Hero Story: Stevie Shao - Seattle's Breakout Muralist

Introduction

Under the watchful eye of a blazing sun and a steady stream of onlookers at Hing Hay Park, Seattle artist Stevie Shao plunges a thick brush into a bucket of syrupy black paint. She approaches a large piece of plywood propped up on 12-foot-long easel, and shapes a vinelike tree in between two animals she has already painted against a scarlet background: a pink-winged phoenix engulfed in yellow flames and a yellow tiger flashing rows of sharp white teeth toward its own flaming tail.

Later, she will fill out every inch of the mural with ornate details: flowers, dots, tears and sparkles in Barbie pink, kohl black and marine blue. Somehow, she manages to keep her white painter’s pants pristine in the process.

Blank surfaces usually don’t stay that way for very long when Shao is around. From plywood on closed-up businesses to sprawling restaurant walls, flanks of city buildings and food trucks: In the past year and a half, Shao has covered them all with her vivid, flattened take on flora and fauna, both earthly and mythical. Her style has grown into a recognizable signature — and Shao, at 23 years old, has become one of Seattle’s most recognized and in-demand muralists and illustrators.

“It’s crazy,” she said during a recent interview, as if she were still processing it herself. “I mean, it’s really, really crazy.”