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.

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes Maps

Here are the maps of the locations of Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes.  The first one is of the West Edge Neighborhood.  Todd Lown stated on his blog that he had painted 26 of them.  

I will have 26 boxes that Todd either painted or designed and painted, along with Jesse Brown, but I have to include 3 in the Sodo neighborhood also.  However, I apparently missed photographing Todd's  box at 1st and Pine.  Counting that one, I will have all 26 of Todd's, plus one painted by A. Swanson, in front of McDonald's on 4th and Stacy in the Sodo neighborhood.

I will post a photo of the last one, number 27 at 1st and Pine later tonight.  Bruce told me he would drive me over to this location and let me hop out while he drives around the block, traffic permitting.  

I think this is all the painted boxes, but if I discover more, I will get them posted as well.  The department of transportation's website did have a reference to an application to paint these boxes and there may be more by other artists.

I will post the information I have on Todd Lown and Jesse Brown tonight.  If anyone out there can contribute to our knowledge, please feel free to comment.  I will also attempt to contact these artists, however their blogs and the website I found that referenced them all appear to be dormant and I have no email addresses.  Perhaps someone will see this blog at some time and inform them of our interest.