Visiting Tacoma

Evening at Pantages

Washington Historical Society

The Swiss Pub

the Elk’s Lodge

21st Street Bridge

Tacoma Art Museum

Wright Park

Ruston Way Sundial

Temple Theatre

Union Station

Pierce Transit

Union Station Rotunda

Karpeles Manuscript Museum

Clan House by Preston Singletary

The Bridge of Glass

Inside the Swiss Pub

The History Museum

Metro Coffee

The Museum of Glass

From a recent interview with

the Weekly Volcano’s Ron Swarner:

Aaron Trotter-Voronoff calls himself a “21st century stylistic schizophrenic kind of guy,” an artist/writer, “scavenging scoundrel,” who studied world religion and culture as he earned his BA at The Evergreen State College, and has traveled around the world, including residencies in Portland, Ore., and Alaska.

Trotter-Voronoff is back in Tacoma, at least for now, and has hit the wet pavement running. I managed to slow him down to 90 mph for the scoop on his latest projects.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: Hi Aaron. Glad to have you back in our neck of the woods. Where can the South Sound catch you next?

AARON TROTTER-VORONOFF: Happy New Year my friend. My next show will be at the Speakeasy Arts Cooperative, which I’m a member, during Third Thursday Artwalk, followed by the Artifakt show at Jazzbones on Jan. 23.

VOLCANO: What are you showing at the Speakeasy?

TROTTER-VORONOFF: Some new abstract junk collage gestural paintings created in my new studio in the JET building across from The Swiss. Most likely I will also be doing a live demo of my process.

VOLCANO: How’s the chronic tendonitis in your right hand?

TROTTER-VORONOFF: I push through it because it is essential for my healthy state of mind.  I’ve even taught my left hand how to draw, or at least fill in the gaps when my right hand refuses to do its job.

VOLCANO: I’ve seen your Tacoma landmark drawings around town. Why did you feel compelled to draw them?

TROTTER-VORONOFF: It has been my practice in the last few years to document the people and places that I find myself surrounded by.  The more I practice, the more detailed my drawings get.

This summer I was in Alaska in an old Gold Rush town and the buildings are very charming and preserved from the 1898 rush to the Klondike.  I filled a sketchbook with ink drawings of the more interesting buildings on the main street and made it into a book. The locals and tourists loved it, I sold about a 100 copies before I hurt my back and was forced to return to Tacoma to recuperate under my mother’s watch.

VOLCANO: Did you injure it wrestling grizzlies?

TROTTER-VORONOFF: The short story is that I was in a “safety class” led by the chief ranger of a park that I was doing archaeology for.  The teacher chose me as his “victim” and carried me on his back across the room, when he put me down – spraining my back. I was unable to do my job. But I’m better now, six months later.

As you might imagine my enthusiasm for returning to Tacoma was sort of dampened by the back injury but getting re-hired at the Museum of Glass was a real boost.

So looping back to Tacoma, I started to get my itchy fingers again, and began a new series with portraits of the Museum of Glass, the iconic cone, the Bridge, etc. That was around the time one of my favorite buildings in the city, the Luzon, got torn down.  I figured, shit, I better get to work before they tear down the Elks. So I have about 15 drawings now of Tacoma. I created a calendar out of the drawings. They sold fairly well as a seasonal experiment but now I am thinking a small book/coloring book would be appreciated by locals and tourists. I will display the Tacoma landmark drawings at the Artifakt show Jan. 23.