Wexley School for Girls – Yellow Wall and Back Alley Street Art

Wexley School for Girls is a creative agency, a self-described “fan factory”. They “cultivate and ignite consumer’s love for brands.” And for the longest time I thought there office at 2218 5^th was a funky new restaurant. Okay, I was thrown off by the rubber chickens in the window. You will be drawn to the yellow wall of clip-art-like art if you are in that part of town. (I saw from a distance and missed the Microsoft ad mural when the yellow wall gave way to the talents of joey nix.)

Jamie Bernard Mural – Black Market Skates

Jamie Bernard Mural on Black Market Skates

I was intrigued by this small mural of Jamie Bernard on the side of Black Market Skates (2404 7th Ave. Seattle) the first time I saw it walking to work. I found out later that Bernard was a fixture in the Seattle skateboarding community. And, that he ended his own life. The mural is a half body shot of Bernard with red roses in the bottom third of the portrait and his birth and death dates: 4/25/82 to 9/11/10.

Fremont Foundry Murals – Groovy Animals

Groovy Animals in Fremont, Rebus with Artist Signature?


Who created this mural* and what it represents is not known. We’ve looked around for an obvious signature or attribution and none were found.  Maybe the clue is the rebus with a “tie” + “r” + “bells” – “b” = “tyrell”?

* A commenter below says it's by Richard Beyer.

The Fremont Fine Arts Foundry – the murals are on the east wall of this structure – is closed and so no answers can be found there. Each vignette of the larger murals seems to be part of larger story. Most if not all of the images are outlined by grooves incised into the wall and about ¼ to ½ inch thick.

The murals are located at 154 North 35^th Street in Fremont.

Part of the Mural on the Fremont Fine Arts Foundry Building

Stitched Views

Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of the Kenwood House, London

Collage of Some of the Portraits in Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of the Kenwood House, London.
Top Row: George Romney, Emma Hart as the “Spinstress”, ca. 1784-85; Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Mary Countess of Howe, 1760; Joshua Reynolds, Kitty Fisher as “Cleopatra” Dissolving the Pearl, 1759
Middle Row: Frans Hals, Portrait of Pieter van den Broecke, 1633; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Two Circles; John Hoppner, Mrs. Jordan as Viola in Twelfth Night, ca. 1785-86
Bottom Row: Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Tollemache as “Miranda”, 1773-74; Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Musters as “Hebe”, 1785; George Romney, Mrs. Musters, 1779-80

The Seattle Art Museum show Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of the Kenwood House, London (Feb 14 – May 19, 2013) has come and gone but I wanted to write a little something about it. The show featured a selection of approximately 50 work from the collection of the Kenwood House. The house was donated to the British nation by Lord Iveagh (Edward Guinness) when he died in 1927. Lord Iveagh was a member of the Guinness family (accomplished in many things as well as being the makers of Guinness Beer) who amassed quite a collection of Old Master paintings of which a selection was included in this show. The SAM site says “Since the earl was a newcomer to London emigrating from his native Ireland, he may have selected works that would help him fit in with his peers and elevate his social standing.”

A number of the paintings in the exhibit are portraits of society women playing dress up as Hebe or Cleopatra for example. Not sure what it means but it was fun to look at. Then there is Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with Two Circles. There have been a few ideas put forward as to what those circles are behind Rembrandt in the portrait, but not one person said “eyes”, as in I’ll be watching you! That’s my vote.

There was a companion exhibition: European Masters: Treasures of Seattle that, on paper looked like a good idea, but in practice to the average exhibition visitor, leaned more toward awkward juxtaposition. Speaking of awkward juxtaposition, Daphne Guinness (artist and descendant of Lord Iveagh as I found out later, apparently I was not paying close attention to what I was listening during my visit) popped up a few times in the audio guide. I kept wondering why is this lady in my headphones talking about modeling and how tough it is? Ah, she can fill us in on hard it is to sit as Hebe or Cleopatra. I see, but Rembrandt’s circles are so much more interesting.

European Masters Map & Guide

A Dennis Pot and Bulbous Oat Grass

A Pot in a Patch of Bulbous Oat Grass

In this POTS and PLANTS episode we have one of our many “Dennis” pots (pots from a friend named Dennis) and Bulbous Oat Grass.

Dennis said that the pot was made with Laguna Clay Company's Los Altos Blend clay. The Glaze is called Woo Blue. The orange flecking in the glaze is from iron oxide bleeding through from the clay body. The pot was fired in a reduction kiln.  A reduction firing reduces the amount of oxygen in the kiln, so that the flame steels the oxygen from the iron oxide in the clay body, giving it its warm toasted appearance.

Bulbous Oat Grass, is always a spring time favorite with its soft leaves. As soon as summer comes and it gets drier here in Seattle, it withers away and goes dormant. It often comes back briefly in the fall with the return of rain.

What is the correct scientific name for bulbous oat grass? Is it Arrhenatherum elatius bulbosum ‘Variegatum’ (Monrovia, Blooming Advantage) or Arrhenatherum elatius var. bulbosum (Dave’s Garden, USDA Plants Profile)? ‘Variegatum’ is a cultivar, bred for desirable characteristics, and bulbosum is a variety, a step below a species. I would guess since this plant was purchased in a nursery it would be the ‘Variegatum’.

According to Quattrocchi, the generic name origins of A. elatius are:

Greek arrhen “male, masculine” and anther “a bristle”, referring to the staminate floret.

Elatius mean tall and refers to the tall habit of the common variety, not the variegated species shown here, which is anything but tall but I guess that’s all relative. Finally, according to Monrovia, Linnaeus put this grass in the genus Avena, commonly known as oats. Later, the grass was put in th Arrhenatherum genus but the “oat” name stuck.

West Seattle Mural – The Junction

Left: West Seattle Junction Mural; Right: A Juniper Bush as an Umbrella
We caught this mural on a Sunday afternoon while scurrying to Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle. The plaque accompanying the mural says that “[a]s an incorporated municipality for a brief five years, West Seattle launched the nation’s first city-owned streetcar system. The intersection of the West Seattle line, which ran through the Admiral district along California Avenue, and the Fauntleroy line, which ran along Alaska Street and then south along California, became known as the Junction, with a capital J.” For more information about West Seattle murals, see http://westseattleblog.com/west-seattle-101-the-murals.

I like the way a juniper bush works itself into the mural substituting for the woman’s umbrella.

West Seattle Junction Mural Description

Keys to the City - South Lake Union Mural

Detail of Keys to the City Mural

Keys to the City is by Invisible Creature, was painted by Don Rockwell and Foley Sign Co., and was commissioned by Vulcan Real Estate. More information about the 100’ by 30’ mural is on Invisible Creature. The mural is located on Thomas St between Boren Ave N and Terry Ave N.

Keys to the City Mural – South Lake Union

Wallingford Mural

Close-up of the Wallingford Mural

Location: Wallingford, N 45^th St. and Meridian Ave N, on the west side of the building that has Tully’s Coffee. The mural features places you can find in Wallingford like the Guild 45^th Theater, Dick’s Drive-In, The Wallingford Ladybug, the entrance to Meridian Playground as well as mentioning some of the events that take place in Wallingford like the Wallingford Wurst Festival and the Wallingford Artwalk.

Icons of Wallingford in the Mural (left); The Mural from Across the Street (right)