ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Section B • Page 4 • tacomaweekly.com • Friday, January 4, 2013
Love Tacoma Lane takes art to the streets By Steve Dunkelberger stevedunkel@tacomaweekly.com
Art lovers and downtown boosters faced a problem that only simple brilliance could solve. They faced a chain link construction fence along 6th Avenue and St. Helens Avenue. They hated looking at it. So they set out to spruce it up. Love Tacoma Lane was born. Notes of inspiration, love and hope or just shout-outs to the City of Destiny flowered on the fence and a community effort took root. Tacoma Urban Landscaping, local businesses, artsy Tacomans and just passersby have added their notes since the celebration wall took shape this fall. The concept is simple. Visitors just take an “I LOVE _____� tag from the fence, fill it out, hang it, snap a picture of it and post it on their social media page to share the love. The project is a first interactive art installation case study by Tacoma Urban Landscaping and is supported by the School of The Arts students and University Of Washington-Tacoma Interdisciplinary Arts graduate school students. The art installation has been evolving, with interactive participants’ involvements starting with Seong Shin, a principal at McGranahan Architects, announcing the
project idea on her Facebook page and asking her friends to join. Babe and Brian Lehrer as well as Paul Sparks joined via Facebook and worked as the core organizers. Teresa Placentia, Ian Wheelock, Holly Knoll, Claire Mendenhall, Patricia Lecy-Davis and Tammy Scarlett joined along the way. Holiday lights went up. ARC Printing donated the tags. Volunteers gathered at Morgan Alexander’s AMOCAT Cafe to prepare the tags in late November. Businesses joined the effort, including Ledger Square Retailers, Ruby Chambers, The Mix, Market on Market, Embellish Salon, Smooth and Juicey, The Tacoma Brewing Co. and Alfa of Tacoma. Tags now flutter in the wind like fall leaves. Hundreds of them. More are added several times a day as people walk by, read notes and add to the project. The seeds of this work are about to sprout in other spots around Tacoma as well. A couple of people have shown interest in developing similar community art works in their neighborhoods in the coming year. “I really want it to have every neighborhood doing their own thing,� Shin said. While Love Tacoma Lane is on its way out in the coming weeks, a new one is set to take shape near Embellish Salon just in time for Valentine’s Day.
PHOTO BY STEVE DUNKELBERGER
LOVE LETTERS. Visitors to Love Tacoma Lane have the opportunity to express what they love about out fair city.
Raymond Hayden shares the healing power of music on new EP ‘Broken’ Fans, friends invited to listening party Jan. 16 at Smoky Joe’s
By Matt Nagle
As founder and co-owner of Maurice the Fish Records in Tacoma, Raymond Hayden spends the large majority of his time and energy helping other musicians and singer/songwriters achieve their dreams. Now it’s Hayden’s turn for the spotlight, as he has released a new, and excellent, EP called “Broken.� Featuring six tracks, “Broken� is Hayden’s third release (his others are solo CDs “A Doorway Through Your Tears� and “September Sky�). All the songs are Hayden’s original compositions except one – his cover of Pink Floyd’s “Breathe.� Produced by Chris Tussing, who also plays drums and percussion on the EP, the players include some of the Northwest’s finest musicians: Hayden on piano and vocals, Leah Tussing on backing vocals, Jim Tussing on bass and keys, Scott Malone on guitars, Paul Sawtelle on saxophone and Emily Ann Peterson on cello. Hayden said each musician contributed much to each song on the EP to create the whole, making for a real group effort. Maybe this is some of why “Broken� sounds like it was a charmed project from the start, with
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Beneath the surface, though, the stress from the situation continued to gnaw at him in ways he could shirk no longer. “My life was a bunch of puzzle pieces all over the place,â€? as he described it. Then, he fell in love with someone he clicked with deeply, and a spark of change was ignited inside of him – the new relationship brought out some of the things that hadn’t healed inside of him yet. “When someone loves us enough to care, they fix us,â€? Hayden said. “This is how the song ‘Broken’ came about.â€? Hayden plays piano beautifully on this song, and his voice is strong and clear as he sings, “It never occurred to me that my problems resided within‌I was broken until I found you.â€? Peterson’s cello brings in a special layer of emotion to the music, and Malone striking extended chords on guitar adds body and richness to the sound. Not all of the songs on the album are about being broken, but they relate to it. Opening with the popping, crackling sounds of a needle on a vinyl record, the EP is meant to be heard u See HAYDEN/ page B5
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Hayden providing the inspiration for all the musicians to shine. Like so many of the artists involved with Maurice the Fish, Hayden bares his heart and soul through music. In both his writing and singing on “Broken,� he lets listeners in to know of his personal struggles in the hopes that universal truths will be revealed and thus help those who hear his music to know they are not alone in dealing with life’s downs. This is all part of a healing process for Hayden and, by extension, those whom he hopes will hear what he has to say about his journey from being spiritually and emotionally broken to attaining healing. “There’s a message in this album I want to share with people because we all go through trials and tribulations,� Hayden said, starting with the EP’s title. “The reason I went with ‘Broken’ is because this album is basically about realizing that it’s okay to be broken. Fixing it is the important stuff.� About five years ago Hayden was experiencing a crisis in his life that left him feeling broken. “There was a lot of pain, but after two or three years I thought I had gotten over it all,� he said.
matt@tacomaweekly.com
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