Snohomish County entertainment
Gallery space built to provide area art outlet

By Diane Wright
Times Snohomish County Bureau

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Gallery owners Carm Pierce, foreground, and Alan Mizuta have included an art gallery in their industrial-design company's space on Hill Avenue in Everett.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Other links Search event listings

Everett's industrial district, east of Broadway, may one day play host to art-friendly businesses.

Location — the economy of being in Everett versus Seattle — and a 100-year-old building with open timbers and New York-style lofts appealed to Carm Pierce and his partner, Alan Mizuta, for Built Corp., their industrial-design company and art gallery.

They leased the space on Hill Avenue, behind Everett Station, in April.

Just as in Seattle's Sodo (south of downtown) district, itself modeled on New York City's SoHo (south of Houston Street), "there was the potential to turn it into a nice design and gallery space," Pierce said. "It has a lot of natu-

ral light upstairs and pretty expansive space."

The space faces the back of the train depot, and as walkways and other amenities develop there, Pierce believes it will become more accessible with time.

Built Gallery The Built Gallery will present artists Susan Russell, Pat Tolle and Thad Donat in a show opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the gallery, 3110 Hill Ave., Everett. The show runs through Dec. 17. The gallery is behind Everett Station and accessed from Pacific Avenue; signs mark the way. Information: 425-259-4114 or www.builtcorp.com.

And there's a great payback for Pierce. He's able to feature a beloved mentor in the first show: his art teacher, Susan Russell. His talent as an illustrator was recognized when he was a student at Snohomish High School early on by Russell, once named Art Teacher of the Year by the Washington Art Education Association.

His portfolio led to acceptance at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied for five years. Eventually, he and his wife, Gina, wanted to start a family and moved back to the Northwest, working for Microsoft and other companies on a contract basis.

Pierce, like many young designers and artists, straddles two worlds in his work.

"Alan and I are on the commercial-design side, even though we retained a strong interest in fine art," he said. Working with many companies in the outdoor industry, they've designed luggage for Land's End, and mountaineering equipment for Marmot Mountain Works and other firms.

They also design products and maintain and set up trade booths for such clients as Gore-Tex.

It was a natural to include an art gallery at Built; it occupies about 3,000 square feet upstairs. This first show features the "Alphabet" series by Russell, as well as oils by Pat Tolle and abstract acrylics by Thad Donat.

Pierce and Mizuta plan to open the Built space eight to 12 times a year for shows by artists primarily from Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.

"Alan and I both worked in Seattle many years, and we know there's a glut of galleries and opportunities, but not so much up north," Pierce said. "Personally, we like being surrounded by so much beautiful art. We're a startup company, and that's the same way with the gallery. Some artists will be well-known, some completely unknown."

And to feature one of Pierce's favorite mentors in his first art show takes it full circle.

"She was one of the first people I called," he said of Russell. "She's full of energy, and she's always a motivator. For her, it's a source of energy, and she reciprocates that."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More Entertainment & the Arts headlines...