(Photo courtesy Brenda Walden, who is at right above with artist Jamie Allaire and city rep Nathan, who installed the plaque)
By Hayden Yu Andersen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
A plaque put up this morning at the stairway on Admiral Way at 49th SW was the finishing touch for a weeks-long community mural project.
The stairway had only been complete for a few months before it was hit with graffiti vandalism, recalled area resident Brenda Walden. In response, Walden reached out to the City of Seattle with the idea to fight the vandalism with art. “Not only did I want to do something that celebrated the Alki community, I wanted it to be a welcome sign for folks who are coming into Alki,” which is just downhill from the mural site.
(WSB photo)
The mural, titled “Fun in the Sun at Alki,” blends more than a dozen colors in a portrait of Alki Beach with the mountains behind it and, of course, orcas. The design, created by local artist Jamie Allaire, was voted on by the community. The project was supported by the City of Seattle and A Cleaner Alki, the renowned volunteer group that aims to create a “cleaner, safer, more welcoming community in which to live.”
More than 30 volunteers showed up to help paint, some as young as four years old. “It was awesome to see such an incredible and positive response to the mural,” said Walden.
Allaire, a former teacher and set designer, said she drew on her experience to help direct the project and keep every volunteer engaged. “It was important to us that people of all skill levels and ages could contribute,” Allaire said. The mural was first sketched out in chalk, with sections labeled by numbers, corresponding to a color. Then, volunteers could fill in the blanks using the listed color, almost like a coloring book.
In the future, Walden and Allaire hope to paint the stairs themselves, allowing the mural to stretch all the way up the hill. According to Walden, they’re “just waiting for a dry day to do it.”
To prevent graffiti vandalism from damaging the mural, it has been given a special anti-graffiti coating, which allows paint to be safely cleaned off without harming the mural underneath. Walden and Allaire hope this will ensure the mural stays up for as long as possible, serving as both community artwork, and a visual welcome to people headed for the Alki area.
For more information about Jamie Allaire’s artwork, you can find her website here.
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