Seattle's Space Needle

While going downtown to pick Bruce up from work, I noticed the Space Needle has a new paint job!  Right now the top is decorated with a Christmas Light Tree that can be seen all across the city, at night.  In the daytime, from the I-5 freeway it appears to be painted green, although it is actually a trees design, inspired by, “THE EMERALD CITY!  Luscious green, as far as the eye can see." per the artist, Nicole Commins.  Apparently, this design can be better appreciated from the air.

Winning design by Nicole Commins

In a contest that drew more than 100,000 votes, Nicole's “trees” design was the public favorite and, as a result, will adorn the Space Needle’s roof from October 2012-April 21, 2013.

Nicole Commins, 29, is a self-taught freelance graphic designer, who lives and works in Seattle.  She found out about the roof painting contest from her father, after he read about it while riding the train from Edmonds to Seattle and suggested that she enter.  She grew up in Edmonds and attended Shoreline Community College.

The Space Needle is an iconic 605 foot high landmark that is recognized around the world as being in Seattle, Washington.  It was built in 1961 for the 1962 World's Fair, which was held in Seattle.  Until the trees design was painted, the top had been repainted, for a time, the same gold as the original back in 1962.

The structure itself was built to withstand earthquakes up to 9.1 on the Richter scale, winds up to 200 miles per hour, and has over two dozen lightning rods on top to prevent lightning damage.

The Space Needle has an observation deck located 520 feet up, and a rotating restaurant called SkyCity located 500 feet up.  It completes a full 360 degree rotation every 60 minutes.  The views of Seattle and the surrounding mountains, skyline and scenery from the observation deck and restaurant are spectacularly beautiful.

The view of the Space Needle and Seattle's Skyline from across the sound in West Seattle:

View from the deck (On a clear day!)

That is Mount Rainier in the background

 Note the top painted gold

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 32

Photo by:  Cherri

Here is number 32 in the Painted Traffic Control Box series.  I described this one as a Griffin, but I really think a griffin has a lion body, dragon wing and tail and the head of an eagle.  This one seems to have a unicorn.  

 This box is sponsored by Table 219 which is a restaurant located at 219 Broadway at John.

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 31

Photo by:  Cherri

Here is the latest Todd Lown/Jesse Brown painted traffic control box.  This one is on the southeast corner of Broadway and Thomas in the Capital Hill neighborhood.  It is sponsored in part by Charlie's.

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 30

Photo by:  Cherri

So, here is the 30th Painted Traffic Control Box.  This one is in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood at Broadway and Harrison.  It is sponsored in part by the Broadway Grill.

Seattle's own legend: Jimi Hendrix

With today being his birthday, it seems appropriate that we feature Daryl Smith's Statute of  Seattle's Rock Legend JIMI HENDRIX.






Jo Ann took me to visit this Bronze Statue at the corner of Broadway and East Pine Street the day we went looking for more Painted Traffic Control Boxes on Capital Hill.

Photos by:  Cherri

The Seattle artist cast the statue in 1997 to be part of "The Legends Collection," a series of sculptures of musicians commissioned by Michael Malone, former chairman and CEO of AEI Music.   

A lot of research went into the making of the Jimi Hendrix statue. Hendrix's pose was one pictured in a famous photograph from the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967—the performance where Hendrix famously lit his guitar on fire.


 



Smith spent a lot of time on the statue's smaller details as well, such as the arrangement of Hendrix's guitar strings. Hendrix was left-handed, but played a right-handed guitar stringed backwards for left-handed playing. To accurately portray this musical quirk, Smith re-stringed the right-handed guitar used in the mold, so that the sizes of the strings would match up.




Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix's innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form. Because he was unable to read or write music, it is nothing short of remarkable that Jimi Hendrix's meteoric rise in the music took place in just four short years. His musical language continues to influence a host of modern musicians, from George Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to Jonny Lang.

Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, at Seattle's King County Hospital, was later renamed James Marshall by his father, James "Al" Hendrix.  Entirely self-taught, Jimi's inability to read music made him concentrate even harder on the music he heard.


Influenced musically by American rock and roll and electric blues, following initial success in Europe with his band the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he achieved fame in the US after his 1967 performance at the Monterrey Pop Festival. Later, he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969, and the Isle of Wright Festival in 1970, before dying from drug-related asphyxia at the age of 27.

Jimi at Woodstock

Instrumental in developing the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback, Hendrix favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume, gain and treble. He helped to popularize the use of the wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, which he often used to deliver tonal exaggerations in his solos. He also pioneered experimentation with stereophonic phasing effects in rock music recordings.

Wikipedia has an excellent biography of this amazing artist Seattle claims as its own at the following link:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Hendrix

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 29

Photo by:  Cherri

This is the second Painted Traffic Control Box in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood.  Like the first, it states it is funded by the Department of Neighborhoods & Supported by the Broadway Business Improvement Area.  This one is sponsored in part by Broadway Video.

Seattle Street Art 1+

After viewing my post on this wall mural, I was very unhappy with the way the photos were presented.  I'm giving it another shot in trying to showcase Henry's work.  My personal thought is I should have made a video while walking alongside the mural.  I may try that next time.  At any rate, here is my newest effort:

Left end 1

Left end 2

Left end 3

1st Stairwell Left 4

Details of Stairwell

Center section 5

Center section 6

Center section 7

As you can see, this is a very long mural, covering the retaining wall on the entire west side of the elementary school.  The mural continues with the side panels to the door below:

Right side 10

Right side 11

Right side 12

Right side 13

Right side 14

Right side 15

Right side 16

Right side 17

Right side 18

That's it.  I told you it was a big mural!

Seattle's Street Art 1

As I told you in an earlier blog, my friend Jo Ann took me to see a really cool wall mural at Lowell Elementary School on Capitol Hill.  She told me it was painted by an artist named Henry who has done a number wall murals in the greater Seattle area.  I took the above photographs of the wall mural and when I got home I did some research on creative, whimsical artist.   

According to Wikipedia: Ryan Henry Ward, who signs his work simply as Henry, is an American artist who has been described as "Seattle's most prolific muralist". He has painted over 120 murals on surfaces, such as buildings exteriors, school interiors, garages, and even vehicles in and around Seattle and has sold over 2000 canvases.




As an artist, he began his craft at the age of three, drawing on the walls of his childhood home. He has a deep history of sharing his art with the world. In third grade he had his own comic strip named Mr. Pib and Ernie and while in the fourth grade he began winning art competitions which landed his imagery on t-shirts. He self-published greeting cards throughout his childhood, and in high school began yet another comic strip, The Cheese Life, which was published on the back of Omega Force comic books. 

Ryan Henry Ward's vision of creating primitive images with a dream-like, surreal quality has come to fruition. He wants the natural rawness of the painting process to show through his balanced, bright, and whimsical work.

As of 2011, Ward maintains a studio in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, and lives in a small bus with his dog, Merlin.  Ryan can be found during business hours at Short Stop Coffee in Ballard, WA.  You can stop in to meet him in person and "snag some swag," or check out his online store and ship it to your house! Either way, you're sure to take home a smidgen of whimsy with a smile.

 
If you are interested in finding out more about this artist, here are a couple of links you can click on:  http://www.ryanhenryward.com/ and http://monkeygoggles.com/?p=1824

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 28

After learning Todd Lown and Jesse Brown designed and painted eight more traffic control boxes, I went on a search for them.  Enlisting the help of my friend Jo Ann, who acted as chauffeur and tour guide, we headed to Capitol Hill.  I had learned they were up on Broadway, somewhere.

Photo by:  Cherri

As stated above, this first one on Capitol Hill is located at Broadway and Mercer.  Note the inscription has changed slightly from the boxes in the West Edge Neighborhood.  Plus, the sign on the left at the back reads, "Project Funded by Department of Neighborhoods & Supported by the Broadway Business Improvement Area.  For maintenance inquires please call 206-328-6646.  Sponsored in part by:  three dollar bill cinema"

Jo Ann had gone to college on Capitol Hill and we not only found the additional eight boxes, we photographed a Jimmy Hendricks bronze statue, a construction mural surrounding the new Sound Transit University Link Capitol Hill Station and Tunnel, and a ve-e-ery long mural on the retaining wall for Lowell Elementary.  

We also toured the college area and some very old houses.  Jo Ann was able to offer a great deal of information about them and their former owners. 
Then, Jo Ann took me to a quaint little cafe near Volunteer Park that was established in 1905, and we had a quick tour around the oldest cemetery in Seattle, the Asian Art Museum, the Conservatory at Volunteer Park and many of Jo Ann's old haunts.  I don't think I thanked her enough for her help and encouragement.  

I can't wait to share my other discoveries with you, my readers, if there are really any of you out there. 

Sultan Train Station Wall Mural

While visiting my sister who lives in Sultan, I decided to snap a photo of this wall mural I've admired for several years.  It sits across the street from the post office on the side wall of the Sultan Chiropractic Office.  In researching the artist, I found that it was actually painted for the Sultan Visitor's Information Center.

Photo by:  Cherri

Per an article in the Monroe Monitor in June of 2008, this mural was painted by Monroe muralist, David Hose. In 2008, he was painting another mural on the wall of the old fire station in Sultan when the article appeared.  I will have to check that mural out soon.

In 2004, Hose moved to Monroe with his wife, Takeko.  His second career as a muralist began to take off when he moved here. He had loved art all his life and had been painting professionally for about 10 years when he came to Monroe.  Since he has lived in the Sky Valley, he has painted the details of the lives, history, and ecosystem of the area in more than a dozen public artworks.

He has created murals for Eddie’s Trackside in Monroe, Monroe’s Napa Auto Supply,  a mural called River of Life, which is a sun-dappled above-and-below mural on a cross section of the Skykomish River, and numerous small murals at Monroe’s Hitching Post Cafe, among others.

Although Hose loved art since his youth, the first 28 years of his professional life were spent working for the Reverend Sun Young Moon in the San Francisco area.  It was there he met his wife, Takeko.  The young Japanese woman had come to the United States as a missionary to work for Moon.   

Hose’s success since arriving in the Sky Valley represents a strong start to a second career. In the Monroe Monitor in 2008 he stated, “I'm 63, and I’ve never been more excited in my life,” he said. “I love this valley. A lot of people are winding down at this age and I am just getting started.”

There is more information about this talented artist and his amazing wife at the following website:  http://www.tparents.org/library/Unification/Talks/Dhose/Hose-080603.htm

Starbucks

 Starbucks

From the beginning people in Seattle have always loved their coffee.  Now that tradition has been exported around the world.  Though not the only coffee distributed in Washington, Starbucks is certainly the most well known.

Photo by:  Cherri

  
When Starbucks first opened it was just a single store in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. From just a narrow storefront, Starbucks offered some of the world’s finest fresh-roasted whole bean coffees. The name, inspired by Moby Dick, evoked the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders.

Flagship Store across from Pike Place Market

In 1981, Howard Schultz (Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer) first walked into a Starbucks store. From his first cup of Sumatra, Howard was drawn into Starbucks and joined the company year later.

In 1983, Howard traveled to Italy and became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition back to the United States. A place for conversation and a sense of community. A third place between work and home. He left Starbucks for a short period of time to start his own Il Giornale coffeehouses and returned in August 1987 to purchase Starbucks with the help of local investors.
 
From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and the rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection.  Their mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Today, with more than 17,000 stores in 55 countries, Starbucks is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world.

Seattle's Traffic Control Boxes Artists 2

Jesse Brown is the artist who designed some of the painted traffic control boxes in Seattle and along with Todd Lown, painted most of them.  Like Todd, I had a great deal of trouble finding any information about him.

At a site called http://plasticstudio.blogspot.com/ I found the following photo:


 

However, when viewing the blog, it says it has moved to a new blog site called:  www.papervspencil.com

It also says he has the following blog and websites:

• WWW.PAPERVSPENCIL.COM
• Studio Blog
• Sausage Skateboard

At a site called http://cargocollective.com/lifeoftype/About, I found the following information:

Jesse Brown is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Seattle, WA.
His work has been exhibited at galleries in Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, London and Paris.

Jesse's work is often an exploration in geometric forms, pattern, typography, shape and repetition which display a very clean, graphic quality. He is known for working in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, design, typography, sculpture, murals, artist books, installation, video and textile works.
 
There is a video of Jesse at work along with the other artists,  Kevin Drake, Todd Lown and Zach Rockstadt at The Sign Show on the following site:  http://papervspencil.tumblr.com/post/8795961575/.  This show was put on by pun(c)tuation on August 13, 2011.  They have a website called:  www.thepunctuatedlife.com.

At the following site: 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnKicrUDKFHeNC83O8TTcGQw07vX3Zhdagq4TPCb8zGN-Ht7AefK_epZ97P38QMqjs34ew2naYN4qozWL_P0mI-mh6EIWDFjT3wRNrOnAzLFR6UpMv2NCqgcnf8gLxZVr7NLJCs5WQ___z/s1600/JesseBrown-Card.jpg,  I found the following example of Jesse's work with paper cut out sculptures.  I have to share it because I found it so fascinating:

"Of Paper And Light"

Installation of paper cut-out sculptures 

with original music to accompany the works.

With these new works, Seattle artist Jesse Brown's shapes and patterns are 

added by taking away. Rather than adding marks to the paper, the cutouts form the image and their absence allows for the interaction with light, 

the works combine drawing of graphic material with three dimensional structure.

This is from a website called:  www.comingsoon.com.
 
I did find an email address on one of the above websites and I will be attempting to contact him soon.

Seattle's Lake Union

Since we had never taken the tour, one day my sister, Vicki, our friend JoAnn and I took this tour of Seattle on the "Duck" that is quite popular with the tourists.  This is amphibious vehicle that offers an overview of what to see in downtown Seattle and then actually enters the water at Lake Union and gives another perspective to our great city.  I will cover the "Duck" tour in another blog.

Photo by:  Vicki

This is a photo of a sailboat and the Seattle skyline from Lake Union, which is on the north side of downtown.

Lake Union is a glacial lake, its basin was dug 12,000 years ago by the Vashon glacier, which also created Lake Washington and Seattle's Green, Bitter and Haller Lakes.  It gets its name from Thomas Mercer, who in 1854 correctly predicted that canals would someday join Lake Washington to Puget sound in a "union of waters."

As part of the Lake Washington Canal system, water flows into the lake from Lake Washington through the Montlake Cut and out via the Fremont Cut on its way to Puget Sound.  Before construction of the canal, Lake Union emptied into Salmon Bay via a creek which followed roughly the same course as the Fremont Cut does today.

The first time I heard of Lake Union is from a series of novels I read in the 80's about a Seattle Homicide Cop, Lou Boldt, written by Ridley Pearson.  His co-worker and sometime paramour, the police pyschologist, Daphne Matthews, lived on a houseboat on Lake Union.  In Sleepless in Seattle, the character played by Tom Hanks lived on a houseboat here.  These floating homes line the east and west sides of the lake.

Photo by:  Vicki

Photo by:  Vicki

Above is a picture of the houseboat that was used in the filming of Sleepless in Seattle.  At right is the smallest houseboat on the lake. 

Gas Works Park is the largest park on Lake Union and the most popular for visitors. It is the venue for summer concerts and one of  Seattle's major Fourth of July fireworks show. This is a public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant.  Gas Works Park contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. The plant operated from 1906 to 1956, and was bought by the City of Seattle for park purposes in 1962. The park opened to the public in 1975.

The park was originally named Myrtle Edwards Park, after the city councilwoman who had spearheaded the drive to acquire the site and who died in a car crash in 1969. In 1972, the Edwards family requested that her name be taken off the park because the design called for the retention of much of the plant. In 1976, Elliott Bay Park was renamed Myrtle Edwards Park.

Here is a photo of Gas Works Park from the lake.

Photo by:  Vicki

You can often see teams of rowing boats on the lake.  There are several rowing clubs that operate on the lake.  The Washington Huskies also practice here. 

These team rowing boats are often called "shells" because they are long, narrow and broadly semi-circular in cross-section to reduce drag to a minimum.  A "sweep" boat is one oar per person rowing on opposite sides.  A "skulling" boat has each person rowing both side.

Photo by:  Vicki

Seaplanes can also be frequently be seen taking off and landing on the water.  Two companies operate on the water:  Kenmore Air and Seattle Seaplanes.

My favorite view of downtown Seattle is across the lake from the I-5 bridge when the sun is just rising.  It also is breathtaking at night with all the lights shining.  Because I can't just stop on the freeway and snap a picture, I will try to get a photo from Queen Ann that has both the Space Needle and downtown in the photo.  

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 27

Photo by:  Cherri

This is the final Painted Traffic Control Box I found in the West Edge Neighborhood.  I missed it earlier.  This is depicting the Fish Market at Pike Place Market tossing the fish to the customers. 

However, I have discovered there are at least 9 more painted boxes up on Broadway on Capital Hill that are also designed and painted by Todd Lown.  I will try to get up there next week sometime to finish this project for awhile.

Tomorrow I will post the information I have on Jesse Brown.

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Artists 1

The first information I found for Todd Lown was blog for a show in which Todd participated.  The URL is

http://www.compoundgallery.com/Artist/index.php?main_page=artist&cid=93

It had the following biography of Todd and included this photo:

Todd Lown was born in Seattle, Washington, where he grew up skateboarding and drawing. Attending the University of Washington he earned a BFA in Printmaking and later pursued further studies in animation at the School of Visual Arts. Todd has designed artwork for album covers, t-shirts, skateboards, public art murals, and hand-painted signs. He has shown original art in Dusseldorf, Antwerp, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Todd currently resides in sunny Seattle. 

"Over the past few years I have been working with oil and water based mediums on paintings with type as characters and content. Narrative vignettes composed of type, anthropomorphized type, form and pattern and color. My goal is to enjoy both process and product.

He has painted 26 traffic control boxes in downtown Seattle, between Cherry and Virginia on 1^st and 2^nd 

– posted on this blog 6/16/2010

 

Todd had participated in The Sign Show, Lazerz! per this blog. There are numerous pieces of his artwork for sale on the above site at the Compound Gallery.

He also appeared in a Brooklyn show:  Too Art for TV5.  The blog for this show is:  http://www.bunnycutlet.com/2a4tv/2011.html.  From this site I got the following paragraph about Todd:


Todd Kidwell Lown’s work is a conglomeration of animations, signage, drawings and paintings both illustrative and abstract. Currently back in Seattle drawing and painting [murals] daily, Todd has previously worked at 4Kids Productions on TMNT Fast forward, as a background inker/colorist and then on Viva Piñata as the Production Coordinator. His art has been exhibited in museums and galleries from: The City of Seattle Portable Works collection, Too Art for TV 2-4, In the Zone at the Brattleborough Art Museum in Vermont, Gimme Baby Robots 1-3, Dauminkino (The Flip Book Show) in Düsseldorf, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium, to Vagrant Royalty in Tokyo, Japan.

Todd has his own blog which has some exceptional examples of his work.  The link to that blog is:  http://toddlown.blogspot.com/.   He last posted to this blog Sept 19, 2012.  

There is also a posting in August of 2011, titled, "Hello"  that shows 3 painted traffic control boxes.  I found out that these are on Broadway and discovered Todd had painted 9 more boxes in this area.   I will include them on my blog when I get a chance to photograph them.  They also will be included in the public folder where I placed all 27 of the other boxes.  It is located at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/105525107077876984484/albums/5801818673517774209

On Todd's blog he has several pictures of the 46th Street Mural. The dog in one of the photos looks surprisingly like the dog in the painted traffic control box no. 4 at 2nd and Marion.  His dog?

There is also a video by Justin Boldaji, posted on his blog Friday August 13, 2010 that shows the actual painting of the 46th Street Mural.  The mural is located along the 46th street underpass of Aurora Avenue in the Fremont/Wallingford Neighborhood.

Here is a photo of the mural.  When I get a chance, I will photograph it myself.

I tried to find out more information about him on his blog, but there was nothing under the "View My Complete Profile" or the "About Me." However, There was this information posted about him on one of his posts:

Todd Kidwell Lown is available for hire on projects of any size. He works as an illustrator, designer and sign painter in Seattle, WA. His art and work are a conglomeration of signage, drawings and paintings ambiguous, illustrative, abstract and often subversive in nature. Todd is the founder and co/owner of Sausage Skateboards; he has previously worked on TMNT, as a background inker/colorist and then on to design and implement over 100 pieces of public art in the greater Seattle area. His art has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide: ‘The Sign Show’ in Seattle and Portland, ‘Too Art 4 TV’ # 2-6 in Brooklyn, the Brattleborough Art Museum in Vermont, Dauminkino (The Flip Book Show) in Düsseldorf, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium, and ‘Vagrant Royalty’ in Tokyo, Japan.

I joined his site as a follower, but I have not yet had contact with him.  

His lack of information about himself on his blog has caused me to realize I have very little personal information on my own blog, also.  I guess I was protecting my privacy, but people want to know.  I will update my personal information this weekend.