Kraken’s last of six “Hockey is for Everyone” warm-up shirt designs

The Kraken logo used during warm-ups on Thursdays is inspired by the feeling you get while swimming in the Pacific Ocean. When something slimy wraps around your leg suddenly, startlingly and unnervingly.

It is an oceanic kelp, and also a moss that hangs from the trees of the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympia Peninsula. Down to earth but scary.

Anything that does not contain the threatening, but the unknown. That’s what I try to emulate, said Seattle-born and raised artist Angelina Villalobos.

He is primarily a muralist, using acrylic and spray paints in bright, colorful colors on the ceiling, on the floor. He describes his style as a technicolor dream, channeling this shock to the eyeball in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy pushes open the farmhouse door for Oz, and the film shifts from black and white to vibrant tones.

Villalobos, who also goes by the stage name 179, used the bright green and orange-red eye in Kraken’s logo for Green Night, which is in conjunction with their Green Month promotion. It’s the last of the teams’ six “Hockey is for everyone” warm-up shirt designs. Autographed jerseys will be available for live auction during the game against the Arizona Coyotes.

Villalobos attended Seattle Public Schools and still works in West Seattle, White Center, and South Park, though his artwork has allowed him to travel widely. He works with Urban Artworks at the Inscape Building in the International District of Chinatown.

Villalobos described himself as a unicorn in the sense that many Seattle-born artists are unable to stay in the city and work. Either they moved out of their own volition or out of necessity.

I have worked in the community for a really long time. I have worked hard to promote my art, my style. Answer it. Show respect to the city where I come from, Villalobos said. I am very proud of Seattle.

Villalobos already has work on display at the Climate Pledge Arena, a mural on the suite level. It was revealed while the venue was still under construction, but Villalobos said they still rolled out the red carpet completely.

Russell Wilson was there, they had some stakeholders watching and then there’s a bit of old me, he said.

Not all visitors to the Climate Pledge Arena will see this mural, and Villalobos said the point of art is to be accessible to everyone. So shell keep an eye out for potential trade-offs if he is hired by a large company to create a mural, shell create a mural that is donated or discounted so the community can have the artwork as well.

It’s another opportunity to enrich this particular ecosystem.

I felt like I had Seattle support my entire art career,” Villalobos said. It’s a team effort. When they say it takes a village, it takes the city of Seattle to make something like this happen.