Artist: Stevie Shao (website, Instagram)
Location: 5th & Bell (Parking Lot)
Mural Description 
(click to listen to the description)
If you find yourself on 5th Avenue near Bell Street in Belltown, look up and across the parking lot — you’ll be met by The Raid, a striking large-scale mural by Seattle artist Stevie Shao, painted in August 2024. The piece is a perfect showcase of everything that makes Shao one of Seattle’s most celebrated muralists: bold graphic lines, a vibrant and fearless color palette, and imagery drawn from folklore, nature, and cultural storytelling.
Shao is a Seattle-born Chinese American artist whose work pulls from Chinese folklore, traditional textiles, and natural ecosystems to build richly layered compositions. Her signature style distills complex visual storytelling into bold, graphic forms — part tattoo flash sheet, part ancient mythology, part modern illustration — making her murals feel both timeless and immediate.
The Raid is part of the Hope Corps mural program, a city-supported initiative that brought over 30 new murals to downtown Seattle. For passersby on 5th Avenue, it is one of those rare pieces of public art that genuinely stops you in your tracks and makes the city feel alive.
Artist Statement (click to listen to the description)
Stevie Shao bio from Belltown Mural Festival:
Stevie is a Seattle born-and-raised illustrator and muralist whose work draws inspiration from her love of plants and animals from the region, historic illustration styles, and her Chinese background. Shao has worked with a variety of freelance clients, including REI, Outdoor Research, Nordstrom, Google, and Sub Pop Records, and painted vibrant large scale murals in cities across the country. She is passionate about local causes related to environmental stewardship, racial justice and preserving historic community roots.
Back to the Belltown Murals: map, overview web page