FRED WILDLIFE REFUGE MURAL

A permanent mural created for the grand opening of the Fred Wildlife Refuge nightclub and event space in Seattle. The mural is a social experiment using chalkboard paint and iconography to explore how people contribute to half-finished designs.

*Completed “blank” mural. I swapped hallway lights to R/G/B bulbs.*

*Painting the mural. In the early days, I had to tape together stencils using copy-paper.*

*A clean look at the mural before anyone contributed chalk drawings.*

The shape of the mural is the building in perspective and the three icons are a blank face, a barren tree, and a similar shaped building with large stacks. I wanted to see if people would resist the urge to do the obvious by drawing eyes on the face, leaves on the tree, a door on the building, etc.

*The first night of user contributions.*

I was surprised by a “flamingly brain sun” tree and a “nuclear tv set”. That whiskey genie is pretty great too.