One of the well-known planting-strip sculptures outside a house just west of West Seattle Nursery was knocked down in a crash this morning. Thanks to Kersti Muul for the photo above; she says another vehicle, a white cargo van, appeared to also have ben involved in the crash at 44th/Brandon. An anonymous texter sent the view below after the crash scene was cleared.
The planting strip and adjacent house have been known for sculptures like these for more than a decade.
Good. It was pretty creepy. At least they’d taken the chain off the woman that used to be there.
Well that sucks. The sculptures were cool and definitely added some character to the neighborhood.
While I personally don’t care for the chained female imagery of that art display, I believe art is important. Thus, sad and a real bummer! Hope humans are fine and art in the community continues to thrive, even if it is not my taste
I heard back from SFD (adding) – a 16-year-old girl was treated at the scene, not seriously hurt.
That seems like a real frightening accident for a new driver. Hope they are ok.Some additional info from another website indicated that the van was headed eastbound and the car was headed northbound.(based on the t-bone damage on the car, and that ^^ info, maybe all the traffic enforcement commenters on WSB can determine whose insurance should actually suffer)
It’s not SeaViewI’ve never been a fan of this house, but I am sorry for the loss
Was there a slipped capital letter in there, because that house is certainly part of Seaview (although neighborhood maps are kind of unofficial, Sea View Park plats extend to the East of California Avenue by 4 blocks). In modern understanding, it’s generally considered Fairmount Park by the time you get East of California Ave. Seaview, we’re here…. even if our tag is used rarely in the west seattle blog.
Curiously, this house used to be on the west side of California Ave. between Findlay and Brandon, making it part of the Fairmount Park area. It was moved over 20 years ago.
Oh no! Terrible this happened, whether you like the art or not, it’s still art. The owner of the home must be devastated. I hope it can be salvaged in some form, at least.
Looks like the wood is rotten from the photo, wonder if that is what made it fall.
Four teenagers in car on way to school, older man in van. Everybody OK.Sculptures are rotten, that’s the reason it fell the way it did onto their car.
Bummer…..I really likes the homes sculptures. Every time I visit the nursery I do the short walk to see if there’s any new sculptures.Hopefully it can be saved.
I live a block away. Not really upset over this. Sorry, not sorry.
Glad to see some neighbors recognize the value of art, even if it’s not to their own personal taste. Sorry that other neighbors can’t mind their own business.
It was Blasphemy…. public property it was on. NOT PRIVATE PROPERTY. Do you really want your children staring at itwhen you’re out walking that street? Really thought??
One of my finest performances as a father was explaining to my seven year old why an adult man would feel compelled to carve 24″ of human genitalia on a sculpture of a dragon and present it to the world.
Well, your interpretation of it, anyway.It always fascinates me when people cheer for one person to have their private and irreplaceable property destroyed, because they don’t like it, but cry foul when it happens to others.As to the woman being chained. I always interpreted that piece as a pretty literal interpretation of women being shackled by our culture and social mores.
It was a porn fantasy. Cool with me if you call it “art” … but it’s just 3D porn.
Heck yes I want my kids staring at that when we’re walking down the street. We often go out of our way to go look at the well hung dragon art and talk about how the artist made it and what he was trying to communicate.Try to be more interesting or something. Your life sounds lame as hell.
Exactly!Art is in the eye of the beholder and all male species have testicles and a penis and female have breasts if it weren’t for them none of us would be here. Don’t make your children “afraid” of them but also explain to them that some people find this sort of art wonderful and there’s nothing to be ashamed of it.
On a side note, does anyone know why that house has “No Parking” signs stretching from the alley behind the nursery down to 44th? It seems really odd that a house would be given a no parking zone.
It’s a corner house and you’re not supposed to park within 30 feet of a corner. alleys, etc., which (I checked Street View to be sure I’m remembering this correctly) apply here.
The parking restriction for an uncontrolled intersection like Brandon/44th is 20 ft from the (unmarked) crosswalks. 30 ft is for an intersection/corner with traffic control devices. There is no RCW parking setback for alleys. The north half of that block between 44th and California shows up in the Seattle Parking Map as having official no parking signs. Maybe the nursery has enough large trailer alley traffic they got some unusual restrictions there. https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CanIParkHereBrochure.pdf
In looking at the photo again, it seems like the dragon may have prevented the fire hydrant from getting chopped off. So, there is something from the glass is half full department.
It would seem the dragon sacrificed his own fireplug for that of the city.
Well, the hydrants are easy enough to replace and designed to break off for these types wrecks. The sculpture, however, isn’t as easy of a fix.
Wow I have not seen the sculptures reduced by one. I need to incorporate a visit one of these days via bike or walking.
If the wood is rotten then the sculptures need to be taken down and displayed in a way that doesn’t make them a hazard to people walking down the streets.
As all of the sculptures/trees are still attached to the ground, they will continue to rot and present a danger of falling. Even apparently dead trees continue to draw moisture from the ground. If the creator wants to save them, the sculptures need to be removed from the bases, treated for rot, and remounted on something other than decaying stumps. Failure to do so could result in very serious injury – and a huge lawsuit.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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