Downtown Bremerton housing history defies one’s wildest imagination.

The gun-toting, brothel-baring city reluctantly shaped up in 1905 when the US Navy threatened to pull out of town if it didn’t shape up.

Blue-collar neighborhood cluster houses began to blanket the rolling city hills. The moderate houses were, for the most part, each unique to themselves. A lot of those hundred year-old modest houses still stand. read more »

Some economists only read books about cities like Bremerton. And it reads like an epic novel that repeats itself over and over. The same old story of the vibrant city that falls to the wayside as progress reaches to virgin soil that can be molded under a developer’s majestic dream or the reality of opportunity.

And so goes Bremerton — chapter after chapter. Enter my chapter; and in the abandon swell and smell of damp sheetrock and urine soaked side streets emerge persons hungry for a place. Those persons are called artists. read more »

Marketing is as tall as it is wide. It’s the crossing of an ocean or the breath of a word. It’s hard enough to market art, let alone when that art is in Bremerton, because Bremerton itself needs to be marketed.

This complex issue particularly came to mind last week when I was in Tacoma. I’m in a bagel shop on Broadway, a couple of blocks from the State Historical Museum and the Dale Chihuli Glass Museum. Progress is going on everywhere, and people are scrambling here and there. read more »

Bremerton is still playing the waiting game. The redevelopment is inevitable, and that statement has been said over and over — expressed for decades.

This latest proposal may be the one. It looks like it will happen, but this same positive enthusiasm is not new. There is a difference though. Pockets of progress are springing up like the new three story commercial Windermere building at 6th and Park Avenue, the expanded Evergreen Park, ground breaking of the ice arena, demolition of the Sinclair Building and a smattering of new businesses. read more »

Checks and balances. Those are terms heard all the time in the business world, but in the art arena?

Design is design — good design practices create good living and successful projects. An elegantly sculpted and cushioned chair may please the eye, but if it is uncomfortable to sit on, design has failed. If the chair were created for the pure joy of aesthetic viewing it would be called a sculpture. Even sculpture designs have checks and balances. read more »

Remember George Bush Sr.’s famous words, “Read my lips. It’s art stupid.” May be those weren’t the exact words, but they might have been if he was aware of Bremerton.

Did you think the Bremerton art saga would end with a few columns about murals and gallery walks? Bremerton is an art community — creating and communicating against odds. read more »

It is interesting to observe the relationship between the stock market, the economy and art sales. Past rules-of-thumb don’t seem to be working these days, although historical factoring is always a strong evaluating basis.

Money in the bank verses putting it in paper is a sensitive teetering scale. How many people wash and reuse aluminum foil? Or save mayonnaise jars for canning? After the Great Depression the saving mindset was ingrained. Then the scale gradually reversed. read more »

Listen! Do you hear that? I don’t either, and that makes me worry. Bremerton is just a little too quiet these days. There are no griping or shocking headlines. It’s like there’s no more to say. Even the love-to-hate-Bremerton nay-sayers have retired their poison pens. Calling department heads means receiving recorded messages and a lot of people are out all at once. Do I sense a whisper of meetings? It’s anyone’s guess, but since this is Bremerton any suspicious lull makes one pause. read more »

Discovering your $20 rummage sale purchase is an original Picasso is stretching the realm of reality. That framed picture under glass that got passed down from an aunt — the odds are pretty slim, at best, that it’s an authentic Charles Russell. The pin-in-the-sky approach to collecting art isn’t a very good one, kind of like picking a stock these days or wishing on a lottery ticket. read more »