Early in the morning on March 9, a natural gas explosion destroyed three businesses at 84th and Greenwood in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, 10 blocks from Phinney Books. The bookstore is holding a silent auction and donating all proceeds from sales on Friday March 18 will be donated to the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Relief Fund to help businesses, employees, and residents affected by the blast.
Excerpted from the PhinneyWood.com neighborhood blog:
Phinney Books, 7405 Greenwood Ave. N., is having a week-long silent auction of neighborhood storefront paintings by Mark O’Malley, whose art has been for sale at the bookstore this past year. His painting of Mr. Gyros and Neptune Coffee sold last year, but he’s offered to create another one. There will be plenty of other paintings of iconic neighborhood stores to bid on. The silent auction closes Friday night. Everything over $50 for each painting will be donated to the relief fund. And Phinney Books is donating all proceeds from Friday’s sales (beyond what it cost to buy the books). (Update Tuesday: KING 5 saw this post and did a nice story last night on the art auction at Phinney Books.)
Tanya, the Phinney resident who purchased the Mr. Gyros and Neptune painting last year and is now living temporarily in Japan, emailed us a photo of the painting, which hangs proudly on her wall.