When living was cheap and neat

Originally published Saturday, September 26, 1998

By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Mike Ball, a sign painter, artist and occasional bartender, was a potter when he moved to Duvall, rented a farm and built a kiln on Big Rock Road just south of town. That was in 1972, when living here was cheap.

"Then Duvall was just a depressed little town, and it was neat. There weren't any jobs. That's why a lot of us moved out here," Ball says with a laugh.

Ball's work is on display on a sign denoting City Hall, on Main Street. It bears the face of a cheerful cow, hardly an official-looking municipal logo. Ball painted it after talking town officials out of a more stuffily traditional sign depicting the usual loggers and pioneers.

Another painting by Ball -- a mural of fishermen -- covers a wall at the back of Duvall Books, a used-book shop founded by Vicki and Mike Elledge in 1976.