Ace Garden Center

 

3/2/25 Ace Hardware's new garden center

Probably the Maple Leaf business that Greg and I patronized most regularly in our nearly four decades of living here was Reckless Video, where we rented movies every weekend. Formerly a house, the building remained empty after Reckless closed a few years ago. The family that owns the adjacent Ace Hardware store (which we’ve also patronized the whole time we’ve lived here) also owns the Reckless property. They tried to find ways to use the existing building as an extension of the store, but it didn’t work out.

I was sad to see the old building come down; its traditional architectural style is so emblematic of Maple Leaf. The good news, however, is that Ace has decided to use the space as a garden center that will open this spring. Although I’m unlikely to shop there (Me, garden?? I can barely keep a house plant alive), it might have colorful flowers to sketch someday. More important, it means that a family-owned neighborhood business is thriving and growing.

The Helpful Hardware Store

 

1/4/25 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware 

The Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store, which I have sketched many times over the years, is a quintessential neighborhood store. Although the family-owned franchise changed ownership a few years ago, some staff people have been working there almost as long as I’ve been going there (35-plus years). Greg used to be the one who did most of our shopping there, but now it’s my go-to, too, when I need the one random thing to finish a task. It’s the kind of place where I can walk in, say, “I need those stick-on things that you put on the ottoman feet to keep them from scratching the floor and also to keep it from sliding – do you have those?” And they walk you to the right aisle. I could never, ever get that kind of service at Home Depot (let alone Amazon).

Walking up to Ace to pick up the quart of custom-mixed paint I had ordered the previous day, I stopped first to make this sketch. The store was still decked out in holiday lights and a huge lighted wreath. Long live neighborhood hardware stores.

Technical note: This is the kind of building I actually don’t enjoy drawing. Despite its mostly plainish look (other than the prominent, triangular façade), the perspective is not easy if I were to care about getting it right. My current comic-y style really saves me in this regard. Instead of fussing with a pencil and getting annoyed when the result is wonky, I go straight in with the marker and embrace whatever results. Long live comics!

Errands and Amenities

 

2/5/24 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store

My first incentive for getting out for a fitness walk is always the opportunity for a potential sketch. My second is accomplishing any errand on my to-do list that enables me to avoid using my car. Fortunately, I live in a neighborhood where the library, the post office, Chuck’s Auto, both PCC and Whole Foods, and Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store are all within walking distance. On a recent rainy morning, I hoofed it to Ace Hardware for ant bait. (Auughh… if it’s not one kind of pest, it’s another!)

Numerous amenities are also within easy walking distance, including Kona Kitchen (where I occasionally get takeout), Cloud City Coffee, and of course, Macrina Bakery. If an art supply store would open in the neighborhood, I’d never need to walk more than a couple of miles (let alone drive) for any essentials!

2/2/24 Northgate Mall, sketched after a walk to the P.O.

2/2/24 Sketchwaiting at Kona Kitchen

9/29/24 An unfinished Akita sketched outside Macrina Bakery

10/28/24 Subaru outside Cloud City Coffee

Maple Leaf Summer Social is Back!

7/19/23 Mikey the Rad Scientist entertains and engages the 
crowd with fun songs about the environment.

Maple Leaf Park buzzed with activity last Wednesday, and I think I managed to sketch the highlights of our neighborhood’s (almost) annual Summer Social.

Mikey the Rad Scientist entertained kids and adults with lively audience-participation songs with environmentally conscious lyrics. Firefighters brought in an engine so that kids could explore it, inside and out. Of course, the most popular spot was the line for free ice cream bars donated every year by Mike Kelley, owner of Maple Leaf Ace Hardware (and former owner of the much-missed Reckless Video).

Kids danced and blew bubbles, a unicorn mingled with the crowd, and dogs got their portraits photographed, as did entire families. Even on a hot evening, it seemed like the whole neighborhood came out for this beloved event.

Kids and a dog wait their turn to explore the inside of a fire engine.

Although the Summer Social came back in 2021 after skipping 2020 for the pandemic, it didn’t happen last year, so everyone was relieved to see it back again. It takes a lot of volunteer power to put on an event like this, and I’m always grateful for people who have the enthusiasm and stamina to keep it going and make their neighbors happy. It’s one of many things about Maple Leaf that make it feel like a true neighborhood, which is why we love living here.

Families queued up for free ice cream bars and popsicles from Maple Leaf Ace Hardware.
We knew from experience that you gotta get in line early if you want a chocolate Haagen Dazs bar! Scored!

The Gift of Sketchwaiting

 

4/1/22 Northgate

Instead of an annoyance, an opportunity for sketchwaiting is a gift. The challenge is that the time available is usually unknown. Will my name be called in moments, or is the doc running late, and it’s 20 minutes? The spouse guy’s errand should take only minutes, but it could take longer. The traffic light will likely change in seconds – surely long enough to capture the flock of pigeons on the wires above the intersection. 

Another challenge might be that subject matter is often limited to what is nearby. But you know me – I can sketch a rock in the driveway and be happy.

I choose the medium, page size and composition complexity based on how much time I think I will have. Sometimes it’s less than I anticipate, but I enjoy that tension. I appreciate the gift of sketchwaiting however long it lasts.

4/1/22 Northgate

11/23/21 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware

11/30/21 Whole Foods

12/24/21 International District pigeons

Farewell, Reckless

 

7/22/21 Reckless Video in the Maple Leaf neighborhood

Greg and I have been renting movies from Reckless Video since the days of VHS more than 30 years ago. One night during those early years, the building where Reckless was a tenant burned to the ground (insurance arson was rumored). Not too long afterwards, Reckless rose like a phoenix across the street, and we continued to rent movies there throughout the DVD and BluRay eras.

A couple of years ago, owner Mike Kelley, who opened the store when he was 31, let his loyal customers know that he was operating in the red. Over the years, it had become increasingly difficult to compete with streaming services, and most video stores had closed years ago. Unless he had a turnaround, his shop would be going the way of the Beta format. Saddened and alarmed by this news, I sketched the shop, Seattle’s last family-owned video rental store. At the time, he had signs up that said, “Burn Netflix” and “The Internet is not a neighborhood.”

We didn’t think Reckless would make it through the pandemic, but it somehow managed to keep its doors open – until now. Mike announced in May that the store would be closing for good. In his farewell message to customers on Facebook, he wrote:

Reckless is where I met my wonderful wife Kathy and we started a home and a family for our boy Joe. The video industry held unprecedented excitement for the first 20 years. The annual conventions in Vegas (aka world’s best party) are where Kathy and I met stars like Leonard Nimoy, Mary Tyler Moore, Martin Sheen, John Voight, Dennis Miller, Jeff Goldblum, Ice T, Nina Hartley, and the Fourth Ghostbuster!

In addition to Reckless, Mike’s family owns the Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store next door. He donates all the ice cream bars for the neighborhood Ice Cream Social every summer and contributes in many other ways. He’s the kind of business owner who helps a neighborhood feel like a community.

Last month Reckless rented its last video (we still had a couple of punches left on our pass, so we sadly made our last rentals). It’s now open till the end of July to sell off its inventory of discs.

I decided to make one more sketch of Reckless before it closed, this time to give to Mike. That same day, we walked over to Reckless together and perused the shelves for the last time. We bought a stack of movies we haven’t seen, but mostly I wanted them as mementoes of Reckless.

Shown below are the sketch from 2019 and the first one I made in 2014.

Technical notes: I’ve sketched the building at various times of day and from different angles, and I always encounter the same issue: The front of the store is always deeply shaded by the overhang. This time, the whole building was backlit. Do I try to draw the details and local color? Or just make it dark and imply the Coke machine and posters? I chose the latter.

Typically I feel almost no pressure of any kind when I open my sketchbook to a blank page. But as soon as I decided that I would make this one as a gift, I suddenly felt enormous pressure that it had to be “right.” I took 90 minutes to make this – three times as much time and care as I would normally devote to a single sketch! Thank goodness I don’t have to sell my work for a living!

5/5/19

10/1/14

Corona Hours

3/23/20 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware Store

I have a hunch that a full lockdown is close (voluntary social distancing wasn’t working, and even the current severe restrictions might not be enough), so I went out in my car looking for a way to document these crazy times before I lose that freedom. First I drove past my neighborhood Maple Leaf Park for any signs of closure, which the city had begun the day before, but I didn’t see anything from the street. Although a few people still walked around the park’s periphery, the playground was empty (last week we were dismayed to see it full of kids playing together while their parents chatted, just like normal).

A couple blocks north of the park, I passed the Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store (which I sketched from a better angle a few months ago). Its readerboard posted reduced “Corona Hours.” Staying in my parked car across the street, I wasn’t especially pleased with the composition, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Maple Leaf Ace Hardware

12/27/19 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware at 90th and Roosevelt

The Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store has been owned and operated by the same family since 1973. Greg spends a lot of time there when he’s working on a project. It’s right next door to Reckless Video, which is also owned by the Stephenson family (and which I sketched last spring). Always involved in community events (like the summer ice cream feed with free ice cream bars donated by the Stephensons and the Halloween parade), the two businesses and the family are the cornerstone of the Maple Leaf neighborhood.

After taking my walk/sketch route as far north as the Northgate post office, I came back south on Roosevelt, which has several coffee shops where I could have stopped to claim my reward sketch. Although it was only 40 degrees, I was feeling nicely warmed up after 45 minutes of walking. Instead of stopping for coffee, I picked up our weekend movies at Reckless and then stood on its porch to sketch the hardware store. (I regretted it 20 minutes later when I finished the sketch – my hands were numb and my teeth were chattering.) This may be my most iconic Maple Leaf neighborhood sketch: I got the utility tower, the blue water tower and Ace Hardware all in one composition.

Urban Palette

6/5/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

On my walk through the ‘hood, I heard a lot of noise near the Ace Hardware store, so I went to see what was going on. It was yet another hole in the ground and another excavator – but this time, a cement mixer was also on the scene. It backed up several feet before I could finish all those wheels, but I got most of it.

Sometimes other sketchers complain that the typical urban palette is nothing but grays and browns. I don’t know – I seem to have no problem finding yellow, orange and red!

Forklift

4/19/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

The Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store shares a parking lot with Reckless Video, so although I don’t go into the hardware store often, I frequently use the parking lot to pick up our weekend entertainment (Reckless is one of only a couple of remaining video rental shops in the city). On this rainy afternoon, I was delighted to spot this cute little forklift. After picking up our video, I reparked the car at a different angle so that I could see the forklift through a side window more easily.

Maple Leaf Summer Social

7/29/15 brush pen, colored pencil

Last night was our neighborhood’s 20^th annual Maple Leaf Summer Social at Maple Leaf Park. It’s a fun, low-key family festival highlighted by free ice cream bars donated by Maple Leaf Ace Hardware/Reckless Video owners Mike Kelly and Kathy Stephenson. Last year they gave out 1,750 ice cream bars during the two-hour event! Not to be outdone, Flying Squirrel Pizza gave out free pizza slices, too. Kids got their faces painted and balloon animals made, and everyone enjoyed live music and the cool breeze on a hot evening.

Scarfing down our Dove bars before they melted, I looked around for a sketch while Greg searched for photo opps. New to the festival this year was a Seattle Police Department mounted police officer and his horse, Chance, a 10-year-old quarter horse. I even got a sticker!

7/29/15 inks, colored pencils

Eventually I wandered over to listen to the band and stood behind the musicians so I could get more of the park in the composition.

Free ice cream, live music, sketching – that’s my idea of a perfect summer night.