If you walk around Middle Wallingford (which I am loosely defining as the chunk between 40th and 45th and Stone Way to the Freeway), you may have encountered the rather wonderful front yard art kiosk at 4229 Corliss Avenue N. If you haven’t seen it, you may ask, “What the heck is a front yard art kiosk?” Wallyhood is here to answer this question and fill you in on the story behind it. And…to let you know that there is an upcoming studio show at the house/studio later this month, on August 22-24 from 10 am to 6 pm.
This is what I am calling an art kiosk, and the artist and neighbor behind it is Brooke Borcherding.
Brooke is a full-time, award-winning artist working out of her home in Wallingford. The information to follow is from her website.
Brooke began painting in high school 20 years ago in Southern California and earned a BFA in painting from the University of Oregon in 2010. She considers herself a self-taught landscape painter, gaining knowledge from plein air peers when she took her easel outdoors for the first time in 2009, producing a prolific output ever since. Her unique style evolved from a desire to investigate human perception in aesthetics and to stimulate our human senses by exaggerating the color and space we see around us.
Over the past decade, as an exhibiting artist, Brooke has become nationally and internationally collected, with hangs in numerous galleries in the Pacific Northwest and featured in the September 2022 issue of PleinAir Magazine for urban plein air painting. In 2019, she was featured in American Art Collector Magazine, and in 2016, Southwest Art Magazine selected her as one of the “21 artists under 31” to watch. She was awarded a prestigious prize for best oil/acrylic painting at the 2018 Carmel Plein Air Competition in California and continues to be recognized for her unique work in a traditional field, earning third place on Whidbey Island’s 2023 plein air paintout and two honorable mentions at the Edmonds plein air paintouts 2022/23. If you live in the Seattle area, you may also find her work in various businesses or on neighborhood art walks (there is a list on Brooke’s website).
When Brooke is not making art, she’s playing pinball as a world-ranked competitor who participates in league and local tournaments (!!).
Wallyhood loves to promote local talent, whether it is culinary, retail, artistic, or athletic. We encourage you to have a look at Brooke’s wonderful paintings at her studio show and enjoy the literal artist next door!
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