When I walked into Cupcake Royale this morning for my "innocent" meeting with artist Susie Lee, I found her sitting at EXACTLY the same table where I surprised Jeffry Mitchell with his Genius Award last year: AND JEFFRY MITCHELL WAS SITTING THERE WITH HER! It was complete coincidence, and when the cake was delivered, Jeffry was as confused as Susie. As she screamed, he broke into a wondrous smile. "Awesome! Awesome!" he said. "Well-deserved. Wow." "It takes one to know one?" Susie asked him humbly.

(In a further totally cosmic confluence: Last year, artist Joey Veltkamp happened to be at the cafe when we surprised Jeffry (check the picture!) This year, Joey's paintings are hanging on the wall next to the lucky table—you can see them in the picture above; they're a rainbow of man-bears being hugged by bear-bears.)

Since her graduation from the University of Washington's MFA program in ceramics in 2007, Susie has been a steady force—poetic and fearless (two terms sometimes seen as opposing in fashionable contemporary art). She typically works in video and sculpture, but this year she branched out like crazy: She created a performance of artists drawing light on a dancer as she moved; she organized DK Pan and NKO in reading and typing and painting an entire Haruki Murakami novel in Occidental Square one cold winter night; and she curated Wet and Leatherhard, a group show at Lawrimore Project of artists using ceramics in wild ways, from recent UW grad Ben Waterman and UW star professor Doug Jeck (whose video was unbelievable and heartbreaking) to now-New Yorker Tim Roda, Japanese artist Meiro Koizumi, LA artist Kristen Morgin, and Stranger Genius Wynne Greenwood. The show was easily one of the highlights of the art year in this city.

But above all, Lee this year spent three months in a nursing home in South Seattle exploring the puzzle of how to make portraits, a subject that has fascinated artists forever, and will forever. In work that brings to mind Warhol's Screen Tests (several of which are on fantastic view at Seattle Art Museum now) and the still-but-moving videos of Bill Viola, Lee created 13 videos. Each one features a resident of this last-stop nursing home sitting perfectly still—or trying like hell—for a solid half-hour. The camera does not move, and there is no editing afterward, and no sound when they are played back.

These are videos of the process of portraiture—the shifting in the chair, the attempt to represent something of yourself on your surface, without language, and the ultimate failure to control your own image—as much as portraits of the residents themselves. Each resident wears the costume and assumes the pose of a chosen Black painting by Goya (a physician at the nursing home poses as a physician depicted by Goya, for example; other connections are less literal and only known to the artist and the sitter). These videos are probably the last portraits of these people ever to be made; they'll have their debut at the nursing home (Washington Care Center, 2821 S Walden St) this coming Monday from 2-5 pm. The event is free and open to the public, but the hours aren't made for working folks—they're for the residents, who go to dinner promptly at 5 before retiring to their rooms.

After getting her cake this morning, Lee had to run to set up the screens at the nursing home. "This is crazy," she blurted out before leaving.

Genius announcements will keep coming as the day progresses, so stay tuned to Slog—and check out the Genius main page here. The awards will be presented at a huge party at the Moore Theater on September 17, featuring a performance by Shabazz Palaces as well as Emerald City Soul Club and Trouble Dicso. YAAAA! Get it on your calendar.

And: Want to become a patron of the awards, which give $25,000 directly to local artists every year? Click here.

^{Still-Lives photography by RK Adams}