Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets the Graves Hansen treatment in the Admiral District
Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets the Graves Hansen treatment in the Admiral District
Graves Hansen works on his portrait of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Hansen has made it his mission to custom paint blank traffic signal boxes around the city, with many in West Seattle, to "brighten the neighborhood," all on his own initiative. He has a fundraiser underway to support the effort.
Photo by Clay Eals
Mon, 11/02/2020
West Seattle artist Graves Hansen has been reminding people about the best of us for some time now. Through the simple, memorable and highly visible act of painting portraits of well known people on otherwise blank traffic signal boxes he keeps memories alive, promotes what they have represented, and honors them. It's because his art is so public, so unexpected that it always striking and a reminder to stay engaged in the world. But he is not getting paid for this work.
He does it for free.
So far he has honored such diverse figures as Paul Allen, Ray Charles, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Nikola Tesla and Chuck Berry. But among his more recognized was a recent painting of George Floyd, who died at the hands of Police in Milwaukee WI.
Perhaps inevitably he has just turned his attention to a beloved figure and cultural icon for many, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It's located on the Northwest corner of Calfornia Ave. SW and SW Walker streets.
Graves Hansen paintings honoring musicians and cultural icons.
It's gotten a lot of praise online with many offering congratulations and planning to see it in person.
For Hansen it's all in a days work. Which means he need support to keep going. To that end he has a $10,000 goal in a Facebook hosted Fundraiser. So far he's a little over $3000 toward his goal.
Hansen said on that page:
"For the past two and a half years I have been painting unique original portrait paintings on traffic signal boxes located through out Seattle. Even literally in the middle of a Pandemic, Protests, Riots I am happy to say that I was able to keep painting public art murals. This has been mainly funded by a previous go fund me campaign titled "BRIGHTEN UP SEATTLES INTERSECTIONS" that I created as well as a Facebook fundraiser and it ended up raising a little over 12k which allowed me to obtain permits and supplies for a little over 40 boxes to be hand painted.
I'm extremely happy about that and now, after high demand I am on to part two of this mission to keep painting these iconic figures so every intersection possible can have some beauty and historical significance. So every boring wait at a red light can have sentimental value and over all extra vibrancy that it would usually be missing.
So, here we are preparing to move into winter and even in this pandemic I am more than happy to be outside painting every chance I get. Even with it raining I am able to use a pop up tent to keep the colors flying. Thank you in advance to anyone who contributes as well as to anyone who shares this on their social media platforms also.
Its thanks to you that I am able to spread the idea of what I am doing. I plan to personally get to know as many intersections of Seattle AND other city's as possible. If you contribute to this cause I also welcome you to throw in the hat the names of new people, animals or locations to possibly paint and obtain permits for...
Thank you kindly for your support."
Comments
Such a beautiful blessing…
Such a beautiful blessing you are to take this protect under your wing. Your portraits are more than words can express and have brought me happy thoughts of not only the people you portray but of the person that has willingly decided to bring others joy, and that is you. You are an incredibly gifted artist who has used your gift to Enlighten the lives of your community. Thank you and May God richly bless you.❤️
This just makes my heart happy! West Seattle has truly a LOVE that just comes naturally. Just do GooD and favor will find you!