Artist paints the history of Everett in bold strokes
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, June 4, 2005
Snowcapped peaks rise from the sidewalk on Colby Avenue. The Mukilteo Lighthouse is there. So is Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner. A logger is coming into view, outlined in carpenter’s pencil.
Michael OLeary / The Herald Sharon Dale is creating a mural depicting Everetts history on a wall in the 3900 block of Colby Avenue.
|
In vivid colors and bold design, Sharon Dale is creating a tableau of local history in downtown Everett. Passersby are taking notice of Dale’s mural-in-progress along Colby just south of 39th Street.
“Everybody honks all the time,” said Dale, 60, a Renton artist who was commissioned to paint the mural. Since early May, she’s been drawing and applying outdoor acrylic paints to a block-long wall outside the Cascadian Place retirement community.
Inside the complex, which is home to about 100 seniors, are many witnesses to the history taking shape on the wall.
“Sharon was new to this area; she didn’t know all the background,” said Adelaide Dale, 99, one of the Cascadian’s oldest residents. She is also the aunt of Sharon Dale’s husband, Bob.
“I’m an ancient mariner,” Adelaide Dale quipped. “I graduated from Everett High School in 1924 and a half. When Sharon came to the Cascadian with her sketches, I was a resource for her.”
Terrie Powell, co-manager at Cascadian Place, said a number of residents and friends held a fund-raising dinner to help pay for the mural, which will cost more than $4,000.
“She’s a fantastic artist. We’re proud to have the mural here,” Powell said.
Dale hopes to finish work by the end of the month. The Cascadian staff is planning to celebrate with an unveiling July 9.
“We hoping to have someone from the Tulalip Tribes, some of our other local leaders, and perhaps some of Senator Jackson’s family,” Powell said. “This is a community project, and we want to have the community represented.”
Panels depict a Tulalip story pole, an orca, fishing boats and a map of Everett, Port Gardner Bay and the Snohomish River.
Still to be painted is a portrait of the late Sen. Henry M. Jackson, the Everett Democrat who rose to power in Washington, D.C., and made a run for the presidency.
Buildings as old as the Snohomish County Courthouse and as new as Everett Station will be added to the mural. The timeline will be brought up to the present with an Everett Silvertips hockey player. An American flag and a soaring eagle are there to recognize “we are at war,” Dale said. She’s still making space for the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Natural history – Mount Baker, towering trees and salmon – is there alongside politics and industry.
The artist said she’s not allowed to include advertising for Cascadian Place on the mural. She is otherwise free to represent the area’s scenery and highlights.
There are no signs of dark incidents such as the Everett Massacre. More than a dozen people died in the 1916 labor conflict on Everett’s waterfront.
While Dale has done other murals – among them a gymnasium wall and a bus stop – the Everett wall differs from her customary work in both size and medium. The massive size and rough surface make the project a challenging departure for the artist, who works mostly in watercolors.
A Montana native, Dale taught art in that state for 20 years. She’s a member of the Northwest Watercolor Society and the American Watercolor Society, with work currently on show at the Wallingford Center in Seattle. Much of it captures the essence of the Northwest through images of water and fish.
Bright and bold, Everett’s mural is meant to be seen from a distance. Even unfinished, it’s attracting plenty of attention.
“People honk and wave at her all day long,” Powell said.
Out on a cool, gray morning, Dale pronounced it “perfect painting weather. As long as it isn’t raining, the conditions are good.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@ heraldnet.com
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Sharon Dale is creating a mural depicting Everett’s history on a wall in the 3900 block of Colby Avenue.
