Year of the Fire Horse

 

2/27/26 Fire Horse at Southcenter Mall, Tukwila

I hadn’t done any sketches for Lunar New Year yet this year, so I was especially looking forward to the USk outing at Southcenter Mall, which puts out festive decorations annually. The spectacular focal piece was again the 25-foot dragon, which I sketched for the first time a couple of years ago.

I knew I’d get around to the dragon eventually, but I started with a new piece for the Year of the Fire Horse (above). Although I could have chosen from several different angles, the horse’s butt end gave me an interesting view. Ultimately, I regretted not using a larger sketchbook, as this symbol of speed and high energy seemed a little cramped in my square composition.

Since I’d sketched the dragon from the floor level previously, this time I went up to the second level for an overhead view. I spotted Mark sketching from the floor below, so I put him in, looking like he’d been scooped up by the dragon (at right). Unbeknownst to me until the throwdown, Mark had spotted me too, so I made a similar cameo appearance in his sketch (below)! (This is one of many things that make Urban Sketchers outings so much fun!)

Sketch by Mark Ryan (detail)

Fire Horse

Sketchers from 4 local groups met at Southcenter Mall to sketch the massive Lunar New Year Dragon. It's been there for the past 3 years. However, new this year is a horse statue for this year's Chinese Zodiac animal, the Fire Horse.

Artists from USk Seattle, USk Tacoma, the Eastside subsection of USk Seattle, and the South Sound Sketchers from Olympia all convened.

Since I've sketched that dragon at least 4 times over 3 years, I elected to sketch the horse. I still have motor memory for horse confirmation from having drawn so many when I was young! This was a multicolored horse, covered in quilling designs. Paper quilling is the art of rolling, shaping, and gluing narrow, colorful paper strips to create intricate designs It is also made of foam.

In 2024 I'd spoken with Kate Z, the marketing manager and learned that the the dragon was made for a SF company in Shanghi. It's made of steel and foam, weighing 500 pounds. The Wishing tree is concrete, steel, and foam, weighing 750 pounds! The staff member I spoke with today said the horse only weighs about 70 pounds and is easily tipped over. Hence the four posted frame around it for protection.

Central Library, Inside and Out

 

2/25/26 Seattle Central Library, 10th floor

Seattle Central Library is a handy location for winter USk outings: Spectacular (and challenging) floor-to-ceiling windows that offer good light to most interior spaces, plentiful seating and tables on every floor, and an onsite coffee shop. If weather permits, we also have the super-glassy, geometrically crazy library building itself.

Last Wednesday I decided to warm up with an interior sketch from the 10^th floor (top of post). Although I was too lazy to draw the whole building that I could see through the diagonally girded windows, I was intrigued by the transparent pyramid on top (or maybe behind it?). I have not yet been able to find the name of the building.

After a lunch break, the afternoon warmed up a bit, so I braved the cold to find an angle on the library from Fifth and Madison (below). This is the same corner I attempted back in 2021, and it was no less challenging this time.

Library from the corner of 5th and Madison

Back inside with only a short time before the throwdown, I warmed up with coffee and sketched a row of library patrons seated next to those crazily girded windows again. Although perspective on the building exterior was daunting, I enjoyed the much less formidable perspective challenge of seated, mostly still people.

Wintergrass 2026

We are back to making an annual visit to the Wintergrass Bluegrass festival in Bellevue. There are always lots of musicians to sketch while they jam together in the halls.

Several sketchers gather around a jam session.

There were a lot of sketchers.

Still Sketchin’ the Jammin’ at Wintergrass

 

2/21/26 Wintergrass at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency

Wintergrass, the region’s annual bluegrass festival, has long been a favorite of USk Seattle and certainly of mine. In the past, we’ve always avoided attending on the weekends, expecting that the crowds would make sketching difficult. To avoid our greater nemesis lately – the I-5 construction mess worsening commute-time congestion – we decided to give it a try on Saturday this year. To our delight, the crowds didn’t feel constrained or overwhelming at all. I enjoyed the enthusiasm of jammers and spectators alike.

It’s especially fun to see impromptu jam sessions break out among small groups of friends and even strangers. I had assumed that most of the gatherings of guitar, fiddle and mandolin players were friends, but I overheard strangers introducing themselves even as they played tunes together. I always think of it as parallel to Urban Sketchers: people who come together with their common passion to form an instant community.

At the trade show area, several massage therapists offered musicians their services.

In addition to all the musicians I sketched, my favorite subject was a huge, white Great Pyrenees (misspelled in my sketch captions) who kept walking into my sketches like a polar bear! He looked very sweet, and I was told that he attends every year.

Retro Furniture at US Bank Center

 

2/14/26 US Bank Center

Last winter’s outing at US Bank Center was so popular that we knew it would become a USk mainstay during the cold months. Great coffee and pastries from Olympia Coffee and comfy seating on three levels make it ideal for capturing intriguing interiors and people.

Last year I sketched mostly the window views from the third level and people on the mezzanine, so this time I tried something entirely different. The third floor is furnished and decorated in a retro style with unusual lighting fixtures that attracted several other sketchers, too. Somewhat inspired by the color scheme, I also took some liberties. It was fun to focus on the furnishings as if they were a giant still life.

That sketch took longer than I usually spend on a single sketch; I was hungry by the time I finished. Taking my snack to the mezzanine level, I sketched other sketchers until it was time for the throwdown.

The Collective Joy of Super Bowl

 

2/8/26 Pre-game snacking and sketching at Project 9 Brewing Co., Maple Leaf neighborhood

I have an unusual perspective on the Super Bowl game that captured the country’s (and especially Seattle’s) attention last Sunday: It was my first time watching one.

An hour before I was to leave for the game, I realized
I couldn't go to a sports bar on Super Bowl
Sunday without wearing Seahawks gear!
Thankfully, my neighbor across the street had
exactly what I needed.

It’s probably stating the obvious to say that I have no interest in any sports, nor have I ever. In fact, when I was in college, I used to feel resentful that sports received so much funding and attention while liberal arts programs were barely hanging on. Over the years, my attitude mellowed to basic indifference, and I note the date of the Super Bowl only to take advantage of empty stores and light traffic.

As I’ve grown older, my lack of interest in sports has not changed, but I’ve learned to appreciate the bonding mechanism that sports provide in our culture. Beginning with a Mariners game I watched last fall, I realized that I could observe fandom energy the way an anthropologist studies a culture – with sketchbook in hand.

I invited Ching and Natalie to join me at Project 9 Brewing Co., my neighborhood brew pub, to watch and sketch the big game. Arriving early enough to find seats in the huge venue, we found an ideal table: It was at a bad angle from the TV screens, so it would not appeal to most patrons, but we could face Seahawks fans without their noticing us sketching them!

For a different viewpoint, I sometimes walked out to the entirely empty heated patio where no screens could be seen, but I could sketch other patrons easily.

In general, I didn’t understand what was going on (though Natalie tried her best to explain the rules to me), but it was fun to observe the explosive exclamations of joy or disappointment with each score or fumble. (The three of us left after half time, so I missed the final triumph. It must have been an ear-shattering roar, but I appreciated it from a distance when I heard fireworks in the neighborhood.)

Aside from the game, I was moved by the significance of the primary half-time entertainer, the Puerto Rican performer known as Bad Bunny, who sang entirely in Spanish (apparently a historic first at the Super Bowl). During the past year when all immigrants, especially Spanish speakers, have been oppressed and tortured, I hope we all heard the message of Bad Bunny’s exuberant, proud performance: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Even without being a Seahawks fan, I appreciate the collective joy and celebration that the team’s triumph gave Seattle. This year, we needed this, more than ever.

Volunteer Park Conservatory and Seattle Asian Art Museum

Another great meet-up of USkSeattle urban sketchers. Some of us went in the Asian Art Museum, some hung out with the plants in the Conservatory, and some relished being outside on this unusually warm sunshiney day.

Great work, everyone! Thanks for joining us!