(muffled voices)
♪♪
Our state's been blessed with some incredible artists.
And one of them was Kenneth Callahan.
He grew out of the commonly called
Northwest School in the 1930s.
He and people like Morris Graves and William Cumming a
and Mark Tobey, and others were known for their incredible artwork.
They were broke.
They were poor. They were struggling.
They weren't having an easy time.
But in the 1930s, the WPA came along and hired
a number of artists to do some beautiful murals.
And today
you can see them all
around the Pacific Northwest
that were done as part of a
government-sponsored art project.
♪♪
Kenneth Callahan's art changed over the years.
He was very involved with the Seattle Art Museum.
Then he moved, as he retired, out to the beach
at Long Beach Peninsula.
I remember we took our little son George out to see him
a couple of times, and he would take George
by the hand and walk down the beach.
And George was only four or five years old, maybe six.
And Kenneth would explain to him the motions in the sand
and the motions in the sky and how they were similar.
My wife and I prayed that George would remember this
some day, and I think he has.
It was a life-changing experience in so many ways.
An appreciation of art by this incredible man.
When the Marine Hospital was built in Seattle,
they wanted an artist to do the murals in the lobby.
And they hired, in the WPA project, Kenneth Callahan.
And he did murals about the working men on the ship,
lifeboat drills, and loading cargo.
And those murals were lost for a while.
They were gone for a while.
They were back in the hands of the city and the museums.
But now, thanks to the Birkenfeld Foundation, they've been all restored
and they're back in their rightful
and original location, the Pacific Medical Center.
The Pacific Medical Center, and especially in the lobby
where these murals are located,
is truly one of my favorite places.
♪♪