5 Questions for ... Beautiful Angle

You’ve seen the Beautiful Angle posters if you’ve spent any time near downtown Tacoma in the last few years. They appear in the middle of the night. Sometimes they hang on the wall and weather beautifully. Other times they disappear within minutes of appearing. Either way, these folks are legendary and their art is beautiful. Thanks to the guys behind Beautiful Angle for taking our questions this week.

1. How big is a standard print run of Beautiful Angle posters? What determined that run size?
How big? A standard print run is about four inches thick, which equals about 120 posters. The run size is determined by how many posters can comfortably stack between the dashboard and windshield of a 1999 Dodge Dakota pickup, also known as the BATporter (the Beautiful Angle Transporter).

One key to our success, if we can claim any, is that when we began five years ago, we chose to do something sustainable. We consistently produce a poster every month (well maybe we’ve missed a month or two). Considering we’re using a vintage, hand-crank printing press and that each poster may have multiple colors, 120 posters is still a manageable quantity to produce. We typically hang approximately 80 posters around town and keep the remainder to sell, donate or archive in our hermetically-sealed concrete bunker, which is buried six stories below City Council chambers and is accessible only via a trapdoor and fireman’s pole beneath Julie Anderson’s desk.

2. The Beautiful Angle posters are getting harder to find because collectors have taken them down. Is there a length of time people should leave them up that you would consider “polite?”
Polite? This is Tacoma, pal. Politeness is for those slow drivers up north, who don’t know how to merge when they enter the freeway. We encourage a more Ghengis-Khanian approach appropriate to the bloodsport that is poster collecting. But beware: We may just revise our route in the new year. And we may include a few more businesses, like Kings Books, Black Water Cafe, Rosewood Café and others, that display the posters for a longer period of time.

3. Tacoma seems to be increasingly embracing its printmakers and letterpress artists. Are we unique or is there a larger revival of the art form?
It’s true. We are regularly embraced. We are also occasionally accosted, cajoled and given deep-tissue massages. In regards to letterpress, there is a revival of the art form in many places, but Tacoma is unique in the per capita quantity of letterpress artists located here, including Jessica Spring, Chris Sharp and Jay Hember, to name a few. We think that this region is destined to become a significant center for printmaking, letterpress, and the book arts in general, thanks to folks like Jessica, organizations like Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts and their letterpress program, and events like King’s Books’ annual Wayzgoose. Watch and see. The new artisan movement is alive. And we predict that before long Tacoma Style will be recognized and celebrated around the world, much like Brown and Haley Mountain Bars, the Toyota Tacoma and the world famous Tacoma’s Bull’s Eye Shooter Supply.

4a. How “artist-friendly” do you think Tacoma is compared to other local cities?
The artist community is starting to find a sort of solidarity in the last couple years, which is great. At the same time, artists should strive to be inclusive and invitational to the larger community, known quaintly by us artsy types as “everyone else.” One thing that Tacoma artists have that artists from other cities don’t is the blue-collar aesthetic. Some people in our town actually still make stuff for a living—a rare occurrence these days. This should be celebrated by our artists and incorporated into the themes and styles of their work. Our working class town recognizes the industry that is necessary for art to occur. In many cities, the artist community can be so cerebral and self-indulgent that they end up conversing in a vacuum—painters painting for other painters and poets writing only for other poets. Tacoma’s art scene, so far, is not that self absorbed. That’s where we find our strength.

4b. What’s Tacoma’s greatest asset for artists? E9 Roasted Porter.

4c. What hinders it? The lack of affordable loft space. The commoditizing of artists as some sort of investment or development plan. And sometimes when you go to a gallery show, it’s hard to tell the art buyers from the homeless people.

5. The Murray Morgan Bridge—something of a Beautiful Angle icon—is endangered right now. Can it be saved? Should it be saved?
If it is a Beautiful Angle icon, it’s simply because we find it beautiful. Yes, it can and should be saved. To say it cannot is to simply be short-sighted and unimaginative. A common complaint about our city leadership is that it lacks backbone. It’s too willing to bend over, so to speak. Let’s let this bridge become a symbol of our backbone. Let’s fight for it. Let’s keep it. And then let’s do something remarkable with it.