Our arty pal (and Spear Collective member) Grant Barnhart has another opening around the bend, this time in his Seattle hometown. “Exact Change,” Grants latest body of work, was built on inspiration from the work of American artist Robert Rauschenberg. The series of paintings, again created in Grant’s classic mediums of oil and graphite, reflects the removal of self, and mocks and acknowledges the sexual perversity inherent in organized violence. While the conceptual drive behind “Exact Change” is easily discernible, the first thing one might notice in the recent paintings is the evolution of Grant’s personal style — bright colors have replaced bits of his muted palate; new shapes and forms have taken some of the room that his familiar animals used to fill; and, above all, his aptitude for story-telling has fully developed into a point of great personal strength. “Exact Change” will run through the first of January, with an opening reception at OKOK this Saturday, November 10th, from 6-10 o’clock.

Seattleite Justine Ashbee should be the celebrity spokesperson for Sharpie. A 2004 RISD graduate, Justine has been creating her intricate and lively work with the never-fail pens for much of her career — one that has been propelling her out of her home state and into California, New Mexico, and New York galleries for the past several years. The best reason for this is probably the lifelike quality of her work, with each piece seeming to breathe of its own accord, forming depths more often found in painstaking oil portraiture, as opposed to the workings of a $3 pen. Justine’s work, aside from its beauty, also enthralls the viewer by means of its organic quality. Each piece starts as simple curve, and continues to grow through an organic flow, unencumbered by the marks or traces that frequently guide other artists from start to finish. Sharpies, as we all know, are very permanent pens, so the fact that Justine works through this method just about floors me. No word on any upcoming gallery openings, but if any of our Seattle readers have seen her work in person, please drop us a line and tell us about it!

My older sister is leaving Seattle. This is a tragedy for three reasons; 1) As far as places to visit go, Seattle is far superior to Sand Point, Idaho; 2) After she is gone, my reasons to go to Seattle will have dwindled to 33% of what they used to be (my darling emo cousin just ran away, potentially to Canada, though no one knows for sure. Actually, if anyone happens to see a very blond, very tiny, very intellectually superior sixteen year-old galloping about unattended, please mention her whereabouts/condition in the comment section); and 3) I foresee difficulty in convincing my only remaining Seattle relative, a rather soft-spoken pastor, to shop in my absence at Velocity, the incredible art and design store that is now holding an amazingly delicious moving sale. Because they are relocating to South Lake Union, everything at the current Belltown location is going for a nice 10-70% off. That includes art and furniture by some of our favorite new and old designers like Angela Adams, Area, Dwell, Molo, Blik, Offi, Thomas Paul, Jason Miller, Jefdesigns, George Nelson, Ray and Charles Eames, Jean Prouve, Sori Yanagi, Isamu Noguchi, Verner Panton, Architectural Pottery, and, yeah…holy crap, right?

The sale is running through August 18th, but I recommend running on over as fast as your feet will carry you; you know those Seattle-ites and their design obsessions…

This is a sick aspect of my personality, but I will absolutely judge you based on your font usage. If I happen to peek over at your computer and you have so much as a widget displaying crappy typeography, I’m sorry, but we probably won’t work out. If Josh had decided to use Times New Roman on this little blog, I would not write for it — or would have at least pulled hard for some sort of compromise in our pre-nup. I know, it’s immature, ignorant, and maybe I should add this to the growing list of things I need therapy for, but if some part of you related to anything I just said, then I think you’ll be as excited as I am about TypeCon2007, the conference on typeography that will be taking place in Seattle this coming August. Early registration recently opened online, where you can also find an almost-complete list of speakers and workshops (both of which look dee-licious). This year’s conference will run from the 1st to the 5th at the Crowne Plaza (a hotel with a perfect downtown location), and promises to offer participants scores of typographic stimulation. I’m going to try hard to make it, so if you plan on going (and are comfortable with the rather heavy relationship I’m already in with Futura), drop me a line!

I was recently gifted with a beautiful necklace from Kimberly Baker, an up-and-coming Seattle jeweler known for her “tough and tender” designs. Now that I’ve slobbered over it, slept with it, and taken it with me to very intimate and romantic locations (yes, we are in Las Vegas, together, right now), I think I’m ready to spread the love about this gifted and glistening artist. Equally graceful and rebellious, Kimberly’s line of punk and rock-inspired ornaments are blessed with a dual personality that makes them easy to wear casually or formally. Some, like my Kiera necklace, are delicate enough to easily wear with anything, while other pieces, like the Gwendolen (pictured), are so awesomely distinct that the rest of your outfit may as well just disappear once it charms up your neckline. One of my favorite things about Kimberly Baker is the pricing she has adopted; you can expect to pay about the same price for her designs as you would for the mid to lower-end Tiffany (ew, I know, sorry to bring that up) items, a price that is all the more enjoyable once you add in the “I don’t see anyone else in this room wearing my necklace” factor. You can find some of her pieces at stores like Bettina Duncan (at Fred Segal in L.A.) and Cog (in Brooklyn), but I think it may be best to just buy direct from Kimberly’s own website, where you can peep her current and past collections.

Yesterday, Seattle’s internet consulting team SEOmoz announced their Web 2.0 Award winners for the year. During the decsion process, the SEOmoz team took a hard look at hundreds of Web 2.0 sites and picked the crème de la crème in 41 categories. From that point, they chose 25 Web 2.0 experts to vote on the winners. After the experts voted, SEOmoz went even further to interview 15 of the top sites’ creators to give us all a little insight into the details of the creation process for a top Web 2.0 website. I’m definitely adding this list of award winners to my compilation of helpful 2.0 resources. Already, I’m seeing some sites I hadn’t heard of that I want to explore.

Although the Seattle indie rock band Say Hi To Your Mom is not necessarily new news, and don’t have a new album on the near horizon (at least that I know about), I just got their 2006 album “Impeccable Blahs,” and I’m really liking what I’m hearing. I won’t go so far as to say, as they sarcastically do, that they sound like “the moment just before orgasm,” but I will give them a hearty recommendation to those of you who haven’t heard them yet. The band is comprised of Eric, Chris, and Jeff (the super serious guys you see above), although many refer to Eric as “the guy” because he started the project by himself – and with the help of “super advanced recording technology” – back in 2002. I’m going to warn you – and hopefully this will come as a relief – this isn’t exactly mainstream music; but if you enjoy heavily electro influenced indie rock, you should definitely give them a listen. You can stream all of the songs off of “Impeccable Blahs” here.

Blackbird is not only a great menswear boutique to visit, but it also understands that many fashion buffs aren’t able to make the trip to Seattle to see the store for themselves. Don’t get me wrong, you should do your best to be there in person, but if that’s simply not an option, Blackbird meets us halfway with a constantly updated blog, showcasing some of their most coveted inventory, drastically discounted sale items, notable local events, and other tidbits of interesting info. And what’s more, they’ll ship “anywhere the law will let them” so you can get your paws on the goods. Browsing their blog archives, it was nice to see some great close-up shots of some difficult-to-find items (I want I want gimme gimme gear), including these Friend or Foe Jazz T’s that just seem to be flying off the shelves everywhere– I believe Mr. Spear referred to them as “the perfect t-shirt” actually.

Komin Yamada, the Japanese designer behind the uber light and high performing GLOBAL line of cooking knives, is also responsible for Myodo & Co.’s gorgeous and extremely exclusive line called Sha Ra Ku Mono. Where GLOBAL has developed a healthy state-side following among food aficionados, Sha Ra Ku Mono is the new kid on the block– in fact, it’s so exclusive that, supposedly, the only U.S. retailer selling it is Seattle Cutlery, near the Pike Place Market. These knives feel like no other in your hand– perfectly balanced, amazingly light, and visually stunning to boot. If you’re interested, you can order directly from Seattle Cutlery. They’ve recently discounted the price on the Sha Ra Ku Mono line, so although you’re still going to take a big hit to the wallet, it won’t be as painful. For those of you who really care about your cutlery, these knives are the way to go for sure. I had a chance to see them up close over the weekend, and was completely blown away. More after the jump…

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I was in Seattle yesterday afternoon for about 5 hours with about an hour free– just long enough to poke my head into a few shops. I made it into a shop called Capital 1524– a nice, well rounded collection, but for whatever reason nothing was available in my size so I didn’t stay long. The shop reminded me a bit more of a flea market than a boutique– shoes were placed connected to a chain link fence along the wall. The real gem of the afternoon was Goods– a hybrid sneaker shop, art gallery, skate shop and apparel store. Great selections on some new and rare kicks, as well as great clothing from Maharishi, PRPS, Stussy and some small local brands. If you’re in the Emerald city with some time to kill and money to burn, Goods (pictured above) is the place to be.

A couple weeks back we reported on the then upcoming first ever gallery showing of Adam Haynes entitled “Walks with Evad” at the Seattle Art Studio OkOk. The show, which opened with Adams weekend long mural painting, went off without a hitch and had a great turn out. In honor of this glorious event, our friend and owner of OkOk, Charlie Kitchings has hooked us up with a few of the limited edition screen prints from the show and being the generous people we are we can't help, but pass along the favor. So, this Friday we will pick 5 random names from our mailing list and send them a print. Featuring Haynes iconic symbols of consumption, shotgun riddled beer cans, frayed paint brushes, and other objects of decay on a powder blue background, the print is signature Adam. You can own part of his artistic debut, but only if you are on the mailing list so make sure to sign up before Friday! Also make sure to check out the time lapse video of Adam's mural here.

This Saturday, August 12, Seattle Art Studio OkOk will be hosting Oregon artist Adam Haynes' “Walks with Evad”, his first gallery showing. Haynes recently finished the illustrations for the NKE 6.0 campaign and Nike actually built the car he illustrated in his designs (shown above). His collection of work crafts a “Northwest narrative encompassing the rural periphery that is easily forgotten in the urban enclave.” More simply stated he believes that it is our impact, the physical impression that we leave behind, that defines our landscape. Adam will be painting a mural on the wall of the gallery of an abandoned car and 100 limited edition screen prints will be available retailing for $20. A talented artist being hosted by a great studio, look for more from OkOk artists in the upcoming months and we'll give you the exclusive results from Adam's opening and maybe have a few of those prints for some lucky readers!