Sculptures & Statues of Fremont (Seattle)

Emil Venkov, was commissioned by the Soviet and Czechoslovak governments to create this statue of Vladimir Lenin. The fall of communism came only a year after the statue was completed and the 16 ft bronze monster was quietly removed from Lenin Square.

While teaching overseas, Wahington local, Lewis E. Carpenter found the statue in a scrap yard. Recognizing it as a relevant piece of art and history he worked hard with local officials and spent tens of thousands of dollars to bring the statue to the U.S. The original sculptor even helped cut the statue into 3 separate pieces for shipping purposes.

People originally freaked out when the statue was shipped in and, during the chaos and protests, Carpenter was killed in a car accident on February 18, 1994. These day, the same hypocrites that lost their damn minds over the statue pose in front of it for photo ops and brag about its existence in their community.

The Gas works structures at Gas Works Park have become like sculptures by default. A plant, originally built to produce gas from coal in 1906, was rendered obsolete in the 1950s with the import of Natural Gas and, in 1975, with its 19 + acres of surrounding land, it was turned into a public park. The actual location of the Gasworks themselves could “technically” be considered Wallingford.

The park is packed every 4th of July for the Lake Union Fire works display. The structures themselves taunt teenage “Dazed and Confused” enthusiasts, hopped up on hallucinogens, Marijuana, and Natty Ice, to jump the fence and risk the possibility of arrest and tetanus infected wounds by scaling these rusty beasts.

This monstrous eyesore is actually an apartment building called “EPI”

It’s incredibly tacky and looks like something that Catherine O’Hara might have sculpted in Beetle Juice.

JP Patches & Gertrude Statue

“Late For the Interurban”, just erected last August, is a beautifully crafted bronze statue created to pay homage to local celebrity J.P. Patches and his wacky trans gender side-kick Gertrude. It sits about 1/2 block East of "Waiting For the Interurban. There is a piggy bank style coin slot to raise donations for the Childrens Hospital and JP’s chest is equipped with little hooks for visitors to place their own badges and pins onto.

JP ran a local children’s TV program 1958-1981 and, along with Portland Oregon’s Rusty Nails, is rumored to be the co-inspiration behind the Simpons’" Krusty The Klown". JP and Gertrude still appear on TV occasionally, but it is generally just on things like PBS telethons. These days, the aging Gertrude’s mop string wig and unruly lipstick, creep the hell out of me. He resembles a cross between Raggedy Anne and Buffalo Bill from “Silence of the Lambs”

A documented step by step construction of the piece can be viewed by clicking HERE

This is the pavement below the “trashy planets”. It looks all right in the photo, due to the rain, but it usually looks a lot more washed out, like some watercolors got spilled on accident. Only some of the spots in the ground light up at night and it’s actually pretty cool. The ideas here are no where near as bad as the execution.

Entrance gate to Art FX

The Foundry Building

Even Rain City Video pays tribute to the local sculptures and architecture with their own miniature metal versions displayed on the awning over their front entrance.

Arguably the most famous tourist attraction in Fremont, the Troll was crafted by 4 local artists in 1990. It’s shiny eye is made from a hubcap and it engulfs a full-sized Volkswagon with its stony paw. It is said that the trunk of the car originally contained a time capsule of Elvis memorabilia that was worriedly removed after the car was vandalized.

Walking home late one night, I passed the troll and a Hollywood movie was being filmed. There were cameras pointed at it, multiple video monitors, and even craft service trucks blocking the narrow residential road in front of the statue. Apparently it was some Jennifer Aniston project. I think studios may be drawn to the troll’s classic Hollywood glam represented by the swooping Veronica Lake-style bangs.

This Banksy style graffiti has been stenciled at the foot of Lenin as a social commentary towards Getty Images, which seems to own the rights to every photograph in history and is whose headquarters is also in Fremont. At least I hope this stencil was meant to be a joke.

“Sorry, I don’t have a statue in Fremont, but they did try to label me as a communist.”

Waiting for the Interurban

The statue made from cast aluminum was created by sculptor Richard Beyer. After getting into a dispute with aluminum recycler Armen Stepanian, once known as the “Mayor of Fremont”, (pictured) Beyer sculpted Stepanian’s face onto the body of a dog.

I wanted to get my own photo but people like to dress up this statue regularly and today the faces on the statues where covered with a giant butcher paper sign wishing some random goon a “Happy Birthday”. Happy B-Day Brian, thank your friends for ruining my photo op.

This photo was taken from an article in the Seattle P.I. which also contains the full story behind this work.

“It puts the lotion on it’s skin, Andy”

These probably look cooler in the photo than they do in reality. I have no idea what these are really supposed to be but they popped up about 2 yrs ago in front of a Fed-Ex Kinkos and directly across from the Lenin statue. They look like giant paper mache planets…maybe? With… spray-paint?

This is also by one of the condos in Fremont they’ve built to kick us broke fools out and bring in the yuppies. This is the type of trashy art that they construct to impress them but it just looks low quality and bad.

Benny The Rock Man

Fawzi Benhariz (AKA:Benny) is a local staple of the Fremont community. He is a rock stacker and his sculptural work defies the laws of gravity. Being homeless and his lack of permits has prompted local officials to try and remove Benny from the area on occasion but he always returns to bring his passion to the community.

The powers who have the money behind them are focused on bringing in more and more commercialism to the area. They want the art they can benefit from, but they don’t want the unsightly artists that make it.

In response to the city’s complaints about his loitering while creating more abstract and inaccessible work, Benhariz did a series of pieces where he actually constructed a boat and even a waist-high model of the Alamo.

This tree full of antique chairs is located right in front of the Art FX Studio/Gallery. It’s actually pretty awesome, I just did a horrible job of capturing a photo of it.

Mother & Baby Apatosaurus

Originally in Seattle Center, the two dinosaur topiaries were blocking construction efforts in 1999. Fremont won out on the right to purchase them for only $1 based on a contingency that they would be moved successfully within 2 days. Amazingly, somehow, they were.

The mother (pictured) is 66 ft alone and their combined weight of their welded steel frames measures out at about 5 tons.