By Hannah Langlie

A street corner full of children playing, small residential developments, coffee shops and nice restaurants are perhaps just where you’d expect to find business people working over their lunches, but then maybe people with penguins on their ties run a different kind of business.

Ismael Beltran is a freelance graphic and mixed-media artist whose work graces the walls of places like these.

Mixed media, you ask? Beltran said he goes through phases with different media. He started out by trying out painting and photography in high school. Currently, his weapon of choice involves digital lettering, which can be used for posters and other publications.

Beltran is just one Latino artist that you will find around the Pike Place Historical District. A variety of artists, vendors, and craftspeople are part of the local network throughout the area.

Beltran is trying to promote his work by selling original merchandise to traveling Seahawks fans. In addition, he will be an upcoming featured artist for November at the Local Color Café, just across from Pike Place Market on First Avenue. Its small, down-to-earth atmosphere is exactly the type of thing he enjoys.

“I met people and I started going into, like, art shows and I saw the actual art culture was huge here, and that’s what made me start loving Seattle a lot more.”

Beltran said he has a unique style that is very identifiable by those who know his work.

“My style is more modern abstract,” he said. “I kind of take from Surrealism and Cubism and I try to mesh those into a look and feel, so every time I draw something, when my friends see my work, they know it’s mine.”

A quick look through his sketchpad will tell you that he really takes inspiration from anything., including his many travels to his family’s hometown of Apatzingán, Michoacán, in Mexico, and sometimes Puerto Vallarta, as well as Bangkok. But he said he especially likes to draw from poetry and quotations.

Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, Beltran really started to get into art in high school. He fell in love with the community here in Seattle and has been here since 2003. Although he has worked with everything from painting to ceramics and in between, his current focus centers around original digital artwork.

But Beltran isn’t the only one trying to run his own business. Close to where you will find his work, on the fourth floor of Pike Place Market, you’ll find Ventures, a boutique that sells the handmade goods of over 100 local artists. More than 25 percent of C.A.S.H. clients are Latino. Shoppers may find anything from clothing to ceramics, jewelry, bath products, stationery, and more. The eye really isn’t short on anything in this small store.

These artists receive all the proceeds from the sales, as part of a social-enterprise experiment to help those with limited resources who want to start their own businesses.

“[We] give them all the coaching and their needs about getting better on their products, and being able to be self-sufficient,” said Beto Yarce, interim executive director of Washington Community Alliance for Self Help (C.A.S.H.), which oversees the store. He said their focus is to help people of diverse backgrounds have access to all the tools they need to successfully sell their products to other businesses, which they can do after they graduate the program.

Yarce was also excited to announce several new projects, including the launch of a social-enterprise food truck similar to Ventures, in celebration of the organization’s 20th anniversary.

Beltran agreed that freelancing isn’t always easy. Although he said he will sometimes take on large projects for work, he said that sometimes it’s hard to feel productive when working remotely. Interestingly, he also said that having a background in finance helped. He recently graduated from business school at Seattle Central College.

These artists find that selling a variety of media really appeals to customers.

Heather Stockdale, owner of Milagros Mexican Folk Art, frequently travels all around Mexico to find ceramics, woodworking, clothing, trinkets and other handmade goods. The store has been open since 1991.

“I was importing from Asia in the mid-80s to early 90s,and traveling throughout Asia, but I lived in upstate New York, and then I moved here in ‘91, the market wanted something different,” she said.

“We just loved the folk art from Mexico from living in Texas and Arizona.”

Beltran is always trying something different, too. He says he sometimes writes poetry to accompany his visual pieces.

“Poetry is just painting with words.”