The newest members of Congress from Washington were officially welcomed to the state’s delegation on Thursday with the ceremonial transfer of “The Chick,” a famously ugly painting that has been passed down among the Evergreen State’s congressional greenhorns for half a century.
The bipartisan tradition began when then-Rep. Joel Pritchard, a Republican who is credited with inventing the now-viral sport of pickleball, was first elected to represent Washington’s 1st Congressional District in 1972. After a friend bought the painting as a gift for Pritchard at a charity auction, the congressman — who “wasn’t particularly fond” of it, according to a news release — nevertheless hung it in his office until he had the chance to pass it on to the next member to join the state’s delegation in 1976.
The painting depicts a newly hatched yet already fluffy chick standing in front of a broken shell from whence it presumably emerged, which is either implausibly small or merely appears so thanks to an artful use of perspective. The simple black background could be interpreted to represent the sense of solitude or anomie experienced by new lawmakers upon their arrival in “the other Washington” — or maybe the unnamed artist just had a lot of black paint.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Skamania Democrat first elected in 2022 to represent Southwest Washington, continued the tradition by adding her signature to the back of the canvas alongside the names of its past custodians. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, will hang the image in his office for a year before passing it on to his fellow freshman, Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, who will keep it until another House lawmaker or senator joins the delegation.
