Billy King Pioneer Square Mural

The “Billy King Pioneer Square Mural” is on the west side of a brick building on the corner of Yesler Way and Post Avenue. The mural, executed in 2002, is by Billy King, an artist who is intimately familiar with the neighborhood having spent 40 years living and working there according to his blog. When we look at the mural, two things come to mind: the Mambo Kings and Lynda Barry’s artwork for her book The Good Times are Killing Me. As we were taking pictures of the mural, a tourist walked by with a thick Texas(?) accent and said “If you all are taking a picture of something it must be something important to see.”

 

Street Turtle - Wallingford

Turtle Head (left) and Car Negotiating the Turtle (right)
A mural on the ground is a street painting? This one is at 41st Street and Interlake Avenue in sleepy Wallingford. The painting, called Bubbles the Turtle, was created in 2010 by neighbors. The turtle’s head is facing north. A spiral on its shell leads to a heart in the middle. The turtle’s shell is approximately where a traffic donut would be.Stylized bubbles and plants surround the turtle.
Looking Southwest (left) and Looking Northeast (right)

Looking North (left) and Looking South (right)


Bing Map of the Intersection

Bizzarro Italian Café Mural - Wallingford

The Bizzarro Italian Café in Wallingford opened in 1986. Recently, on our way to the Wallingford Postal Station we got a glimpse of this mural for Bizzarro. The mural on the east wall of the former auto workshop building announces the restaurant, its hours, Italian cuisine-themed imagery (garlic, tomatoes, grapes, wine) and a dancing couple.

Bizzarro Mural

Lama G’s Café Mural – Fremont

Lama G’s Café

As you travel on that strange, undulating street called Bridge Way N from Wallingford to Fremont you can now admire the dreamy Lama G’s Café mural. It’s on the east wall of the building. The creator is Johnathan Matas an artist and student at the adjacent Nalanda West Center for American Buddhism. The mural features Buddhism symbols: dharmachakra - the wheel of law with eight spokes, shrivatsa - mandala or endless knot, matsya - golden fish pair (near the water spigot), and bumpa - treasure urn to name a few. Unfortunately, our knowledge stops there. Which god or goddess could be one that holds a cup of coffee as pictured? According to the Fremocentrist, the mural was done almost entirely with spray paint with leaves and branches stenciled from real ones.

Ponder an Eternal Knot Over a Cup of Coffee?

Across the street from Lama G’s Café is another mural by Matas, executed on the side of the Oom Yung Doe martial arts school which is a line of martial arts schools founded by John C. Kim. According to the Traditional Moo Doe site, “The tiger is symbolic of the physical world while the dragon signifies the mental or spiritual world. Together they represent a harmony between the two. The Chinese symbol Yin/Yang (Oom Yung) stands for balance in life.”

Oom Yung Doe Mural-Logo


East Meets East

Northeast Campus Parkway Mural - U-District

Now this is a wall to get excited about, two blocks of wall to be exact along Northeast Campus Parkway on the edge of the University of Washington campus. It contains all sort of interesting and creative parts. It was created in 2004 by UW alumna Jill Rothenberger and 40 volunteers. This was Rothenberger’s first art project after her graduation with a double major in art and the comparative history of ideas. The finished mural came under some heat because some of volunteers’ choice of materials (spray paint) and subject matter (looking too much like graffiti), but mostly it was in hot water because the south side of the underpass was covered with art without prior permission. That was in 2004 and the images have survived, although they appear not to have weathered the random tagging so well. Is the city employee who said “it will encourage graffiti vandals” right? Perhaps, but maybe there is a better way to look at it: all things fall prey to entropy (like graffiti). It’s inevitable. It’s time for a refresh. Persuade up and coming artists to refurbish the existing images or better yet, start fresh.

Some of the panels include bridges and water themes connecting to the immediate surroundings (University Bridge and the Lake Union). There are also fantasy landscapes and a persistent theme of breaking free from convention.

Deep Speaking to the Shallow (left) and Mural Attribution (right)


Peacock (left) and Goddess on Lotus (right)

Just a Number – Breaking with Conformity – The Sun Also Rises


Bugs (left) and Bug Detail (right)

Controversial South Wall – Heads and Perfection

West to East (starting near ramp to University Bridge) 1,2


West to East View 3, 4 (Neptune)


West to East View 5, 6


Bridge Mimic (left) and Wall With Tagging (right)

Living for the City (Stevie Wonder?)

Dexter Way North Mural – Seattle

The location of the Dexter Way North Mural is an underpass that we rarely drive through, let alone walk. (You get to the underpass by heading south on Highway 99 from Fremont toward downtown Seattle. It’s the second turn off after crossing the Ship Canal Bridge. Not exactly a walkable route.) Yet, there it is, a bright, festive (a bit bland, really) mural that has Washington State symbols including:

• Mt. Rainier, but of course.
• Carduelis tristis (Willow Goldfinch), the state bird.
• Rhododendron macrophyllum (Coast Rhododendron), the state flower.
• Tsuga heterophylla (Western Hemlock), the state tree. Maybe some Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas Fir) is pictured as well - it’s hard to tell.

The north side of this underpass is blank, an open canvas. We suggest other state symbols for that wall like the state endemic mammal - Marmota olympus (Marmot) and the state fish - Salmo gairdnerii (Steelhead Trout), perhaps dancing the state dance - the square dance.

The mural is signed with “Dexter Way North Mural, Contact: Mural Steward (206) 228-3608, An Urban Artworks Project”. Names of sponsors - local companies - are listed along the bottom of the mural. The street is called Dexter Way North, but you can only go south on it.

Walking the Dexter Way North Mural from East to West