Pictured in black and red shirt in 1996, Earl Cruzen was key in getting the “Children Walking On Logs” sculptures placed on the Fauntleroy Freeway hillside. The surrounding landscaping needs attention, and the sculptures have bits of tape on them from people hanging T-shirts. Also pictured (left to right) are Dick Sever, David Cuchler behind Cruzen and Norm Christianson.
West Seattle would not look the same without Alki resident Earl Cruzen. He is the man behind 11 murals including “The Hi-Yu Parade” affixed to the post office’s south wall, and “The Mosquito Boat Landing” on the building on the northeast corner of the Junction.
His “12th mural,” as some call it, is the sculpture collection, “Children Walking on Logs,” along the west side of the Fauntleroy Freeway. The term was coined because the original intent was to place a free-standing mural where the sculpture is, but many signed a petition against what they feared would be an unattractive billboard.
“Children Walking on Logs" was dedicated Oct. 5, 1996, and, unlike the murals that need repainting and touching up over the course of many years, the landscaping around the sculptures needs constant care. Cruzen said he has attended to that care for more than a decade but cannot manage the chore anymore.
“I’m 88 years old, and out of gas you might say,” said Cruzen, who still seems quite agile and alert, but did suffer a stroke a few months ago.
“I can’t climb around the hillside,” he continued. “I have to watch myself I don’t fall, so I am giving up what I’ve been doing 12 years, weeding, cultivation, maintaining the gate up above the sculptures, fighting horsetails and blackberry bushes. In the summer it requires care at least twice every month. It needs an irrigation system.
“In the winter the water runs right down through the hillside. It’s a muddy mess. Summer dries the hillside up and then nothing can grow. We’ll put in 100 daffodils, and the next year we’ll see four. Tulips, the same.”
One solution Cruzen offers is to transport the sculptures to a more accessible spot, perhaps along Alki. But he sees public backlash on this idea.
“Stan Lock (Neighborhood District Coordinator) is helping organize groups,” said Cruzen. “That’s fine but it is not a solution if it’s just a one-shot deal. You need somebody who watches it all the time. I still feel the only way to solve it is to move them down here (to Alki.) Right now people are so gung ho with them in that location.”
To contact Earl Cruzen call (206) 932-2345.
