Artist Changes Vision for Skate Park Murals in Response to Feedback; Painting Parties to Start in September
Jesse Joshua Watson originally proposed an apocalyptic scene for the skate park, but local skaters asked for less doom and more natural beauty.
If you want to paint mountain ranges, forests and deep blue water on Port Townsend’s skate park walls, your time has come.
In the wake of a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission, the Port Townsend Creative District is funding several murals, with painting led by a local artist, on some 1,700 feet of the park’s vertical concrete walls. The Seamus Sims Skate Park at 250 Monroe St., opened 20 years ago, is to become a permanent public art installation.
After reviewing 17 applications from artists, a panel of Port Townsend Arts Commission members and other city board members selected Port Townsend’s Jesse Joshua Watson to be the murals’ orchestrator. Initially, Watson presented an apocalyptic vision for his skate park paintings. The concept was on the dystopian side. At the same time, Watson vowed to listen to feedback from community members.
He got it. Skaters expressed their desire for something beautiful, Watson said.
“I want to see mountains. I want to see trees” was the message he received. So the artist did a makeover of his plans, and during a skate park mural information session on Aug. 11, he presented a new vision.
In it, sea creatures swim along the skate park walls. A deer walks through deep-green woods. Kelp flows within the waves. A heron watches over the waterfront.
“I want to do my job as an artist,” Watson said; “I want to make something that’s wanted by the people who use it.”
A look at jessewatson.com shows the public art projects, fine artwork and books in Watson’s varied portfolio. He’s also an educator who has taught art to Port Townsend School District students for many years.
Watson hopes to start the murals in September, with community members joining in multiple painting parties. A link to information is found at https://ptcreativedistrict.org/skatepark, along with a form where people can suggest Port Townsend landmarks and sea and land creatures they would like to see in the murals.
The skate park art project budget is $49,550, according to Katy Goodman, Port Townsend’s Arts and Culture Coordinator. This includes a $30,000 commission for Watson. The rest will go to some $3,500 in materials, including primer and an anti-graffiti coating the city parks crew, part of the Community Services department, will add after the murals are finished. The city is providing about $7,000 in labor, Goodman added.
There are still two or three weeks of preparation to go, she said, as parks workers seal, etch and prime the walls. During the mural-painting itself, sections of the skate park may be unavailable to skaters, Goodman said. But the space will not be entirely closed. With painting starting in September, the hope is for completion by the end of October.
The skate park art project is one response to what Goodman called the community’s passion for mural-making. Ever since she started in her job, she’s been hearing the “more murals” call from the Port Townsend Arts Commission and other local residents.
Watson, for his part, acknowledged that no one idea will please everybody. At the murals information session, he spoke with skater, parent and de facto skate park guardian Nam Siu about what the artwork could depict.
Siu expressed his desire for more community engagement as the project progresses, especially with young people. He also advocated for representation of the Indigenous people of this place.
“We are standing on pretty sacred grounds. It would be good to pay some acknowledgement to the original people here,” Siu said to Watson. The two went on to have a lively conversation, and Siu said later that since Watson was selected, there has been more outreach to the community.
Siu also said he strives to keep the skate park safe, clean and inclusive—a gathering place for young people. He credited Samantha Stromberg, who as a high school student mounted a campaign for the installation of lights on the park. The city added solar-powered illumination in 2025.
“This place really matters to us,” said Siu.
