Mr. Lava Lava

Meet Brent Blake, the brains behind the giant lamp

By Brandon Swanson
Columbia Basin Herald staff writer

To most folks, the name Brent Blake brings to mind a 65-foot cylinder of gelatinous goo.
True, he is spearheading the campaign to bring a giant lava lamp to Soap Lake, but don't call him a one-trick pony. Blake has as a title for every one of his interests which, one learns early on, are numerous.

He has worn the hat of an artist, an architect, a publisher and a company president. So what exactly do you call him? Maybe the title that best fits Blake is that of "dilettante."
"I remember I was in a meeting and one of my peers was trying to ridicule me by saying, 'You're just a dilettante.' I said thank you," Blake said with a broad grin.

   "A dilettante is generally used in a negative connotation," he said. "A dilettante dabbles in this and that, unlike a concert violinist whose experience is only that. (The violinist) can't be running around in the desert doing a little archaeology or learning the guitar or painting. But they are running down a line, while I've been zig-zagging all over the place. In reality, a dilettante has potential for a broader life experience."

And Blake's life experience has been as broad as his grin. Born in Moses Lake, Blake spent most of his career as an architectural design consultant out of his Seattle office. Blake is also a painter who has taken his work to 15 cities around the country. His work has earned several corporate commissions, including from Weyerhaeuser, which, he said, purchased 16 of his paintings. He added that the success allowed him to open a gallery in the early 1990s for avant garde artists. But Blake decided to move back to the Basin five years ago.

"I was doing a lot of archaeology work in the desert for WSU," said Blake. Oh, yeah < he is also a self-taught archaeologist. Blake said he and his friend, Mark Thompson, would explore the region investigating sites and reporting to the university, which would then decide on whether or not to examine the sites further.

"I've always had a fascination with archaeology. I spent many years covering every inch of the Columbia Basin. That brought me back." While back, Blake became the co-publisher of the Venue, an arts and entertainment magazine serving 17 communities in three counties. The work aids his love for the arts, he said.

"The arts need to be an integral part of society," Blake said. "Just like anything else, it is a component of a society. The more active it is, the more enriching it is to society." But it was two years ago when Blake got the most attention. Blake said he was sitting around thinking about what he could do to help revitalize Soap Lake. The answer was obvious.

"A giant lava lamp came in my brain," he said. "Then my first thought was, 'How weird can you get?' But the more I thought about it, the more I thought, 'What's the matter with that? It's moving, it's always changing, it's kinetic. Why is that not any more valid than all of the other things that are built to attract people?" Thus spawned the idea that has garnered attention worldwide and mixed opinions locally.

"No matter what community you are in, you have people who prefer the status quo," Blake said of his opponents. "You can never please everyone, but hopefully there is a general consensus for what communities do. Every community deserves to survive, every community deserves something special about it."

And for Blake, that something special is a lava lamp that would be twice the height of Soap Lake's tallest structure. "Whether we ever really get it built or not, good things have happened," Blake said. "Now the community has 100 active members working hard on all kinds of projects." Blake said he has no regrets about a life that has taken him from a desk to and art gallery to, if things go his way, the observation deck of the world's largest lava lamp.

"I admire those that are focused (on one thing), but it was obviously not for me," he said. "I'm simply too curious about other things." As for the future, Blake is open to new ideas. While continuing his work with the Venue and his painting, Blake wants to open a museum in Soap Lake. Wherever his life will take him, Blake said one thing is certain: "Retiring is out of the question."