[CAROLYN HITT] I just feel really compelled to create spaces
that are safe for people to exist because I find that it's
a very difficult world to exist in if you're a little bit different.
So it's a compulsion.
If I have to put obsessive energy into anything, because I can't necessarily
make it go away, so it has to be focused.
So this is how I've chosen to focus my energy.
♪♪
Hello, friends.
I am a Seattle based artist and community organizer.
I run a handful of art studios on Capitol Hill.
I'm a painter.
I do a little bit of small set design.
♪♪
I have been an artist for probably as long as I can remember.
I mean, my earliest memories are of building blocks and Lincoln logs.
I always made little things. I was.
I mean, I've just always been an artist.
I feel like it was inevitable that that's what I was going to be.
(saw grinds)
There's a lot of house
themes in my work, and I think it's like my own.
It probably definitely stems to a childhood of moving around a lot
and not feeling that stability.
My creative process
is to try to continuously be in the moment and to allow the art to make itself.
I find that when I try to force any art
that it's usually terrible.
♪♪
So much of my art is about connection.
It's about making sense of the vastness of the universe
and the complexity of our connection to everything.
You know, I put things out that are in various stages of
like, that's done enough.
Like that seems done.
Like, the more abstract my work gets, the less finished it ever is.
But some of my work is more graphic and linear
and has a start to finish puzzle situation.
It's like this is clearly done.
♪♪
I'm involved in a lot of things and I feel like I've built
a lot of these things
out of purely my interests of like, Oh, I want somewhere where I can build stuff.
I want somewhere where I can paint big, but I don't want to be the only one there.
So we'll just keep this. This is just my stuff.
I'll put it in my area of stuff.
(laughter)
I like the camaraderie of community coming and going.
I like to create with other people or collaborate with other people.
There's so much in the studio that's kind of my stuff, but everybody’s stuff.
And then there's very few things that are just my stuff.
♪♪
I currently run Blue Cone Studios and what's always been important
for me is community engagement. In the style that I run it
we host a number of like open drop-in nights, variety of those, you know,
low barriers to access, meaning that anybody can participate if they can get here.
Tuesday, 6 to 9, Japera hosts ceramics.
-If you haven't got the pine cone, you've got to try the pine cone.
-This is so perfect for you.
♪♪
We have
two other studios and I built them out and I manage those.
So we're headed down to So Below Photo and Design,
which is another one of our studios where we build a dual corner cyclorama wall.
And I just finished a major remodel.
(door opening)
We built this studio in particular to provide
a unique photography videography studio.
A handful of our clothing brands
that we are connected with shoot their products here.
We really wanted to make it affordable.
We really wanted to offer somewhere for people to practice their craft.
♪♪
My future goals are definitely to acquire
more space so that we can support more artists.
I'm pretty proud of where I am in community.
I'm proud of the work that I do in community and
that I've managed to hold space
in a way that is important to the people that
that come.
♪♪
[NANCY GUPPY] Follow Caroline on Instagram,
see her work with other local artists at “On the Block
Seattle,” a creative street marketplace
every second Saturday, May through October,
and drop by Blue Cone Studios every second
Thursday of the year-round Capitol Hill Art Walk
♪♪
Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.
♪♪