Phone photo 2856

James Abbott portrait of Henry McCleary (1861-1943), the timber baron who virtually ran this town as a one-man principality until 1941.

This is a portrait of a timid person, and Henry was many things, but never that.

Average White Band Sings Bacharach

Walk on By

Phone photo 2855

James Abbott's mural portrait of a very young Nick Rillakis (1893-1970), McCleary, Washington. By the time I met Nick in 1964 he was a large, stout man with no hair at all. Nick was one of the last of what was once a large Greek population in town.

A bombastic and flamboyant fellow, he ran a store in town called Rhodes Grocery, the first concrete structure in McCleary. I recall he had a huge cheese wheel as a centerpiece. Today his store serves as cram-yer-crap place and is covered with Abbott artwork.

The waferboard "canvas" gives this and the other portraits a nice texture.

Phone photo 2854

Four portraits by James Abbott at the entrance of the old Rhodes Grocery, long ago converted to a cram-yer-crap storage business. So far as I know, this little alcove is unique in the Abbott art experience in that he has an area where human faces are the main focus. This was not his strong point and the combined effect is actually sort of like eating stale bread.

I bet if we took a poll here in McCleary, Washington (pop. about 1600) on who these four portraits are supposed to represent the results would be enormously embarrassing to the town. So, at the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, stick with this blog and in the words of Sherlock Holmes, "observe and learn." I even personally met one of the subjects portrayed here.

Also, this is a spot where certain inebriated people like to hover for awhile. How one can do that while all those eyes at your back, I don't know, but they do.

Ku Klux Klan - Ancestor of the Tea Baggers?

Dear readers:

My jaw dropped when I ran across this incredible front page article in the Oct. 27, 1922 issue of The Walla Walla Valley Spectator, where the Ku Klux Klan is treated as if they were like the local garden club. And we're not talking about the Deep South here, this is in Prescott, Washington. Yes, good ol' Blue State progressive Washington that has legalized pot and Gay marriage and has never voted for a Bush for President.

What really struck me as I read through this was how much the Klan spokesman sounded like one of today's Tea Party proponents.

I love Eastern Washington. I was born there. My most prolific period as a cartoonist took place there in the 1980s. It sickens me that it also has a strong element of fear-based people willing to swallow the nonsense of the Klan, "Neo" Nazis, and Tea Baggers, all birds of a feather in my thinking.

Perhaps that good, patriotic, pious Christian, that man who spreads the word of God, the Rev. Burger, was really from the Church of the Nazirene.

Yours,
A Member of the "Adverse Element."

Phone photo 2853

James Abbott and the ravages of the elements teamed up to form this nice impressionistic detail on his last remaining mural in McCleary, Washington. I love the way Abbott used the reflection of our  typically wet roads in this piece.

This particular image actually faces an alley, so it is missed by anyone just passing through.

The Iron Tomb With the Emergency Exit

 

From the Nov. 15, 1912 Kitsap County Herald. John M. Pursel lived from 1828 to 1902. Apparently the name of the cemetery has changed, but the iron tomb remains, as demonstrated on this link.

Phone photo 2852

I always liked this little guy. Detail of a dog in a James Abbott mural, McCleary, Washington

Morty Comix # 2654

Morty Comix # 2654 was sent to Buzz Buzzizyk in Butler, PA. Buzz himself supplied the paper, already cut and folded, and challenged me to get off my butt and draw some more. Buzz has permission to enhance them and distribute them as he sees fit. So you can probably expect to get some updates on what happens to these little guys as time passes.

Phone photo 2851

Decaying James Abbott mural, McCleary, Washington

Bacharach Plays Bacharach

Nikki

An elegant piece with a tragic backstory

Phone photo 2850

James Abbott mural detail, McCleary, Washington

Postcard - Des Moines, Iowa

"Aerial view of Banker's Life, 4 of Des Moines, Iowa's 193 churches, the Telephone Building and Television towers looming in the background."

1950s

Phone photo 2849

Detail of wear on a James Abbott mural, McCleary, Washington

Phone photo 2848

James Abbott mural detail, McCleary, Washington

Favorite Movie Quotes: Yankee Doodle Dandy

"I'm an ordinary guy who knows what ordinary guys like to see."

Phone photo 2847

James Abbott mural, old Rhodes Grocery, McCleary, Washington

Phone photo 2846

Crumbling detail of James Abbott mural, McCleary, Washington

Morty Comix # 2653

Morty Comix # 2653 was slid behind a sign advertising a beverage at a grocery store in Tumwater, Washington

Phone photo 2845

James Abbott mural, old Rhodes Grocery, McCleary, Washington

Punk Bacharach Sings Bacharach

The Blob

Phone photo 2844

James Abbott mural detail, McCleary, Washington

Postcard - Chicago, Illinois

"The Stevens, Chicago. 'America's Grand Hotel.' Located in the very heart of the city on Chicago's famous Michigan Boulevard overlooking Grant Park and the Lake. The Stevens occupies Chicago's finest hotel location preferred by vacation, pleasure, business travelers."

ca. 1930.

Phone photo 2843

James Abbott mural, old Rhodes Grocery, McCleary, Washington

Phone photo 2842

I figured out that in east Grays Harbor County only about a third or fourth of the murals originally painted by James Abbott still remain from his whirlwind visual blitz in this neck of the woods throughout the 1990s.

One of the largest surviving works of Mr. Abbott can be found on the east wall of the old Rhodes Grocery in McCleary, Washington. I spent some time using my cheap phone photo skills to capture this work and the other graphics he left on this building.

In this particular case, James Abbott went crazy. He painted on all four sides of the structure, sometimes in places where the public couldn't really see very well. So far as I can ascertain, this place is his last surviving graphic presence in McCleary. So I recorded what is left of it before it gets erased.

Where is Alice, the Hairy Girl?

From the Seattle Daily News, Jan. 6, 1906

Phone photo 2841

A mural in the Beehive Retirement Center by Patti Lee

McCleary, Washington

Meeting Notes, Sept. 2013

Phone photo 2840

Abandoned work shed

Mox Chehalis Road

Grays Harbor County, Washington

An Ancestor of Yosemite Sam

From the Weekly Leader (Port Townsend, Wash.) Oct. 7, 1897