Clarke & Clarke Art + Artifacts sells sculpture, masks, textiles and antiquities, but stepping inside the space is more like a travel experience than a shopping one.
Visitors even have their own tour guides, owners Jim and Ginny Clarke who call themselves “gypsy merchants.”
The husband and wife team moved their warehouse-style retail store of colorful ethnographic treasures from Seattle’s Pioneer Square to the Overlake area last month.
Ever been to Cost Plus World Market? The Clarke’s store is like the real-deal version.
The 2,000 square-foot space features a tented, high ceiling and hundreds of objects from Asia and Africa to keep customers happy. That mainly includes interior designers, organizations and private individuals, many of them looking for art and centerpieces for homes.
Jim, who has a background in anthropology among other things, and Ginny, who specializes in fashion and adornment, could give a lesson on whatever artifact in their store, be it a piece of jewelry or a Kenyan buffalo mask – whatever sparks their visitor’s interest
The couple encourages visitors to look around a find a treasure that they’re drawn to.
Ginny’s passion for the couple’s work shows up in her clothing, including African beads and a Chinese amulet. Her light green, shimmery nail polish matches the green turtle neck she wears beneath a Japanese-inspired, quilted vest. Her passion for art, as well as fashion, shows.
“People forget that, in some cultures, there is no word for art,” said Ginny, explaining how these objects change when they’re brought to the west: a store sign from China becomes like a painting to hang on the wall; an old jug used for storing olive oil becomes a rustic, center piece for a dining room.
The couple estimates 75 to 80 percent of their goods originally had functional, non-art uses, such as the store sign, jug and various religious icons used for spiritual practice.
If a visitor ever has a question about one of the artifacts, Ginny teases “professor,” Jim, to explain an item’s significance and place in history – such as a wooden, Theravada Buddhist shrine from Burma, which Jim explains sat in a shrine in a provincial village.
“To me, seeing these things here that are from different parts of the world and different times – it’s like they’re living in harmony. That’s how we’re supposed to live, too,” Jim said.
Clarke & Clarke Art + Artifacts is located at 2709 152nd Ave. NE Bellevue/Redmond. They are open from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., every weekend and Monday throughout October, and by appointment other days of the week. For more information, go to http://www.ethnoarts.com/, call 425-516-9921 or email clarkeandclarke1@aol.com.
Gabrielle Nomura can be reached at 425-453-4270.
