[By Tina Koyama in Seattle] About a year ago I reported on my hunt for urban couches in Seattle – furniture abandoned on the
sidewalk, usually with a “free” sign attached.
Now, you might think it’s easy to sketch motionless couches,
but let me tell you – the hunt is real. Sometimes my friends would text me GPS
coordinates or intersections where I could find them, but when I rushed over
there, they had already been hauled away by someone planning to furnish their
home in the Late Urban American style. It’s not an occupation for the slow or
lazy.
I had a particularly fruitful summer this year, so I thought
I’d update you on some of my prime catches. The one at the top of the page spotted in the Maple Leaf neighborhood is
probably the most ornate one I’ve bagged so far. Rather charming next to the
yellow picket fence, don’t you think?
The one below – let’s just say it lacked charm, though it
was appropriately placed next to the trash bins on trash day. On the driveway
behind the easy chair were more overflowing trash and recycle bins. The “free”
signs were written on torn-off notebook paper and scrawled in pencil.
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| Wedgwood neighborhood |
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| Maple Leaf neighborhood |
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| Greenwood neighborhood |
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| Wedgwood neighborhood |
The couch below took me twice as long as usual to sketch. It
was on a very busy intersection, and every time the light turned red, two lanes
of traffic would completely block my view across the street. I had to keep
waiting for the light to change, and when it did, I could see the couch only
during the brief spaces between cars going by. Then the light would turn again.
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| Greenwood neighborhood |
Summer is over now, and so is open season on urban couches. Whew
– I need to rest up for next year.
