Boots, But No Hat

5/10/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers, Canson XL paper

When I had heard that the Seattle Urban Sketchers’ May outing was going to be in Georgetown, I was disappointed because I knew I would be missing it that day, and Georgetown is so much fun to sketch. Nearly two years ago, only a few months after I had started sketching with the group, we met in Georgetown, and I spent the whole time sketching at the funky Trailer Park Mall. Georgetown is full of such oddities.

We don’t usually find ourselves in the historic south Seattle neighborhood, but serendipitously, we had an errand today that brought us there, so I decided to get a quick Georgetown sketching fix. The legendary Hat ‘n’ Boots once marked a popular gas station. (Even Elvis supposedly visited when he was in town for the ’62 World’s Fair.) By the late ‘80s, the by-then shabby landmark was going to be torn down, but the Georgetown community rallied to save and renovate the old hat and boots. Along with a small playground, they are now the main attraction at Oxbow Park.

The bright orange hat is so big that I would have had to stand across the street to get it into the same composition, and I knew it would take longer to make a sketch. The gray, ominous clouds looked like they might bust open with rain at any moment, so I settled for just the boots. Fortuitously, a man and his dog hopped up on a boot to pose for a photo just when I needed them to.

Photos by Greg Mullin