Before getting into the news of the day … an art break. We don’t often get news releases from artists announcing new murals. For this one, we did. Artist Christopher Hydinger has added that mural to those already on the wall along the alley leading south from SW Dawson behind Rite Aid; we went over for a look. Here’s what the artist has to say about their creation, describing it as “big, bold, with a pinch of comedy, completely unafraid to spotlight the truth”:

Christopher Hydinger invites you to experience their new pro-environmental mural, ‘Breaking News: Alien Messiah Engages Portal, Presses Delete‘ at West Seattle’s world-class art alley West Side Wall (located behind the Rite Aid at 5217 California Ave SW). Installed at the north end of the alley, this large-scale drawing created using only small paint pens took over 65 hours to complete and vibrantly visualizes in great detail the absurdity of a Messiah coming to Save Us illustrated through the comically dramatic lens of an Alien Messiah at the moment they have decided to press the Delete button.

“Compositionally, the viewer is able to enjoy the expansive view through the Portal and into the Universe of the Alien Messiah, but because the floating Delete button (designed using the principles of chromostereopsis to create a no-glasses-needed 3D illusion) has been oriented facing the Alien Messiah (all “recycle” icons feature arrows pointing clockwise), this also gives the viewer the physical sensation of simultaneously inhabiting the inside of something while also looking out from it (a world inside a box, a cage, a computer, a more expansive ecosystem). Combined with the larger-than-life presence of the beautiful but intimidating Alien Messiah and the ominously designed Delete button, this is intended to create an unsettlingly eerie shock. But hopefully this shock will inspire a deeply motivating pro-environmental perspective to emerge. And just in time for Halloween!”

If you haven’t been to the wall – it stretches a full block southward along the alley, plus a short ways east along Dawson too. We first reported on it more than a year ago.