Known for both her landscapes and portraits, Mary Randlett began documenting iconic Northwest artists like Mark Tobey and Morris Graves in 1949. In 1963, Theodore Roethke asked her to photograph him in his Seattle home--hers were the last pictures taken of the poet before his death, and they garnered international attention. In addition to Graves, Tobey, and Roethke, Mary Randlett Portraits includes renowned artists Jacob Lawrence and George Tsutuakawa; writers Tom Robbins, Henry Miller, and Colleen McElroy; arts patrons Betty Bowen and Richard Fuller; and more.

Randlett's...

This deft and lively study by Robert DeCaroli explores the questions of how and why the earliest verifiable images of the historical Buddha were created. In so doing, DeCaroli steps away from old questions of where and when to present the history of Buddhism's relationship with figural art as an ongoing set of negotiations within the Buddhist community and in society at large. By comparing innovations in Brahmanical, Jain, and royal artistic practice, DeCaroli examines why no image of the Buddha was made until approximately five hundred years after his death and what changed in the...

The past 50 years have seen a tremendous arts boom in Seattle, which has given the city not only internationally recognized classical music institutions but also great performance halls to showcase their work and that of visiting artists. From Igor Stravinsky's presence as guest conductor at the World's Fair in 1962, to Speight Jenkins's masterly production of Wagner's Ring cycle, to the work of benefactors such as Jack and Becky Benaroya, Seattle is deservingly well known as a city of the musical arts.

In Classical Seattle, Melinda Bargreen documents the lives of...