 (light ambient music)
 (hammering)
 (machinery rumbling)
 - [Baso] I've lived in this
 building for nine years
and this space for eight years.
 When you look out my window,
  you see kinda in between
  the stacks of the viaduct.
Nice open space.
 It's me and I've always had
 other artists living here,
so that's cool.
 I mean, I like that
 it's kinda grimy
  and that the noise
  is always there,
cars always going by
and it's always active.
  - [Woman] State Highway 99
  will be closed for good.
 - [Man] The Alaska Way
 Viaduct's coming down.
 - [Woman] It's the day
 we've all be preparing for,
 the closure of the viaduct.
 - [Baso] When the
 cars stopped running,
  it took me a while
  to get used to it.
 I'm still getting used to it.
 But I was actually depressed
 about it for a bit.
 I've described it as like my
 favorite aunt dying, you know?
 And I don't even know
 what the vibe is.
  I might get priced
  outta this spot.
 It's threatening my
 stability in life,
 which is hard to deal with.
 But, I mean, Seattle's
 always gonna be cool
 'cause it's a beautiful city.
It's just always been
crazy to me that we have
this almost like a scar
going through the city
  that blocks off downtown,
  which is so close
  to the waterfront.
 The waterfront's
 right there, you know?
 And so, it'll be cool to see
 how the city changes
 in that aspect,
and hopefully they do it right.
 Expressing ideas visually is
 a skill you have to learn.
  I think I'm just starting
  to get that skill
 a little bit better.
 I wanna get into
 having more content
 that's more
 meaningful to my life.
 It's natural to me to
 paint in the streets.
 You walk by it and you see it,
and so it's a lot more
accessible to the general public
  and I really like
  that aspect of it.
 I did some portraits
 of homeless people
and put 'em up on the
pillars of the viaduct.
 I lit up the pieces to do
 an art show, quote-unquote.
The focus was for
homeless people to come
 and eat and drink and be
 merry, but anybody could come.
  Friends showed up, members
  of the public showed up.
 It was mostly just
 something fun to do.
 It's kinda like a
 homage to the people
 that have been living under
 the viaduct over the years.
 It provides shelter to people,
 which is important in a
 city like Seattle, you know?
And just showing their humanity,
 which most people, when they
 walk by homeless people,
 they don't see their humanity.
It's humanized them for me too.
 When I walk by them,
 I see them and I,
 "Oh, I stared at
 your face for a week
 "when I was working
 on this painting."
They're way more human to me now
 than they were before
 I painted them.
