More of the Mural: Cats and Dogs

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 31, 2011

Mural by Jo Brown behind the Sears Store

Today's post features cats and one wary dog on the mural behind the Sears store on the River Walk.

 

I thought I'd feature this cat watching the rain on a day when Weather Underground tells us, "...A return to a more active weather pattern over southwest Washington and northwest Oregon has begun and will continue through most of next week...After a relatively benign weather period that has lulled the area in[to] Tranquility...mother nature will shake things up again." They're talking about wind and rain, nothing "cat"astrophic, and nothing unusual, but I know a lot of us have enjoyed the sun and blue skies recently.

What do you imagine this cat is thinking about the rain?

By the way, if you like animals, I invite you to visit one of my other blogs, "Animal Art Along the Way." It's become quite a fun and interesting collection of animals depicted in many guises. Today's post is quite commercial, but these animals come from all over the world and in many unique forms. You can sign up to get the posts delivered by e-mail, too. Thanks for visiting!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

More of the Mural: Stories in Paint

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 31, 2011

Mural by Jo Brown behind the Sears Store

Here is another section of the mural that takes up the entire back of the Sears store on the River Walk. Jo has painted historic sign names on a number of buildings around Astoria in a similar fashion to the lettering above. I think it says, "Mason Furman & Co." Click on the keywords below to see more sections of the mural. For "before" pictures of this building and for more of Jo's work, see Jo Brown's web site.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

More of the Mural: The Real and the Unreal

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 31, 2011
Mural by Jo Brown behind the Sears Store

Here is another section of the mural that takes up the entire back of the Sears store on the River Walk. In this segment, the three-dimensional architectural elements play hide and seek with the viewer. Again, the pilings there are part of the artwork. The woman with the fish on the left of today's post can be seen on the right side of yesterday's post. For "before" pictures of this building and for more of Jo's work, see Jo Brown's web site. Also click on the keywords below for more of her work on this blog.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Trompe l'oeil on the River Walk

Astoria, Oregon ~ January 31, 2011

Mural by Jo Brown behind the Sears Store

This delightful period piece trompe l'oeil ("deceive-the-eye") mural has been an Astoria landmark for a number of years now. This is only a piece. It takes up the entire back of the Sears store on the River Walk. The reason for the odd angle, and probably the reason I haven't done more with it, is because there are always real trucks here unloading and trucks, cars, and SUVs parked in front of it. By the way, the pilings there are part of the artwork. I expect to post more scenes from it over the next few days. You can also see the "before" pictures and more of the images on Jo Brown's web site. Also click on the keywords below for more of her work on this blog.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Three Dumpsters

February 11, 2010

These three dumpsters sit at the entrance to Doc's on 12th Street. The one that looks like wood is not. It's been skillfully painted to look like wood. I believe the artist is Jo Brown, whose murals I've shown in earlier posts, and who painted an outstanding mural on the back of the Sears store across from this dumpster. To the left of the dumpster is the River Walk, and to the right is the bank of the Columbia River. The red-topped cans are for recycling.

There was a famous Astoria painted dumpster at the 6th Street Pier when I arrived here in 2001, but it's gone now. It was a fanciful painting by Diane Beeston showing sea creatures and a dancing octopus. I have a photo somewhere and will post it when I find it.

For those who asked about the rooftop garden mural, yes, it is a mural. There are a number of roof-level murals in Astoria, and I'll get their photos taken one of these days :)

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

What Remains

These charming sisters (see Midnight Mike's comment to this post for details) painted by Jo Brown remain on the door at the TLC Federal Credit Union, 85 W. Marine Drive, next door to the Mini Mart.

Here you can see them in situ, peering incongruously out of the sterile modern doorway. (The "badge" is actually part of the door.)

This bare wall on the west side of the building has replaced the creative and historically/culturally-interesting mural, also by Jo Brown, that used to be here. If you follow the link, you can see more than half of the mural, and you can use the teller window as a reference point. Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the whole thing before it was eradicated, but it stretched the length of the building. Was new siding really more important that preserving this pleasing bit of Astoriana?

On the right side of photo, you can see how the houses climb up the hill above Bond Street. There was a landslide here four years ago, and one of these days I'll show you what it looks like. I lived half a block away at the time.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Part of the Sears building mural

There are a lot of murals in Astoria that are appreciated by the buildings' owners and have not been covered over as the mural on the TLC Credit Union was recently. I took this photo the other day of the back of the Sears building along the River Walk. The loading door you see here is not real - the real one is to the left, and there's a lot more of the mural to the left also. As in the TLC mural, the artist is Joanne (Jo) Lumpkin Brown, and I found Jo Brown's web site here. Follow the link to Murals & Signs, and you'll see the Sears building and other murals with before and after photos. Interestingly, the name painted on the building is not Sears, but Mason, Furman & Co., which I believe was an old business no longer operating in Astoria. There are a number of buildings around town that retain the old names in their historic guise. The details on this mural are fun, and I'll include more in later postings. The white van on the right belongs to the Wet Dog Cafe and Brewing Company, which starts where Sears ends. It's a popular locale for dining, snacking, and drinking indoors or outside with a view of the river, for bands, the Fisher Poets' Gathering, and other events.

This post is my submission for Scenic Sunday. Not only is it nice to look at this scene from an earlier era, but Jo is a scene painter, so the focus here is definitely on scenes of various types!

A landmark disappears

This was one of Astoria's newer landmarks, painted in the summer of 2002, but it disappeared last Saturday. I'd intended to go back and get a better photo "soon," but as Lee and I drove past the building on which this mural was painted, we saw the artwork being swallowed up under new siding material! It was painted by Jo Brown and her assistants to represent some of Astoria's historic features along with local wildlife. Astoria has a number of murals still in place, some of them done by Jo, who has lived in Astoria, but also worked in Hollywood as a scene painter. (I saw her name on a film credit just this week, but I don't remember which film.) Painted on the side of the TLC Credit Union, the mural was most visible from Marine Drive and the parking lot of the mini-mart and gas station. You can see the back of a vehicle parked in front of the painted boat on the right and a teller window for the credit union on the left. A huge feature, the five-cent trolley, can't be seen in this photo, but fortunately I found another online image of the entire mural in a "waymarking" photo. If you've never hear of waymarking, it's an interesting pheonomenon I learned about this year. I don't participate (I do post many of my location photos to Panoramio/Google Earth), but briefly, waymarking is done by individuals who digitally preserve landmarks all over the world, along with their locations on a map.

I especially like the horses in this photo. I showed another image of horse seining on the Maritime Memorial. You'll have to click the photo and look on the right side. As in the mural, the man guides two horses. This was done in the shallow water near sand bars and islands in the Columbia. A huge net is attached to the land at one end. The horses pull the other end of the net through the water and mud, scooping up salmon by the hundreds. It was an efficient way to catch fish, but it also helped deplete the number of fish in the river. There are other issues and fishing methods that deplete the salmon, and I won't take the time to study it, but briefly, we have a lot of sea lions who eat tons of salmon per year. Their natural enemies, the orcas, are virtually gone from this location, and the sea lions cause great havoc among the salmon population. Most of us love to watch the local sea lions, although there are those who shoot them on sight. This is a whole story in itself. But it all comes into the issue of the balances between man and nature - or I should probably say nature, nature, and man. I wonder how complex that balance really is, as it can be affected by so many things, not all of which are man-made. Locally, one manifestation of the balance issue is that there was some question about whether there would be enough salmon in the river this year to open a spring salmon fishing season. If not, I believe this would be a first.

Check out "green" thoughts and photos at Think Green Thursday.

Back to the original intent. I just wanted to post a photo of this mural - now another of Astoria's memories.

What's one of the vanished landmarks you'd like to see come back to your city? Or maybe one that you're glad is gone!