Occidental Park Sculpture Show – Seattle
Cyra Jane Hobson
September 3, 2015
Welcome to The Stoneyard, Seattle’s new group stone carving studio. Situated in the heart of Equinox Studios, the largest complex of industrial and fine artists in the Pacific Northwest, The Stoneyard provides both indoor and outdoor workspace for up to seven carvers. We have individual workspaces, a shared fabrication “clean” room for gluing and sealing, and a showroom/breakroom for drawing, talking to patrons, and resting between bouts of carving. It’s awesome.
The opportunity to create The Stoneyard came up in June of 2022. It’s a studio that south Seattle residents needed and was the working vision of Cyra Jane when she moved back into the metro area from Vashon Island earlier in the year. Cyra has deep ties at Equinox, having spent five years working there with a blacksmithing collective making large scale pyrotechnic installations for Burning Man. In her (humble) opinion, the spirit and community around Equinox Studios (which has grown to encompass an entire city block with multiple studio outposts) is both an ideal environment for a bunch of noisy dust-makers and will benefit from having our skillset added into the mix of professional fabricators, wood-workers, blacksmiths, painters, and other do-it-yourselfers. She first moved her own studio to an outpost, then was offered this space when it opened up at the beginning of summer.
During the July Symposium at Pilgrim Firs Camp, the group of seven start-up studio mates came together for the first time, and we started moving in mid-August. The seven are (drumroll, please) Kentaro Kojima, Markos Weiss, Luke Nalker, Leah Davidson, Aerin Sizelove, Ben Kimura, and Cyra Jane.
In November, we opened our doors for the first of many Art Attack artwalks, welcoming our NWSSA friends for a studio-warming party. In December we opened for the huge Very Open House, where around 100 studios in the complex were open and the street was filled with lights, fire pits, marching bands, bellydancers, food trucks, shenanigans, and around 1000 guests.
For this, we transformed the lounge and clean room into a gallery space that very much felt like one! Filled with new and old friends, fellow artists and buyers, The Stoneyard was hopping that night.
In the coming year, we hope to open our doors for more artwalks and also to host some NWSSA workshops. Come visit anytime!
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