Pillars Park, Bees Mural, Capitol Hill

On my way to Terra Plata I caught a glimpse of this mural, a collaboration between Northwest School and local artist Derek Wu. A women (Marz Martinez our research reveals) rips open the gray and reveals buzzing bees. What does it all mean?

Plymouth Pillars Park is just across Boren Ave from the mural. The small park overlooks the city and contains four columns from the Plymouth Congregational Church which was demolished in 1966. Ah, progress. But at least we have the bees across the street.

Let There Be Bees   

Nearby Plymouth Pillars Park  (left) and Tunnel Boring Machine (right)

Monique Lofts - NKO Mural

Crystalline Forms on the North Wall of the Monica Lofts
    
The mural on the north wall of Monique Lofts, a Capitol Hill condo between Pike and Pine streets on 11th Avenue), was created as a response to the routine tagging that occurred on the building. The thinking is that if respected graffiti artists, in this case Scratchmaster Joe (aka Joe Martinez) and partner NKO, created a piece of art on the besieged wall, then they would less likely be the target of tagging. The piece was finished in September 2008 and when we passed by it on this sunny Saturday in May 2012, it looked great.

The 100 foot high by 65 foot wide mural sports crystalline geometries which grow on the building. The epiphytic-looking jagged shapes leave a fair amount of the building’s concrete showing and result in a spacious feel to the mural.

Concrete and Mural

John T. Williams Mural - Capitol Hill

A mural of John T. Williams on Capitol Hill is painted on a garage door at approximately 1524 11^th Avenue near Purr Cocktail Loung. John T. Williams was a seventh generation Native American Carver who was shot by a Seattle Police Officer Aug. 30^th 2010 for carrying a carving knife and a piece of wood while walking down the street. The mural features Williams’ wizardly visage straddling the world of the verdant forest with towering trees and the gray concrete of the city where trees are replaced by freeway support pillars.

Capitol Hill Light Rail Murals

Baso Fibonacci - Untitled (top left), Kelly Lyles - Cal Anderson Portrait (top right)
Tim Marsden - BOOM! (bottom left), Cameron Larson - Caps for Slats (bottom right)


The future site of the Capitol Hill Link light rail station is currently surrounded by a red construction wall and will be for several years. While we wait for the new transit stop, Start, Sound Transit Art Program is using the wall as a venue for an exhibition of temporary public art featuring rotating installations. We photographed only a few of the installations. Each installation has its story, and interviews and videos of each are at the startwallproject.blogspot.com site.

Artists/Works:

Baso Fibonacci – Untitled
This huge (135 feet long x 24 feet) Baso Fibonacci-designed mural is on 10^th Avenue East at the corner of East John Street. The untitled mural includes a self-portrait of the artist that, according to a video interview, represents frustration. Below is a photo of what stood in the location of the mural before demolition for the mural began. (Image from Google Maps.)

Kelly Lyles - Cal Anderson Portrait
Cal Anderson (1948 - 1995) was Washington’s first openly gay state legislator of the 43^rd district which includes Capitol Hill and the namesake of the adjoining park. (The original park, Lincoln Reservoir Park, was another Olmsted Brothers designed park. In a previous post we talked about the Dunn Gardens which was also designed by the Olmsted Brothers.)

Cameron Larson - Caps for Slats
This work is composed of some 7,000 beer bottle caps arranged and screwed into a section of the Broadway-facing wall surrounding the site. It is an 8 foot by 8 foot portrait of the recently departed Capitol Hill icon, Chris Harvey aka "Slats".



Tess Martin - The Whale Story
This mural is the site of the animated film of the same name, retold in paint on 16 foot high wall. The film is based on a true story of a whale caught in fishing nets and eventually freed by humans.

Tim Marsden - BOOM! - Is That All There Is?
This mural is inspired by the Peggy Lee song of the same name. The mural imagines what it would be like to experience a real-life (cartoon) explosion, complete with a big boom and flying debris.

 

Nicole Bernard, Jess Rees - Mapping Capitol Hill
Two local history buffs serve up facts about Capitol Hill’s past, complete maps and timeline that show the layers of history that go into making the neighborhood. A section of century-old planking is tacked up on the wall. It was found 38 feet below present grade near the Paramount Theater on Pine Street during the construction of the extension of the light rail tunnel from downtown to Capitol Hill.

Specs one - Watching Emeralds
An homage to the Emerald City, by Seattle’s own hip hop super-hero.

Nicole Bernard, Jess Rees (left), Specs one (right)

Kristen Ramirez - Spin a Tale, Emerald City
This installation invites you to create your own formula for thumbs up or thumbs down.

Evan Blackwell - Somewhere Between Here and There
While not our favorite installation, it is inspired by our favorite artist statement: “At the very core of my research is a desire to create a harmony between the reality of my urban existence and my own personal ideology. My goal is to reinvent much of my surroundings both philosophically and physically in order to experience a more fulfilling life.”           

Evan Blackwell (left), Kristen Ramirez (right)

A Window in the Wall with Travelmarx Reflection (left), Capitol Hill Wall Project (right)

Piece of the Wall Near Call Anderson Park (left), A Peek At the Tunnel (right)

Walking the Fibonacci Mural