Get involved: community table builds!

About four years ago I picked up the red table below from a local buy nothing group and set it out on my parking strip to use as a free community pantry table. It small and ugly but it got the job done. A few months later I realized it was far too small, so I made a table top out of the porch railing spindles I had just demo’d from my porch renovation and set that on top of the red table to expand the table’s surface area. After that I built out the rest of the table- put a roof on it to protect it from the rain, added better legs that leveled out the table since the area where it sat was on a slope— and eventually I added the cabinet to protect produce and items that our local crow and squirrel friends were helping themselves to.

This little community table has seen dozens of people dropping off food donations, and the turnover of food and goods is constant. To me, this indicates that she’s filling a need in the community and hopefully providing at least some small amount of relief to unhoused and under-served folks in the area.

We love being able to host this micro-hub for our neighborhood, and I think it’s important to create as many hubs like this— big, small, micro, mega— that can support people and meet them where they are. So with that being said, Dan and I want to start offering to build these tables for local Tacoma folks who would be able to put one in a publically accessible spot and manage it (this sometimes involves removing things that get donates which aren’t shelf stable like dairy or meat, cleaning up any trash that gets left, removing produce that has started going bad, etc). Ours is in the parking strip in front of our house, but yours could be in your front yard, or in your alley, wherever you think would be visible and accessible to those in need.

These would be free for you, all the building materials and labor will be on us or covered by donations, and we’re thinking we’d be able to build one per month depending on bandwidth. It will look slightly different from mine because mine was made way too deep (no one can even reach the back half), and the windows were salvaged, so it will likely be the same overall but a shallower version without windows.

Dan and I are taking submissions for folks who are interested, so if you want to be on the list, submit your info below and we’ll try to work our way through the list as best we can!

When we build the first one we’ll also be creating a tutorial and building plans so that you can build your own, so if you’re not local to Tacoma, or you are and you’re Handy AF, you’ll have those plans to make the process quick and easy! Once we get that tutorial created I’ll link it here!

New art acquisition: Racheal Jackson

If you call stuff you buy an “acquisition” it makes you sound very fancy and highfalutin. I’m an art collector, folks.

I want to introduce you to one of my favorite people: Racheal Jackson. You might know her better as @banyanbridges on Instagram or from her hit Magnolia show Artfully Designed. She’s renowned for her bright, colorful, and playful murals. She has the best vibes, both online and offline, and watching her flourish as an artist has been such a wonderful thing to witness.

When Racheal announced that she was selling these big cut-out sculptural squiggles, it was just before my birthday and I decided to give myself a squiggle. I knew exactly where it needed to go. I absolutely love this slat wall that divides my studio space from our living room— it defines each space while still letting light through in both directions. I’ve always wanted art on this slat wall, but I also didn’t want something like a canvas or framed art that not only would block the light, but you would also see the “ugly side” of the art when looking at the slat wall from the studio side. This piece has no such issues! And oh my god do I love it so much.

Knowing Racheal, it’s fun to look up and see a bit of my friend living here in my house. She actually bought one of my Home Sweet Tacoma steamroller prints so we’ve now swapped art and both have each other’s work hanging in our homes, which I love. It’s always a funny phenomenon, one I notice often at art markets and craft fairs, that the artists and makers themselves are the ones who find themselves shopping at the other vendors’ booths. It’s hard not to when there are such amazing folks around you making beautiful things.

support your artist friends,

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Creative side quest: vintage quilt tote

Every once in a while I get bit by the sewing bug. It’s usually short lived, inspired by a single item I want to make, and then it fades away as quickly as it appeared, sent into hibernation until the next time I get the hyperfixation. A few years ago I got some damaged vintage quilts from a buy nothing group and at the time was amidst one of these side quest moments and I immediately sewed a jacket out of one of the quilts. I have no idea where this coat went and I imagine it’s already been donated to the thrift store in one of my ruthless I-don’t-wear-this-anymore thrift purge moments.

I suspect that this current phase has been deeply influenced by @softpawvintage who has an entire shop and instagram dedicated to creating pretty coats, totes, bags, and more out of vintage quilts, and when I realized I had one of the quilts leftover from my buy nothing haul those years ago, I pulled it out and started cutting.

While the bug that wormed it’s way into my mind to make this tote was most certainly influenced by Soft Paw Vintage, this tote design itself is based off of a tote design my grandma used to make as diaper bags she would gift to expectant mothers. There would usually be a large pocket on the outside, one on the inside and it would be made out of quilted fabric so they usually weren’t lined. I patterned mine after one of these totes that my mom made and gifted me when I had my kiddo, and while I initially wasn’t going to line mine either, the vintage quilt I used had a thin spot right at the bottom of the tote and I wanted to prevent any eventual tearing so I made an inside liner out of the same quilt, so it’s double thick and it feels nice and sturdy now.

There’s really not much that feels better than getting a side quest impulse and then having everything you need to make it without having to go to the store. So damn satisfying. I’ve never been much of a sew-ist.. sew-person…seamstress…but I was gifted a little sewing machine by my mom when I got married, mostly because I had hella decor to DIY for the wedding itself, but it’s one of the handiest things I can think of having on hand. Even though I don’t sew very often, being able to bust out my machine to hem something, repair a seam, make some curtains, or randomly decide to sew a tote from scratch is extremely handy. I’ve never taken any sewing classes or been taught directly (though I vaguely remember sewing a couple things in 6th grade as a part of learning how to sew for some in-class project), and now with Youtube I imagine it’d be fairly easy to learn the basics online.

All that to say, I think having a rudimentary knowledge of sewing is a really important and useful skill and since we’re in the making-resolutions time of year, if you’ve been thinking about learning to sew, you should do it! Even if you’re not planning on sewing your own clothes from scratch or taking on a big project, it’s a highly practical thing to be able to do. Plus, being able to make super fun stuff once in a while is a fun bonus as well.

Happy making,

Home Sweet Tacoma Light trail

This piece came to be as a fun intersection of my two favorite art events that I participated in— Wayzgoose and the McKinley Hill public art training cohort. Shortly after our final public art training cohort session we were emailed the link to apply for Tacoma Light Trail’s public art call. I had previously seen the call but I didn’t have any ideas for light art and I wasn’t a light artist, nor had I ever made any light-based artwork so I brushed it off as something that wasn’t a priority. But the email, fresh on the heels of a public art training that had me feeling really pumped for making public art, I decided to noodle a little more intently on a light art concept. I knew this Wayzgoose piece had been a pretty big hit, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I decided to reimagine it as light art. As a printmaker I love how printing requires you to think about layers and how many colors you’re going to print and in what order you’re going to print them. So this piece is essentially breaking a print apart into its layers, and then using light to illuminate it all from behind. I love how this piece shifts as you walk past and your perspective changes and the layers eventually align perfectly.

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The black layers of the original Home Sweet Tacoma print I had printed on acrylic plexi from a sign shop, then I got two blank sheets of plexi for the color layers. I tried a few methods of doing the color, starting with acrylic paint, which wasn’t translucent enough and produced too much brushstroke texture, and alcohol ink which was too transparent and not bold enough. Eventually I decided on colored tissue paper applied with Mod Podge, and I love how it actually looks pretty similar to how relief printed ink looks on paper. Everything is illuminated from behind with 100ft of LED strip lights. Designing and executing this piece stretched my creative brain in new and fun ways and it’s always a pleasure to have my art out and about in Tacoma!

The Tacoma Light Trail art pieces will be all over Tacoma for the duration of January, and there are some great live events that are part of the Light Trail as well, so head over to their website to check out the map of light art as well as dates for events!

“Welcome to Mckinley Hill” sculpture

Back at the beginning of the summer I applied to be a part of Spaceworks’ McKinley Hill public art training cohort. One of my goals this year was to start working towards doing more public art, and I’d gone to a couple trainings earlier in the year through both the library and ArtsWa, but this was a really comprehensive training that gave cohort members the opportunity to submit proposals for public art in McKinley hill and get feedback on the proposals, and learn in a hands-on way while also learning directly from artists actively working in public art. I was thrilled when I got into the cohort and we spent hours in the neighborhood, listening to public artists, community members, and walking the streets of McKinley Hill to get an idea for temporary public artworks we might want to propose. Cohort members had the exclusive opportunity to submit proposals for five temporary public art pieces, plus one permanent public art installation.

When I saw the spot at the top of the hill coming into McKinley from the dome and heard about the long term goal for the neighborhood to have permanent gateway sculptures at the north and south end of the business district creating a touchpoint for those traveling to welcome them to the neighborhood, I knew I wanted to propose a temporary welcome sculpture. It was the perfect spot for a welcome sculpture, being revealed as people drive around the sweeping corner up the hill from the dome district, as well as right beside bus stops on both sides of the street for folks coming into and leaving the neighborhood via mass transit. I initially planned on pitching two temporary art pieces— a welcome sculpture, and then a street mural in the right of way in the middle of the business district, but when I was planning the sculpture I realized I wanted to merge the two ideas and have one side of the sculpture incorporate the mural.

During our cohort training we heard from the neighborhood’s council member as well as community members and it was apparent how deeply the community cared for the neighborhood and how hard they had worked to build it up and invest in making it a thriving and safe place for those who call the area home. The Audre Lorde quote felt like the perfect encapsulation of the spirit of the neighborhood that I witnessed, and I intentionally chose specific imagery that symbolize the work that has been put into this neighborhood.

Kelp: Powerful growth that has a strong anchor in place.
Banana Slug: Slow and steady forward movement.
Ferns: Nature’s fractals showing how small changes compound into larger ones.
Poppies: Remembrance for community members lost, and hope for the future.
Dove + Olive Branch: Peace.
Broken Chain: structural oppression broken through community support. 

This sculpture will live here for about six months, and will then be uninstalled (perhaps we’ll find another home for it if it’s still in good condition!). If you want to go take a look, it’s about a block north of Dusty’s Hideaway!

Huge thank you to my parents, my partner Dan, and our friend Calvin for teaming up with me to get this behemoth installed! And thank you to Jasmine and Spaceworks for allowing me this opportunity, and Rebecca at the City of Tacoma for supporting me through this process! None of this would’ve come to life without the support from these awesome people.