Just a block from the center of West Seattleās Alaska Junction, there is a blue house. Itās covered in avant-garde and abstract art that tickles the funny bone, makes you scratch your head, and causes you to pause and think and smile. It happens whether you are an adult or a child.Ā
For a family with kidsāespecially one with a young artistāthe blue house is a must-see. It demonstrates that art can come from anythingāpaint and brush, old toys, kitchen tools, pots and pans, words. The artist, who lives at the blue house and is known only to her neighbors and walkers who discover her by chance, utilizes whatever she finds along the sidewalks of her village to continue her work. The house is her canvas, the neighborhood her medium.Ā
Like all good artists, she rethinks and repurposes the objects she uses from their ordinary purposes to create completely new and different expressionsā a doll, a bottle, a hubcap. She turns what might be garbage into fantasy.
Art is play
Artists make art because they canāt not make it. Some turn their work into a paying business,Ā but most do not. The blue house artist says she makes it because her creative soul was not stopped just because she grew up. But I am sure that she was always an artist, but thatās another reason to find this house with your kids: to remind them that the best artists play and think like kids. Iām always struck by that saying from Picasso: all children are artists until society causes them to forget how to make art. Iām paraphrasing, of course.
Every day, people walk past the blue house. They stop, look, and look closer, often laughing and usually taking selfies. There is a spot in the yard designed to make that happen. Children linger, tilt their heads, and work to understand everything they see.Ā They get it and sometimes explain it to their grownups.Ā

Photo by Cheryl Murfin
Look for these
Here are just a few things you will see on display:
- Ā An arrow pointing to the west that offers free sunsets.Ā
- A plastic superhero toy standing on a piece of industrial equipment with the head of George Washington.Ā
- A Ken doll who wears a Barbie wedding dress riding a dinosaur who in turn has turned the wheels and axel of a toy truck into a prom coach.Ā Notice Kenās earrings that look like chandeliers.Ā
- A rocket ship made entirely from kitchen tools ready to launch into orbit.Ā
- A magic mirror that invites you to look inside to see a kind person.
- A pizza pan that reminds you to believe women.Ā
- A football and a platter that promises that āyouāll be back cul de sac.āĀ
- A joke and an introduction to poetry we all remember: āI see England, I see France, I see grandmaās underpants.āĀ

Photo by Cheryl Murfin
Talk about the art together
Finally, a word of advice. This is the perfect opportunity to teach the first rule of museum etiquette: āLook but donāt touch.āĀ
Play the look, see, and say game. What is that? What is it made of? How is it now different? What does it mean? Why do you think the artist has transformed her yard into a gallery of art?
Youāll find the house just south of the Junction True Value hardware store at the junction. Iām keeping the address a secret. Youāll find it if you walk and seek. Itās blue.Ā Ā
Donāt bother the artist, sheās busy making art.Ā Ā
Then go home, whether youāre big or small, and make art yourself.

Photo by Cheryl Murfin