Seattle Art Museum
My name is Jack Russillo and I’m a college freshman who just moved to the big city (Seattle) from a small town in the middle of nowhere. Every day I rate something on a scale of 1 to 100.
Today was a good day.
“Why?” you might ask. Well, I went and saw some art. Some really cool art.
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) is one of the premier museums in Seattle, if not in the entire state of Washington. With different kinds of art from various cultures all across the globe and spanning over many centuries of history, there’s something for everyone.
Because Native American heritage is so important here in the pacific northwest, there is a large selection of indigenous peoples’ art. This includes anything from masks to animal sculptures to pipes to articles of clothing to old tools and so much more. I was astounded to see how intricate just about every item was. It was all very representative of the spirit of the pacific northwest — natural beauty and lots of wildlife.
I learned a lot about the history and traditions of Native Americans today, and that was without going on some stupid tour with a guide. Alright, I will admit that I did eavesdrop a little bit… I learned that tobacco was very much a ritualistic aspect of their culture. When holding tribal hearings, they would use puffs on a tobacco pipe as a right to speak, much like a talking stick. What an unhealthy tradition!
But the Native Americans sure knew how to smoke in style. There were some extremely well-crafted pipes on display. But that wasn’t all; there were also plenty of magnificent totem poles, hand-crafted clothes, and probably the most badass hatchet I’ve even seen before.
There was even an extremely well-done Native American comic book! I didn’t even know those existed before today.
Aside from exhibits of Native American history, there are also plenty of beautiful paintings depicting scenes of realism and heroic moments in history. There were certainly a lot about Jesus, that’s for sure. But isn’t that like every museum?
One of my personal favorite paintings was this one:
It’s an image of Impressionism that shows quite an epic image of probably my favorite place on earth, and my home, Puget Sound. It entails every aspect of the area, from rough waters to a glorious hillside. And the bright beam of light only adds to the epicness of the painting.
There were also a good amount of abstract paintings. These were some of the trippiest images that I’d ever seen before. I say “trippy” because the paintings seemed to be moving at times if you looked at it from a certain angle. It was really intriguing. The image below was another one of my favorites:
First of all, this painting was huge. It was over 5 feet tall and 13 feet long! I thought of so many other things that this could’ve been an image of before I read the title. It could’ve been the fibers of a carpet, a school of fish, or many grains of rice. Either way, it’s a gorgeous piece of art.
Also, I can’t remember a time or place where I’ve seen more interesting glass structures. Whoever the artists were made tons of crazy shapes and textures and then filled them in with beautiful color schemes. Each one was truly spectacular.
The SAM is designed in such a way that one can literally get lost in history. With multiple collections occupying a single level, I found myself wandering from ancient Egypt to Greece, and then quickly to fancy porcelain sculptures and even a golden bidet — it’s hard to think of what I wouldn’t do for one of those in my own home. At least, I think that it was a bidet…
One thing that was a real pain in the ass was the distance between the SAM and the sculpture park. I was under the impression that since they’re both a part of the same museum they’d be right next to each other. Nope. The Olympic Sculpture Park is approximately 15 blocks away from the SAM, which makes for a small journey that’s hardly worth it. There aren’t a huge amount of sculptures there and none of them are especially worth while.
All in all, my first experience in years at the SAM was a good one. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, exploring history and becoming more and more cultured with every step I took. I’m definitely planning a return visit once they change up the exhibits a bit.
Jack’s Rating: 86/100
Pro: You know a museum is going to be good when you see five cars with a ton of lights protruding from them before you even purchase your ticket.
Con: There could’ve been a few more giant sculptures at the museum considering that the ones far away weren’t even that great.
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