Even some long-time Sequim residents don’t even know there’s an active American Legion in town, notes Carl Bradshaw, the organization’s commander.
They don’t even notice the legion’s hall, the first structure people see — or rather, may see but don’t take notice of — when driving into town off U.S. Highway 101 via Sequim Avenue.
Come this spring, however, that building will be hard to ignore.
The local military service advocacy group is teaming up with Sequim artist Melissa Klein to develop a large mural that will span half of the American Legion-Jack Grennan Post No. 62 building’s exterior, including the structure’s south and west sides.
The mural will include, on the south-facing side, bright red-white-and-blue with several figures of soldiers, war-themed symbols, symbols of American Legion activities and, soaring above it all, a bald eagle.
On the building’s west-facing is landscape and seascape featuring the mechanisms of war — including an F-18 aircraft, U.S. Coast Guard cutter, a tank, helicopters and more — along with a representation of and detailed biography of Jack Grennan, for which the post is named.
“What we want,” Bradshaw said of the mural, “is to show what we’ve (the American Legion has) done.”
“It’s a great idea to draw community awareness to who we are,” he said, noting the Legion’s 98-year history of serving veterans, active military and the community at large.
Artwork by Melissa Klein / A mock-up of a portion of the mural Melissa Klein is designing for Sequim’s American Legion Post represent branches of the military as well as Jack Grennan, for whom the Post is named.
Along with numerous avenues of advocating for local veterans, the Post at 107 E. Prairie St. is or has been home to several community groups, from Cub Scouts and women’s groups to Alcoholics Anonymous groups, churches, Daughters of the American Revolution groups, Toys for Tots and more. It’s also been used for wedding receptions and is a Red Cross shelter, Legion members note.
“People aren’t aware we are an active post,” Bradshaw said.
Getting started
The collaboration’s origin dates back about a year, when American Legion adjutant Dan Abbott noted he’d like to see a mural but, as Bradshaw noted, “we had no idea what to do.”
Fortunately, one legion member knew of a local artist who might fit the bill in Klein, who in recent years had taught commercial art at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center for Peninsula College and Port Townsend School of the Arts.
The Sequim-area artist said she had gotten interested in recent years in military/veterans issues, advocating for Afghans during the pullout of American troops in 2021.
“I got to know and make friends with people who served,” Klein said.
Bradshaw said that once his group had made the connection, they started working with Klein to narrow down ideas for what would wind up on the mural.
“We wanted something in the mural for each branch of the service,” Bradshaw said.
“And women,” noted Nancy Zimmerman, former American Legion chaplain.
At first, the mural started out as just a pastoral scene.
“We said, ‘Nah that doesn’t work’,” said Jeff McFarland, the local American Legion’s Sergeant at Arms.
“The American flag colors will really catch the eye of people heading into town.”
Klein got together with Bradshaw and Paul Renick, the Legion’s financial officer, for more detail, and they agreed to add some of the implements of war.
“You cannot tell the history of war without the machines,” Klein said.
The Sequim artist brought her vision to the American Legion which got refined a few times in a process Renick described as “iterative.”
“We didn’t want to pick it apart,” Zimmerman said, so they “added things and took some things away.”
For the human representations, Klein said she used some people she knew, including her grandfather, who she noted served in World War II.
For Grennan’s figure, Klein said she created a mock-up using only a photo of his head, as there wasn’t a full-figured photo available.
Artwork by Melissa Klein / A mock-up of a portion of the mural Melissa Klein is designing for Sequim’s American Legion Post represent branches of the military.
“It is personal to me,” she said of the mural, “[though] I did not want to glorify war.”
“I kind of went in blind. It was really a good team effort.”
The mural had an initial draft and two major revisions, but is well on its way to being constructed. She said she hopes to be on site and working on the mural in the beginning of April.
Piece by piece
While the background for the mural will be painted and refined in the early spring as weather allows, Klein and company are at work on several pieces thanks to some foresight, some elbow grease and further collaboration between the muralist and the American Legion.
Klein is working on several pieces at her studio north of Sequim proper, developing the bald eagle, the war vehicles and other various aspects of the mural using alupanels — composite pieces of aluminum that can be cut and shaped.
The aluminum pieces will then be bolted on to the side of the building after the mural’s background is completed, she explained. The added art will be given a coat of clear, anti-graffiti residue as well.
A group of American Legion members chipped in by carpooling with Klein to pick up the alupanel pieces in Bremerton. American Legion member Ed Hako opened his shop, where fellow Legion members traced around the projected art, set the sheets of thick aluminum on saw horses, cut with jigsaw cutters and sandpapers to smooth out the edges.
“A lot of fine artists are using these [kinds of] materials,” Klein said of the alupanels.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Klein / Carl Bradshaw, right, and fellow American Legion members help cut and shape pieces of alupanels to be attached to the Post’s building as part of a mural. Artist Melissa Klein said she hopes to have it finished by Sequim Irrigation Festival weekends in May.
Still, the project was daunting for Klein, who’s also been commissioned to complete a mural for Volunteer Hospice for Clallam County’s building in Port Angeles. She said she gets advice and technical assistance from Jackson Smart, owner of the Port Angeles-based Jackson’s Sign Art Studio, as well as help with paint know-how from staff at Sherwin Williams.
“This made me level-up as an artist,” Klein said.
Meeting with Klein at the building in January, American Legion members talk about aspects of the mural, but the conversation eventually turns to veterans benefits — or, rather, lack thereof, with several saying they’ve been denied full benefits for up to seven, 15 and 30 years.
“Everybody gives lip service (to helping veterans) but very little is done,” Klein said.
Fitting, then, that one of the goals of the American Legion to to offer assistance to veterans, Bradshaw said — an aspect noted in the mural-to-come with its outline of the Washington Monument, depicting the group’s advocacy.
And while there are several somber aspects the mural portrays — one scene includes an individual on a knee in a graveyard, with rows of grave-marking crosses in the background — Klein said the project also creates a bit of unity, too.
“I think its about building bridges,” she said.
No need to sell the American Legion members on it, she said: several of them chipped in their own funds so the American Legion’s coffers could be spent on other community projects.
“They believed in this project,” Klein said. “I felt moved to tears.”
For more about the American Legion Sequim, visit alpost62.com.
American Legion history, nationwide and locally
The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. According to the legion’s website (legion.org), it is “the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to mentoring youth and sponsorship of wholesome programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.”
The American Legion is nonpartisan, not-for-profit whose members’ “sense of obligation to community, state and nation drives an honest advocacy for veterans in Washington [D.C.].”
The Legion seeks to have a strong voice in issues important to the veteran community, backing by resolutions passed by its volunteer leadership.
The organization also seeks to take part in a number of community activities, including Boys State/Boys Nation — participatory program in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government — and American Legion Baseball leagues (the nation’s first organized youth baseball league) and several youth-oriented programs.
Today, membership stands at nearly 2 million in more than 13,000 posts worldwide, according to the American Legion website.
The American Legion Jack Grennan Post #62 was chartered on June 12, 1926. It is named for John F. Grennan — known by his friends as Jack — who in World War I was wounded in Germany on June 6, 1918, and died from war wounds between June 6-8, of that year.
He was the first Clallam County son to die in the World War.
Local Legion meetings are held at 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Post, 107 E. Prairie St.
For more information, visit alpost62.com.
About the artist
Melissa Klein is a self-employed artist, writer/comedian and instructor based in Sequim. She works in several different mediums and styles, from digital logos and chalkboard art to traditional styles and murals.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Melissa Klein takes a break from her work in her studio located north of Sequim; joining her is her dog Stormy.
Her clients include North Olympic Library System, Classic MoonFest/Moon-Fest, Sparket, Sweet Spot Frozen Yogurt, Peninsula Taproom, Inked Out Construction, Sequim Rotary Club, Dungeness Barn House, Nash’s Farm Store, American Legion and Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County.
Klein who grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earned her bachelor’sdegree in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in initial teaching from Gonzaga University, with an endorsement of education and commercial art.
She taught commercial art at the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center in Port Angeles 2012-2017, and for Peninsula College’s Continuing Education programs, and at the Port Townsend School of the Arts.
While selling produce at Nash’s Farm Store, she started doing the chalkboard signs for the business.
“Lettering is a pure form of art,” she said. “One skill transfers to other aspects.”
Klein recently gutted and rebuilt a cargo container as an MLLS (Mobile Luxury Living Studio) so she can work on-site on murals.
Along with Sequim’s American Legion mural project and other projects, she’s working on a mural for the Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County building in Port Angeles that she hopes to finish this year, as well as a children’s literacy book that illustrates the alphabet in Spanish.
For more about Klein and her work, MelissaKlein.com.
Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Melissa Klein takes a break from her work in her studio located north of Sequim; joining her is her dog Stormy.
