“What do you love about Pike Place Market?”
This is the question I asked the community to help me inform the direction of a painting that I painted live in front of Pike Place Market, as part of the Downtown Seattle Association's Paint in the Plaza program. Prior to the live painting session, I posted this flyer online, inviting the community to share their favorite things about the market.
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The final design includes two concentric circles - between the two are the everyday joys that we experience through the people and businesses that make up the market: lavender and daffodils, Mee Sum buns and Pike Place Chowder, Rachel's Ginger Beer and fresh figs, Pasta Casalinga and hot apple cider, and more!
The smaller green circle represents the common themes from the responses including flowers, fish, fresh food, and connections! The larger green circle includes keystones of Pike Place Market's history including the year it was established, a tribute to the Japanese American farmers who were incarcerated during WWII, the public art campaign of painted pig sculptures that raised money for social services at the market, and the initiative to save the market from demolition in 1971.
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On the outside, are silhouettes of passerbys enjoying the scenery, people snapping photos and making memories, and a busker playing music, reflecting the liveliness of the market. Set against a backdrop of the vast blue, ocean views that engulf it, Pike Place Ecology is a living, breathing portrait of the market and how all its pieces past and present are interconnected.
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I hope that this not only evokes wonder and curiosity about Pike Place Market, but also about other local landmarks and the small (but ultimately big!) ways that people work hard to preserve them! Because if we love something it’s always worth fighting for :)
Pike Place Ecology, 2025, 24”x36”, acrylic on wood