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Vote on designs for four new Capitol Hill murals from E Olive Way to 15th Ave E

27_agular_howell-1024x602A project to add new murals to four Capitol Hill buildings is moving forward with a round of community voting on artist-submitted designs. The Seattle Mural Project announced its search for submissions in March.

SMP-LOGO-2014 (2)Voting can be completed by clicking the linked location names below or starting here. You’ll also want to make sure to view the slideshows on the voting site:

It is very important that you also take the time to review the portfolio slideshow for the submitted designs. Some of the designs are fully realized while others are more of a conceptual sketch. By reviewing the portfolio images, you can see more clearly what the artist is intending.

Artists selected to participate will be awarded $3,000 in compensation upon completion of their murals thanks to the city’s Neighborhood Matching Fund. “The muralists will also be provided all of the paint and equipment they need to complete their vision thanks to the generous contributions of Miller Paint and Art Primo who both stepped up to generously sponsor the event,” according to the Seattle Mural Project organizers.

Links to the location voting pages with all submissions and design highlights culled by CHS are below. On the voting pages you’ll find even more ideas from around the world for how to add even more color to the Hill. Organizers say voting closes May 31st.

Shop Rite  — 426 15th Ave E  on the north facing wall (65 feet x 30 feet) VOTE HEREScreen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.36.19 PM Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.15.04 PM

Olive Terrace Apartments — 430 E Howell VOTE HERE

Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.41.52 PM Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 5.23.57 PM

Pike Building — 1000 E Pike on the east facing wall (90 feet x 45 feet) VOTE HERE

Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.44.12 PM
Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.23.14 PM

Union Arts Cooperative — 1100 E Union on the north facing wall (125 feet x 80 feet) VOTE HEREScreen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.47.01 PM

Screen Shot 2014-05-29 at 7.28.36 PM

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mural by committee
mural by committee
9 years ago

Bless these people and their murals, but this process is insane! Call us when you narrow down the choice set. Way too many proposals to view, advise to view the full portfolios (?!), and “voting” that takes the form of 20 questions about each submission. I love a good mural as much as the next person, but I don’t see the path forward to a decision. I had been excited to weigh in, but nuts to that. Maybe the project organizers could have been more judicious about what they hoped from this excruciating approach.

I’ll take the celestial murals, please. Pass on the creepy and horrifying cartoons. Good luck and please don’t ruin our neighborhood with some of these hideous submissions.

drewcoll
drewcoll
9 years ago

Totally agree! Who thought this was a good idea?

Too many options, too many duplicates. How many MB of images are here? You have to have high speed internet and a lot of time to load and look.

Maybe instead of a poll of every single submission, you should consider a review board of neighbors and artists. The choices are going to be downright awful if they just take the answers from the poll.

Maarten
Maarten
9 years ago

Agreed, the voting process is super frustrating. I looked for a way to contact the organizers on their website, and didn’t find anything.

I could understand that they may have looked for a way to avoid easy ballot-stuffing, but it’s hard to understand how they thought that this was an appropriate way to solicit neighborhood input.

oliveoyl
oliveoyl
9 years ago

OMG .. what a stupid process … there should be no more than 3 to select from for each site, if there has to be public selection at all.

MyAdderallWoreOff
MyAdderallWoreOff
9 years ago

I like that the public is invited to be involved in the selection process, but no way can I get through commenting on all the submissions. The question regarding keeping the mural clean from graffiti – I have no idea how to make that assessment . I did enjoy perusing the list though. Pez caught my attention with his penchant for the whimsical. Some of the choices are pretty dark and depressing. Seems they could have done a better job of making a smaller pool to choose from.

Dod
Dod
9 years ago

I completely agree with the comments above.

In addition to not having a lot of knowledge about options are better for graffiti removal I have no idea about the local or national popularity of individual artists. I’d add that it was disappointing to see the exact same design in multiple locations. It would have also helped to see a context photo at the top of each option showing the proposed location (probably not too late to add that to the survey for those about to take the survey). I made it through as many of the options as I could bare. The way it was put together will probably sway the outcome, but there were some really creative proposals in the mix.

calhoun
9 years ago

I agree with the above comments…the so-called “voting” is very confusing and time-consuming, and apparently requires one to answer some questions about each submission before “voting.” I gave up.

It really would be better for a small committee of artists and other community members to make these decisions. I hope to god that the project managers will not use the results of “voting” to do this…if so, we’ll end up with some ugly, inappropriate murals. But I’m optimistic that, in the end, these murals will be a great addition to the neighborhood.

As far as graffiti potential, I hope that these works of art will be left alone. That is what has happened, fortunately, with the art “wrappings” of the electrical boxes on Broadway…..it seems that graffiti vandals actually have some respect for works of art, if nothing else.

Catherine Hillenbrand
Catherine Hillenbrand
9 years ago

Justin, thanks for trying to make this process make a bit more sense by images on your post. I wanted to vote a few days ago, but don’t have the time to wade through the process. I am impressed by the breadth of submissions from around the world and the quality of the work, regardless of the asethetic. Seattle Mural Project – you’re asking too much of folks here, but you’ve done a great job of getting submissions. Can you narrow it down and kickoff a new voting process?

Andrew Taylor
9 years ago

Murals and graffiti: Graffiti artists seem to respect murals.
The Fratelli’s cows mural at 19th & Madison was never tagged while the Fratelli’s building was active. The smaller cow mural on the Madison Street side of the new building at that location has not been tagged during its 2 (?) years there.

RainWorshipper
RainWorshipper
9 years ago

Some lovely choices. Sadly graffiti people don’t always respect art. There is a nice mural on the wall by Broadway and Madison that has been tagged and mainly spray painted over. Very sad.

Bill
Bill
9 years ago

I was hoping for something more like what they do to railroad cars.

T
T
9 years ago

Whoa. I really want to give feedback and have a voice, as some of these proposals are incredible and would really enhance the neighborhood, and some are going to stick out like that swirly “art” on that building in Fremont. How am I supposed to know how well these artists are known inside or outside of Seattle, though? For crying out loud, someone save this voting process before it is too late.

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[…] Hill murals: There are lots of good design for new murals to line Olive Way to 15th Ave E. The good news here is that you can help vote on […]

jac
jac
9 years ago

Maybe this is why the voting process is so fucking terrible: “the time you spent voting counts toward our volunteer hours for the city grant.” http://www.seattlemuralproject.org/i-voted/

cracked the code!
cracked the code!
9 years ago
Reply to  jac

scandal! thanks for finding this. not sure whether to be amused or horrified that purposefully wasting our time was considered an in-kind match for the grant. they should count time carping on blog comments as match, too!