Local News

Sketched Oct. 30, 2012
If you’ve seen Brian Mullen driving his little Ford Festiva around Seattle lately, you know who has his vote. The retired Seattle fisherman picks candidates, not parties, to support, and encourages others to “mix your colors; vote bipartisan.”
It runs in the familiy, Mullen said. Of his six children, three are Democrat and three are Republican. His wife of 41 years, Irene, also shares his bipartisan message.
Given the importance of this year’s presidential and gubernatorial races, Mullen decided to take his involvement in the campaigns –he’s volunteered for both parties– “up a notch” by turning his car into a political billboard on wheels. His skills working on boats came in handy to build a four-sided sign that he installed on the roof of the car. Blue panels advertise presidential candidate Barack Obama and red panels advertise gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna. Inside the car, he has framed photos of both candidates, and he gives out bipartisan stickers to everyone he encounters. He was heading to West Seattle and Burien the day I meet him at his house in Columbia City.
“[Obama and McKenna] are both quality individuals,” Mullen told me over coffee in his living room before I went out to sketch the car. They are proof that the American two-party system is in good shape, he said. If they win, “we are in good hands.”

Sketched Sept. 18, 2012
The odometer on my 1999 Chevrolet Prizm is nearing 100,000 miles, so it may be time to get a new and more fuel-efficient model. If money were no object, I’d buy one of those nifty Chevy Volts.
Or, if I were more car savvy, I could follow Jeff Finn’s example.
The 71-year-old Bellevue resident saved a 2000 Chevy Metro from the junk yard, stripped out all the gas motors’ pieces and turned it into a one-of-a-kind zero-emissions vehicle he named the “Volt Runner.”
His bill: $250 for the car, which had 190,000+ miles, $8,000 in parts, $800 for the paint job and $5,000 in labor he paid a local electric-vehicle builder he met through the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association (SEVA).
“I’m not spending money on gas; I don’t have any repair bills,” Finn told me at a plug-in station in South Lake Union. And the Volt Runner is fun to drive, he said, because of “the elegant simplicity of it all.”

The fuel and temperature indicators inside Finn’s car have become decoration. He has labeled the gauges with bright green labels that say “obsolete.”
National Plug In Day: Jeff Finn and other local electric-vehicle owners are showing their vehicles this Sunday at events in Snoqualmie Falls and the Seattle Center from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information visit: pluginday.org
What has drawn your attention around Seattle lately? Send me your suggestions of interesting places and people to sketch via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Sketched Aug. 18 at Columbia Plaza
My Thursday post featuring members of Old Rides Seattle and their vintage automobiles drew some interesting comments I wasn’t quite expecting. “Beetlejuice” wrote that these cars should be filled with concrete and buried. “They are a waste of space,” he wrote. Terry Parkhurst made the point that classic cars are usually much better mantained than the cars you see on the road and shouldn’t be dismissed as “gas guzzlers.” All opinions are welcomed so thanks for chiming in!
Energy-saving arguments aside, I think everybody would agree on one thing: classic cars are easy on the eye. That’s what makes them fun to draw. And who doesn’t turn to look when you see one on the street?
A few curious people even stopped to talk to Valerie Pipkin as I sketched her 1955 Buick Roadmaster last Wednesday at Columbia Plaza.
She likes classic cars for the same reasons I do. “I don’t care about the mechanics. I just like the way they look,” said Pipkin, a member of Old Rides Seattle since 2008. “They are like rolling pieces of art.”
Pipkin bought her car at Hot August Nights, a popular car show in Reno, Nevada, that attracts automobile enthusiasts from all over the country.
She said she was sold on it as soon as she saw the interior’s blue and gold upholstery and art deco dashboard. She also loved all the “bright work,” the chromed fender benders and metal decorations that adorn the exterior body of the car.
It all makes it look very luxurious, but Pipkin said this car was the “Cadillac of the working class.” If you couldn’t afford a Cadillac, you bought a Buick.
Pipkin’s Buick was her ticket to join Old Rides Seattle in 2008. To become a member, you need a car that is at least 30 years old and is in driving condition, explained founding member Henry Nelson.
That will make our family’s cars qualify in a couple of decades. We have a 1999 Chevy Prizm and a 2003 Pontiac Vibe. I don’t see them as “art” right now, but years from now some chrome may do the trick.
Where to see more classic cars
This Sunday you can see more than 150 classic cars as Old Rides Seattle hosts their second annual Columbia City Classic at Columbia Plaza from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit www.oldridescarclub.com.
COMING UP
Back to school is around the corner. Do you have any interesting back-to-school stories that I should consider sketching? As a parent, the first picture that comes to mind is of little kids whose backpacks are bigger than they are, but for a possible future sketch I’m interested in talking and sketching adults going back to school and pursuing new careers. Are you one of them? I’m always happy to hear from readers. Please contact me at gcampanario at seattletimes dot com or via Twitter or Facebook. Have a great weekend!

I’m not what you would call a car aficionado, but cars run in my family. My dad was an autoworker for 35 years in Spain and I married the daughter of a retired GM autoworker who also collects classic cars, like this old Ford for example.
I thought of both of them this week as I sketched members of Old Rides Seattle, a car club started by Central Area automobile enthusiasts in 1972.

Henry Nelson of Beacon Hill, also a GM retiree like my father-in-law, has a long resume in the automotive industry. He worked as a sales manager overseeing all Chevy dealerships in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska and was the head of the Department of Automotive and Diesel Technology at South Seattle Community College.
Nelson is also one of the founding members of Old Rides, “the longest-running predominantly African American car club north of Los Angeles,” he said.
Of nine cars that he owns, he likes his 1940 Cadillac Sedan the best. “It would be like a Mercedes Benz today … only the rich people drove those type of cars in 1940.”
Nelson warns that car collecting is an expensive hobby. He even bought the house next to his to expand his garage, which also includes the first car he ever owned, a 1950 Ford Custom that is currently in the shop being rebuilt.

Clifford Holland, also of Beacon Hill, retired in 2003 and joined the car club in 2005. He was a store manager at Safeway, where he worked for 38 years.
He purchased his 1956 Ford Thunderbird in 1982, when it was already starting to become a collector’s model. It’s the car he always wanted since he was 15, but wasn’t able to afford until his mid 30s.
He said the frame, engine and interior were restored to get the automobile back to the original specs, a process that took a year and a half.
For Holland, “it’s a sense of pride when you have a very nice-looking automobile.” He is currently serving as president of the car club.
Friday I’ll introduce you to another member of Old Rides Seattle, Valerie Pipkin, of South Seattle. She likes classic cars because they look like “rolling pieces of art.” That’s exactly why I enjoy drawing them.
Where to see more classic cars
This Sunday you can see more than 150 classic cars as Old Rides Seattle hosts their second annual Columbia City Classic at Columbia Plaza from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit www.oldridescarclub.com.