projects
What i’ve been up to
Panel discussion
Untold Stories: AOC (Artists of Color) & Art at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Invited Artists Tatiana Garmendia, Nikki Jabbora-Barber, and Carina del Rosario talk about their experiences as Artists of Color, the impact of their ethnicities on how their art is perceived, and what influences their creation of art.
Black Swan Project
My best friends, Niko, Troy, Jesse, and I all brainstormed how we could contribute our individual (and very different) skills to a common goal and arrived at the Black Swan Project. Black Swans are rarely seen in the wild, to the point where many say they don’t exist. The same is often true for people of color who are told their traumas are not real. For us, seeing a Black Swan represents the beauty of acknowledging this trauma and moving from a place of invisibility or shame to a place of empowerment.
To start off our project, we plan to raise money for Haymarket Pole Collective (HMPC) through the sale of a limited edition of woodcut prints. 80% of profits will be donated to HMPC (20% covers material fees). HMPC is an organization of sex workers for sex workers, focusing on advocating for safe and equitable home--and workspaces for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and or LGBTQIA2S+ sex workers. The collective is currently piloting a program where they match QTBIPOC clinicians with sex workers of color and provide free therapy services for one year.
Black Swan prints are available on the art for sale page. 80% of profits will be donated to Haymarket Pole Collective (20% covers material fees).
Wait…what are you? Series
In the “Wait…what are you?” series (a question all too familiar to mixed race people), I am making sense of intersecting influences that have led me to hate the word ‘exotic’ and resent the experience of being a woman for a good portion of my life. I re-examine female characters from stories I passively internalized in childhood. These womens’ individual voices and feelings were not included in the stories I heard growing up –only the actions of people/gods in positions of power over them. In this series, I undertake giving their perspectives authority.
I want to not only call on Middle Eastern (MENAP), Greek mythological, and Pacific Northwestern symbolism for their direct cultural meanings, but to also center the thousands of women’s voices that came before mine - many that were silent or silenced throughout history and today. It is important for me to remove the passive acceptance of accessible exoticism and redefine being a mixed race woman who is white-adjacent.
Das Schaufenster Gallery Artist Talk
Shahrazad, 2021, woodcut on fabric 6 x 4 ft
Artists discuss cultural appropriation
In conjunction with Seattle Print Arts, I coordinated a webinar series consisting of 4 virtual artist conversations presented by Seattle Print Arts and facilitated by Cleo Barnett, Executive Director of Amplifier. In each conversation, cultural appropriation is discussed from the perspectives of each artist. Artists include: Gregg Deal, Tracy Rector, Jude Vesvarut (Letronik), Tann Parker, Nisha Sethi, and Monyee Chau. You can view the series, ‘Drawing the Line: Influence, Inspiration, and Appropriation’ here.
Mural
Charleena Lyles #sayhername was murdered in Seattle. She had called to report a burglary. Her two children were home with her. She was pregnant. I was commissioned to paint this mural during the height of the Seattle #BlackLivesMatter in the summer of 2020. This mural was based off of protest posters I had screenprinted. If you are interested in getting a poster or would like other posters, email me. They are free of charge - just help me with shipping.
Community botanicals
November - February 2020
I put out a call via instagram, facebook, and email to friends, acquaintances, and strangers to send me an image of a flower or plant that meant something to them. Each print came from a story. Ranging from ‘peonies make me smile’ to ‘Joey bought me a carnation on our first date when I was 16’. I enjoyed learning about each memory or feeling someone had associated with a botanical. I displayed them collectively in my solo exhibition, ‘Growing Vertically, Together’. Ironically, this was the last in-person exhibition I had before covid lock down in Seattle. Each card- sized print is made using a single block woodcut with letterpress hand-set type. You can purchase remaining woodcuts from my art for SALE page.
Community wallpaper
Seattle Art Museum (SAM) invited me to participate in a public engagement workshop to tie into the Morris exhibition on display. I chose to invite guests to seek out a botanical they enjoyed from the Olympic Sculpture Park and sketch, carve, and print their design on to tyvek wallpaper. As the wallpaper grew longer and longer, we hung and installed it as temporary public art ‘wallpaper’.