Kabul Restaurant Mural

Kabul Restaurant Mural (left); Inspiration of Women in the Mural from 1985 National Geographic Cover? (right)


This Wallingford mural is on the west wall of the Kabul Restaurant, a restaurant that features Afghan cuisine. The mural is signed in the lower right with “Cliff Parshall 2002”.

The restaurant is named after Kabul, the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. The principal images in the mural, from left to right, are horse riders (Buzhashi or warriors?), the Qala-e-Bost arch in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and an Afghan man and woman. The 11th century Qala-e-Bost arch, which appears on the 100 Afghani note, marks the principal approach to the ancient fortress citadel of Bost, later renamed Lashkar Gah. [ref] The woman in the mural, with her piercing green eyes, resembles the Afghan Girl on the iconic National Geographic 1985 cover.

The Qala-e_Bost Arch in the Mural (left); The Arch on Currency (right)


A Buddha of Bamiyan in the Mural (left); The Taller for Two Buddhas (1976) Before Destruction (image credit: wikipedia)

The TM (Toast Monster) Mural

TM – Toast Monster Wall Art (left); TM (right)

I have no idea what this mural is really called, but I’m going to call it the Toast Monster Mural because that’s what someone reinterpreted the TM (trademark?) in the lower right of the wall as Toast Monster. It doesn’t look at all like toast, rather, it looks more like a brain with legs, arms, and a big mouth of sharp teeth. The mural is located on the east wall of a building in Wallingford, one block west of I-5. The building houses Slave to the Needle Tattoo and Milano’s Pizza Pasta.

A Brain with Legs, Arms and a Mouth

Seattle Stained Glass Mural

Seattle Stained Glass Mural – In Progress (left);  Spray Cans (right)

Finally, we capture a mural in progress! The designer and executor of this mural for the Seattle Stained Glass in Wallingford is eidanmurals. The mural is on the west wall of the building, in a spot that is frequently tagged.

Seattle Stained Glass Mural – In Progress (left);  The Designer Scrutinizes the Mural (right)

Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline Mural – Golden Oldies

Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline Album Cover (left) and Mural (right)

On the east wall of Golden Oldies in Wallingford you can find this image of the Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline album cover. The album was released in 1969. On the flip side of Golden Oldies (the west side of the building) you can find the Abbey Road Mural. The Beatles’ Abbey Road album was released in the same year.

Kähler Vase and Tradescantia fluminensis

Left: Kähler Vase and Wandering Jew; Right: Detail of Vase and Leaves

In this POTS and PLANTS episode we pair a Kähler Keramik vase and Tradescantia fluminensis – commonly known as a Wandering Jew (which I’ve always found to be a curious name). Tradescantia is a member of the Commelinaceae family also referred to as the dayflower or spiderwort family.

The Kähler and Colchicum post contains history about Kähler Pottery. When I first saw this vase I thought it looked gaudy. After a while, it grew on me. I believe the design was created with a process called horn painting, literally a cow horn filled with slip and used like a pen to draw on the piece. On the bottom of the vase a “HAK” mark is incised. I don’t know the date of the piece. The vase is 8 inches tall.

The Kähler vase is placed in a patch of Tradescantia that survives year round outside. It’s protected with an overhang and is right on the foundation – both factors likely responsible for it survival. Tradescantia can be very invasive (see for example, this New Zealand pest information sheet – where it is called equally curiously Wandering Willy), but here in our Seattle yard, it isn’t a pest.

Quattrocchi says of the generic name’s origin:

“For the British (b. Meopham, Kent) naturalist and botanist John Tradescant, 1608 – 1662 (d. South Lambeth, Surrey), traveler, plant collector in Virginia, from 1638 gardener to Queen Henrietta Maria (Keeper of His Majesty’s Garden of Oatlands) author of Musaeum Tradescantianum. London 1656, and for his father John Tradescant, circa 1570/1575 – 1638 (d. South Lambeth, Surrey) traveler and botanical collector, friend of John Parkinson (1567 – 1650), gardener to Robert Cecil (Earl of Salisbury) and to Sir Wotton, 1618 went to Russia (the first western European botanist), 1630 Keeper of His Majesty’s Gardens at Oatlands”

The specific epithet fluminensis means of or from Flumen Januarii (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) [Dave’s Garden Botanary]. This plant is native to South America and was catalogued by José Mariano de Conceição Vellozo a Brazilian botanist. In his main work Florae Fluminensis (1825-27, 1831) the entry for this species is:

“Vaginae florium pilosae; stamina antheris binis ad apicem; flamentis pilosis e basi e medium. Habitat maritimis ad rivulorum ripas, locaque humentia.” [From an 1881 publication of the work at Botanicus]

Which Google Translate gives (as an approximation to the original intent):

Flowers sheaths hairy anthers two threads to the apex; flamentis hairy from the base of the second half. Inhabits coastal streams to the banks, and the adjoining wet.

From the Tradescants in England to Vellozo in Rio de Janeiro to Kähler in Denmark to our yard in Seattle. Quite a jaunt to talk about a pot and a plant?

Left: Top of Kähler Vase; Right: Kähler Vase in the Wild



Left: Kähler Vase Hiding with Wandering Jew; Right: Bottom Incised HAK


Excerpt from Florae Fluminensis for Tradescantia fluminenis

RIP Angel and Weapons of Mass Expression Murals

Left: Nunchaku Guy;  Right: Weapons of Mass Expression

This street art is on north wall of the building that house Apocalypse Tattoo and the Downtown Dog Lounge on E. Olive Way. The RIP Angel mural features a (karate) dude with nunchaku warning you to back off? The other end of the wall (west) features Weapons of Mass Expression with a Fernand Léger-like face. In the middle of the wall there are some crazy cats in a rumble.

Left: Rumble Cats; Right: RIP Angel Dov?

Left: More Rumble Cats; Right: the Alley

Nunchaku Guy Says: Back Off!