BY KEELIN EVERLY-LANG for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 7/10/2026
On a red wall in Opera Alley, a colorful octopus rises high above the street. It has recently been joined by an owl and a bee and will soon have even more companions as local street artist and muralist Chris Richey adds to the outdoor art gallery on the concrete walls.
A graduate of the School of the Arts, or SOTA, Richey loves using the streets of Tacoma as his canvas, collaborating with the environment and community to create interactive pockets of magic around the city.
His work is instantly recognizable for its intricate details and themes of spirituality, nature, and a little psychedelic flair.
Richey is a carpenter by day and uses wood and carpentry tools to add depth and texture to the painted images in his art installations.
Many of his pieces explore themes of love, compassion, and triumph over fear, represented through vibrant symbols, monsters, animals, and geometric patterns.
Some pieces are planned out ahead of time, but he often draws inspiration from his surroundings and the community around a location.
As just one example, the bee he recently added to Opera Alley was painted from live models as they buzzed around a neighboring lavender plant.
“Every piece is different. It’s all location-based. I’ve got quite a few other walls in the theater district here, and each one is kind of tailored to the area,” Richey said.
His process typically involves starting with larger, colorful shapes and geometric forms. As he works, he often ends up having conversations with people walking by or nearby business owners, which helps him tailor the art to the community it adorns.
Integrating the art into the environment also helps it stay up longer when the piece is one he didn’t ask permission to create.
While he does commissioned work, he also keeps an eye out for blank walls that could use some spontaneous beautification.
These renegade art missions sometimes earn him attention from police, but Richey said he’s had mostly positive interactions because officers see the positive impact of his work.
He’s even had an officer hand him a gift card to buy more paint.
James Lineberry is another fan and agrees that Richey’s art adds something positive to the neighborhood.
Lineberry has become a self-appointed guardian of the murals along Opera Alley and is also an artist in his own right.
As someone who has had personal brushes with the legal system, he said murals like these can reduce the likelihood of crime in the area.
“Instead of just blank walls, it gives tourists and everybody else, even the locals, a positive [feeling],” Lineberry said, punctuating the thought with a joyful “heeee!”
“If these were just blank walls, you know how much graffiti and just tagging and stuff would be on these walls? People get bored and … it just degrades real quick,” Lineberry said.
Richey is very conscious of the impact art can have on an area, and that’s a big reason he does what he does.
“That’s really one of the biggest things about street art. There’s a lot of responsibility that comes with the power you have by putting images out in public spaces,” Richey said. “With that, I think there has to be a certain amount of community involvement, or it has to complement the area.”
He specifically looks for places with a “negative energy” or areas that attract crime, litter, or other harmful activities.
“Street art is a great way to be able to kind of transform areas,” he said.
As one example, he highlighted a recent mural by local artist Devona Roy, @artistdeity on Instagram, on South Ninth Street, which features a golden tree that flows into and intertwines with the figure of a Black woman, merging with her hair to fill the wall.
Richey said he had noticed the bus stop there had a lot of issues and really needed something to change the energy, so he was happy to see a beautiful piece of street art in the space.
Along with murals, Richey has also created a variety of art installations. If anyone remembers seeing colorful pianos pop up around the city a few years ago, that was one of his projects.
His favorite moments from that project were coming across one of the pianos and seeing someone playing extraordinarily beautiful music who appeared to be unhoused or experiencing a challenging moment in life.
Being a street artist has taught him never to judge someone by their appearance, Richey said, because people are always surprising him.
Through his work, he also looks for ways to remind people of their own beauty. In one series, he created installations of painted wooden eyes with mirrors inside them and paired them with the reminder that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
The intention was for people to notice the art first, then be reminded of their own beauty as they read the text and caught their own reflection in the piece.
This type of interactivity is one of the beautiful things about creating art outdoors, Richey said. Rather than being behind glass in a museum, street art can turn an ordinary city street into an open, accessible gallery that can be experienced by all.
Richey has a few more pieces to complete in Opera Alley, so if you stop by on a sunny afternoon in the next few weeks, you might find him there.
You can also follow him on Instagram at @chrisricheystreetart.
