Rodney King & Ben Hubbard (Rodney website, Rodney Instagram; Ben website, Ben Instagram)
Location: 4 Cedar Street
Artist Statement 
(click to listen to the description)
This is where the artist statement is written
More information (click to listen to the description)
At the northern edge of the Belltown Mural Festival’s territory, tucked near the small historic plaza at Tilikum Place, sits one of the most quietly significant works in the entire festival — not just for what’s on the wall, but for the story of how it got there.
This is Rodney King’s first mural. Full stop. The festival created the conditions for that to happen, connecting Rodney and collaborator Ben Hubbard through the project itself — two artists who met because of this work and then made something together because of that meeting. That kind of origin story is exactly what the festival organizers set out to create.
Rodney is a Puyallup-based artist who came to painting just four years ago, after the pandemic gave him the space to tap into what was, in his own words, inherently in him. His work draws deeply from Black culture — Jazz, entertainment, sports, pop culture — and his process involves immersing himself in documentaries, old Jazz magazines, and images of African Americans living everyday life around the world. That warmth and cultural rootedness is the sensibility he brings to this wall.
Tilikum Place itself — whose name means “welcome” or “greetings” in Chinook jargon — marks the historic junction of the original land claims of Seattle’s earliest settlers. It’s a fitting spot for a mural born from a new connection, on a first canvas, in a neighborhood where art is being used to bring people together all over again.
Back to the Belltown Murals: map, overview web page