James Washington Jr. (1911-2000) was a sculptor and painter who became associated with the Northwest School of artists in Seattle. He grew up in Mississippi and moved to Seattle in 1944 to work for the Navy during World War II. Washington was largely self-taught and he believed this lack of formal training was essential to his artistic success. In the 1950s, Washington became interested in making sculpture from stone after being inspired by a piece of volcanic rock he found among the ruins of the pyramids at Teotihuacan in Mexico; he later carved it into his first stone sculpture, “Young Boy of Athens.” Washington’s work in both mediums often expressed spiritual feelings and used symbols from Christianity, freemasonry, and the animal world.

This image shows Washington working on his sculpture “Woodchuck and Owl,” which was installed at the King County Youth Service Center. The sculpture depicts a woodchuck and child in a nest, guarded by an owl. Washington carved the work so it could easily be touched by the young people coming to the Center.

Caption information source: Washington, James Jr (1911-2000), HistoryLink.org Essay 5328, reprinted from Deloris Tarzan Ament's Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art, 2002.
Caption information source: "Sculpture to be unveiled at youth center today," by Sally Hayman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 21, 1969, page 11.