great reverence for nature,
for people, for animals, and his paintings clearly
reflect this deep appreciation for life in all of its forms.
Dave also had a strong faith, and after he died, his
good friend Kevin Henney wrote these wonderful words.
“The writer C.S.
Lewis talks about this amazing
thing that happens when we grow closer to God,
that we actually become more and more our true selves.
This miraculous dynamic that the closer we come to divine love,
the more we become what we were created to be,
the more we discover our unique selves.”
This paragraph captures Dave's very essence.
He was his true self and he knew in his bones who he was.
Dave Baab loved by so many will be missed always.
♪♪
And that's a wrap from this beautiful rooftop deck.
Heartfelt thanks to the Populous Seattle staff
for hosting us and a reminder that their artwork
is accessible to the public so plan your visit
soon. We are going to leave you now with a garden tour
from the multi-talented Sarah Rudinoff. Sarah
is an actor, a singer, a writer, and it turns out an
outstanding gardener and she has graciously agreed
to walk us through her private oasis.
So enjoy, have a great week, and we'll see you soon.
Take it away, Sarah.
- Good morning, welcome to the garden.
Spring is almost done and summer's not quite here.
It's that transition time.
And I'd love to take you on a little tour.
I've never gardened on a patio before I moved
into this house and it's been fun and interesting.
Yellow peonies, the mock orange, the tulips are almost done.
This beautiful California Lilac is in bloom.
See these in a lot of Seattle parks.
And Japanese Maple of course.
This is a very indulgent plant, the Peony tree.
It blooms for about two weeks.
She's coming up.
But I love when they die.
Look at these kind of limey, yellowy green.
Irises are out.
No jasmines in bloom yet, but it will be, and
it'll be smelling great.
The boxleaf azara tree.
It's a narrow garden, so I had to have trees that were narrow.
Oh yes, the limey leaf.
And we'll end at the Hostins.
♪ ♪