Art
Maria Banda Memorial /
NE 125th Street & 28th Ave NE
The inspiration for this art project is to memorialize a beloved member of the Lake City Senior Center, Maria Banda, whom a hit-and-run driver killed in 2019. Her passing hastened the installation of a crosswalk and pedestrian traffic signal proposed by the community to improve pedestrian safety. The art depicts Maria providing a safe passage for future pedestrians across NE 125th Street. In Maria’s Mexican culture, marigold flowers symbolize “grief” traditionally displayed during religious ceremonies and Día de los Muertos.
The project was funded by the Raynier Foundation and the Rotary Club of Seattle NE. Thank you for your generous support in bringing awareness to pedestrian safety. A special thanks to Lake City art instigator Mark Mendez who continues to bring local art to the streets of Lake City.
Zombie Taylor Swift Greeting Card /
We have a new item just in time for the Super Bowl; it’s the Zombie Taylor Swift Greeting Card. Perfect for disgruntled football fans and irreverent Swifties.
While the shelf life of Swifties and NFL fans sharing space is short, zombies are forever.
Go Niners!
Heart Monitor /
I found this wheat-pasted poster on a metal electrical pole in Greenwood next to an apartment building with ground-level vanancies and a tent encampment blocking a sidewalk. Commercial mixed-use real estate promised activation, foot traffic, business, and convenience.
The shopping district is a lacuna.
The black-and-white image reads HEART MONITOR. The decaying building and glitch esthetic look totalitarian. There is no information, link, or QR code to direct the passing viewer.
The poster is on SDOT metal. It has a short shelf life. There is a war for real estate on poles - the ruins of rusted staples and ripped paper corners preserved with packing tape.
I looked up the name on Spotify. There is a song called “Metaphor”. The copyright for the music says “2022 harvardbookclub.”
I google “harvardbookclub,” and find a website with the same name. The website features a creative named Yung Durr from Koreatown, Los Angeles. The marketing is urban, DIY with slick web design.
Yung Durr also has YouTube and SoundCloud channels featuring many videos and music projects with minimal clicks, sometimes in the single digits.
The democratization of creative tools and the hegemony of the algorithmic mob feed an abusive cycle of digital self-worth, hate, and violence. Today, the violence is present but quiet. The streets offer respite from the internet.
Finding this artist first in the physical world (flyer on a telephone pole) and then digitally (Spotify, Youtube) is called “phygital convergence” -the tactile and digital worlds intersecting in a hybrid reality.
Young saplings dead outside new townhouses. Wooden tree stakes support brittle limbs like stockades
Cell Collision /
Cell Collision is a collection of digital studies that meditates on technology, nature, capitalism, human identity, and their ligamentous relationships. Now available on issuu.
Triggers Now Available For Digital Download /
Triggers is a collection of meditations on memory and identity in a digital age. I use various media -digital and analog-to create a meaningful and cohesive document for an elusive future. Grammarly, an AI-powered app, edited text. Slidebook provided the layout. It’s available as a digital download on Issuu for $1.99.
To purchase Triggers.
Seattle Drawn available For Digital Download /
I have been documenting Seattle through digital drawings since 2016, when I relocated with my family from New York State. Seattle Drawn is a 244-page collection of those drawings. It is currently available as a digital download for only $1.99. A limited-edition print run is planned in the coming months.
To purchase Seattle Drawn.
