If you have wandered across Capitol Hill, Columbia City, Seward Park, or even Los Angeles, you may have spotted them — colorful, CD-studded dragon faces grinning from telephone poles, their reflective surfaces glinting in the sunlight. Emerging from the imagination of the pseudonymous Sea DragonSSS, these sculptures carry the mystery of their creator with backstories involving time travel that are as deliberately obscure as the artist himself.
The artist — who goes by Eddie after his signature dragon character — shared with CHS the story behind his decade-long journey from obscure noise musician to guerrilla sculptor, his installation mishaps, and his ambitious plans to bring his time traveling dragon universe to life through animation.
FROM FAILED MUSICIAN TO STREET ARTIST: THE UNLIKELY ORIGINS OF SEA DRAGONSSS
Long before dragons adorned Seattle’s streets, Sea DragonSSS was a struggling experimental artist.
“I started as a musician. Was playing music in the 90s, mostly noise, not very popular stuff. Got some grants along the way to put out CDs. I also was a filmmaker too. CDs and DVDs of my work, none of them sold. Well, I shouldn’t say none of them, but not very many of them.”
Faced with boxes of unsold discs, he saw an opportunity.
“About 10 years ago, 2014, just ad hoc, [I decided] to turn what I had into a mobile sculpture, only four of them in the initial batch.”
Those first four installations—near Seward Park, a dog park on Genesee, Blick Art Materials on Pine Street, and a park in South Seattle—met varying fates.
“The very first one in Seward Park stayed up quite a while. I found one by the park torn down and thrown in a dumpster with a bag of dog shit on top of it. And then the one at Blick. It was two pieces, and it looked, after about a week, that some drunk people had swung off of the lower piece and fallen and broke the thing in half.”
THE BIRTH OF EDDIE AND THE TIME-TRAVELING DRAGON MYTHOS
The early sculptures were abstract, inspired by Alexander Calder’s mobiles—but with a psychedelic twist.
“The very first ones I was going for Calder on acid, with bright colors and some reflective CDs and stuff like that on it.”
But everything changed when he installed a piece outside Dick’s Drive-In on Broadway.
” I put one up in front of the Dicks on Broadway. And I was like, oh, you know that should have a mouth and stuff like that. And so that one of the more figurative ones that I put up.”
From there, a full narrative emerged. The sculptures became characters: Eddie, the nerdy protagonist; Queen Angeline, a wise elder dragon; Prince Andy and Prince Alexander and the villainous King Dotard, who sits atop a golden throne.
“Eddie, who’s kind of the nerd. He wouldn’t really be the narrator. He’s kind of like, you’re the principal character, but he’s a time traveling dragon that can’t time travel. But then we’ve got, Queen Angeline, who’s kind of like the elder figure, who recruits a couple of these princes, Prince Andy and Prince Alexander who were bestowed time traveling capabilities to save the world from the Evil King Gotard.”
NEAR-DISASTERS AND A BROKEN ARM: THE RISKS OF STREET ART
Installing sculptures on utility poles isn’t easy — or safe.
“I wasn’t using a very good ladder. I had borrowed a, essentially a broken eight foot ladder from a friend… Got up to that very top step that says this is not a step, you know. And I’ve done that many, many times before and even gotten to my tippy toes. Probably never should have done that one, though… Lost my concentration. Fell over, and, you know, bam, hit the pavement pretty hard.”
The result? A broken arm and a stern agreement with his family.
“I had to make an agreement with my family that, you know, because they they woke up that morning at 7am to a very long text from me. ‘Hi, I’m in the ER, I’m parked in a no parking zone, if you can get here before 8am then I won’t get towed. I’m all right. I’ll probably need a ride home too.”
FROM SEATTLE TO LA: WHERE DO DRAGONS THRIVE?
While Seattle’s rain limits installations, Los Angeles has become an unexpected second home for his work.
“Seattle being the relative size that it was… I’m effectively shut down from November through March. You know, it’s just, you know, the weather just kind of puts a big damper on it. So, you know, it was opportunity in the winter to go there… LA, you’ve got lots of sun, um, they also have lots of wooden poles… it’s kind of anything goes, as far as people just throw junk around everywhere there. Putting this up is actually, you know, beautifying.”
WHAT’S NEXT? ANIMATION, MERCH, AND A PLEA TO SEATTLE
Sea DragonSSS is expanding beyond street poles. He’s animating the characters for short videos and has even formed a company to represent the work.
“I’ve done some proof of concept of animating these… we’ll introduce the characters in just short form, tick tock videos… I formed an LLC beginning of January, yeah, for the purpose to sell some merch.”
But his biggest hope? That Seattle continues to embrace his creations—legally.
“Public statements of support could be cool… if you look at Seattle Municipal Code, what I’m doing is totally legal. I’d like that that stays legal in Seattle.”
You can learn more and follow the story at seadragonsss.com.
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I always love spotting these creatures around the city (and beyond).
I like spotting them, some are in First Hill too.
I’ve always liked these. I moved to LA this year and was shocked and delighted to come across one in my new neighborhood. Helped with the homesickness for sure. Thanks, artist!
Love this guy’s art! There was a really cool grandfather clock piece in Columbia City for a while, not sure if it’s still there but it was amazing!
I’ve always loved seeing these in my Beacon Hill neighborhood–thanks for the great info on the back story.
Thanks for tracking this creator down, I’ve always been so curious, they are such a delight!
Also, ladder safety is important y’all!
I like art, but this is so tacky. Does it have to be everywhere I turn and look? It’s such an eyesore at this point. Every time I see a new one I gag. Left over early 90’s garbage? Yeah let’s throw it down everyone’s throats for years to come. Just my thoughts.
I think you’re the first person I’ve heard that doesn’t like them, perhaps it’s you that’s tacky? It’s upcycled art with fun colors and hung in random spots all over the city, generally from very utilitarian places like light poles. How are they thrown down your throat, exactly? It’s so much easier to critique something than actually make something yourself, if it really bothers you work on something you like or focus your attention elsewhere. Either way, I think you need to look inward at why random acts of quirky art bother you so much to the point you needed to make it known in the comments of an article celebrating it from a blog from a neighborhood known for public displays of quirky art.
I don’t particularly like them either. I don’t feel as strongly about them as the OP but everyone has their own take on what they consider art and the art that they like. Your comment makes it sound like nobody, anywhere should have their own opinion about, or critique of, art.
Maybe it’s YOU that should be looking inward as to why one person’s comment regarding art they don’t particularly enjoy bothers you so much that you had to comment about it. It’s their opinion. They even wrote as much in their comment. Let them have it.
Opinions are fine, but art critiques are largely just gatekeeping from elites. It’s easy to put something down and much harder to actually create something, we do a really bad job as a society of uplifting others…
Totally fine to not enjoy these, I never said as such, but it’s odd to have to point it out in an article celebrating them, and then to goes as far as to say they are being shoved down their throat feels incredibly extreme and unnecessary, but I guess the art is making them feel things.
I’ve heard many people say how much they like these and how much joy they bring them. If they don’t bring you joy, guess what, they aren’t for you and neither is this article. Why does everything have to be pleasing to certain people and why do they have to let us all know when it isn’t? For most of these folks, I find there’s very few things they enjoy and they just tend to put down everything else to make themselves feel better. That’s really antisocial behavior that’s ruinous to society. We need more “yes, and” mentality and less of this odd aesthetic gatekeeping around everything in our society.
I guess we differ on what’s a critique and what’s an opinion. I think the OP’s comment is their opinion. And why post it? Well, it’s a free country still (for now) and this is a blog on the open internet. It’s not just for head nodders and those who agree with the content.
Besides, there are plenty of comments here uplifting this blog post, which itself is uplifting the artist. One dissenting comment doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me nor do I see how it’s at all gatekeeping. Trying to tell someone that they shouldn’t post their opposing opinion on an article seems like gatekeeping. But, again, I guess we differ on this point.
I think we agree that this was not a critique, just criticism… Calling something a “tacky” “eyesore” that makes them “gag” when they see one is just unhelpful rudeness to make themselves feel better. There’s plenty to critique in the world, and plenty that makes me want to gag, none of it related to someone creating community art. What is the value in putting this down, particularly when the artist has specifically asked for statements of support?
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, this notion of always needing two sides or playing devils advocate is ludicrous, just because there’s a lot of support here it’s okay to be rude. Even if one was compelled to say they dislike them, there’s plenty of ways to do it, this one just made me gag.
I know at least a handful of people who also don’t like these, myself included. It’s fine for people to not like things. This is up there with Henry’s work.
How is small-scale sculptural art hanging 5′ above most folks’ heads “throwing it down everyone’s throats” exactly
Girl, sit down.
She gone cray fer real
I lived in Cap Hill for 30 years and use to take pictures of your hanging art💕
I love your art
I first saw one of these many years ago, and have always thought the city was responsible, kind of like the murals and other public art? Does the city not actually do any of this, is it all totally independent awesome artists?? I don’t love living here anymore, but one thing I still appreciate is the amount of public art in and around Seattle. In my opinion there couldn’t be enough public art, especially with modern times being as disgusting as they are here. I can’t breathe for the smell of urine, but I can look up and marvel at the unique creations dangling above!