Tucked away in a nondescript building on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle, Janelle Abbott’s studio evokes the inside of a restlessly creative mind. In the compact space, in which the artist has been working since 2021, you can’t see most of the floor because of all the dress forms, work tables, storage shelves, bolts of fabric, and racks and bags stuffed with thrifted clothing. You can’t see most of the walls because they’re either adorned with something related to a current project or some kind of decoration, a few of which included butterflies made of multicolored yarn; a white sweatshirt on which Barney beckons you to paint with him; and a T-shirt-shaped pink, sky blue, and purple sign asking the person gazing at it to “DREAM ABOUT US TOGETHER AGAIN.” 

Perhaps the most eye-catching thing amid the clutter is a stack of alternatingly gray and blue garments at Abbott’s primary worktable so tall that it leans over a little. It’s part of a project soon being featured at the Cannonball Arts Center, a new downtown Seattle art space from the people behind Bumbershoot and the recently shuttered Museum of Museums taking up residence where Bed Bath & Beyond once operated.

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