“Sea Kin” - a print to support the sheldon Jackson Museum Alaska Native Artist Residency

When I applied for Sheldon Jackson Museum’s Alaska Native Artist Residency Program in December I pitched a project inspired by the Tacoma Wayzgoose Festival here in Tacoma. Every year Tacoma Wayzgoose accepts 12 artists to carve large scale 2x3ft linoleum relief blocks which are then printed live at the festival, and one print by each artist is raffled off to support the festival. My idea for the residency was to spend the residency carving a large linoleum block, then printing it with a steamroller as a community event, and selling the prints produced with proceeds going directly to the Native Artist Residency program. At the time I pitched the idea, federal funding for the program was in place, but in the few weeks leading up to my residency the administration pulled the residency program’s funding— funding which they’d been receiving for 30 years. Thankfully a private organization stepped in to fund this year’s residencies, but looking to the future with National Endowment for the Arts funding in jeopardy, I’m hoping the sales from these prints can help, in some small way, to continue the residency program.

This print was inspired by a dream I had shortly before leaving for Sitka. In the dream I swam all the way from Tacoma to Sitka, then upon arriving in Sitka I was out on a spit of land across the water from town and a huge tsunami wave tossed me into the sea. I was tumbling underwater, the ocean was opaque from the wave kicking up silt, and I realized I couldn’t tell up from down to find the surface and was going to drown, alone beneath the waves. I woke up in a start— it was one of those almost-too-real dreams that had you wake with your heart racing. Later that day I was ruminating on the dream and realized that while I felt alone underwater because I couldn’t see anything, I wasn’t actually alone. I was surrounded by kin: Salmon guiding me to the headwaters of a stream, kelp growing towards upwards to guide me to the surface, seals who could pull me along.

I spent the first week of my residency carving the linoleum, then we got our steamroller rental delivered and printed! The steamroller was a little smaller than the ones we use for Wayzgoose so I wasn’t sure if it would be heavy enough, but it worked perfectly and we ended up with nine prints. So many people came out to watch and it was such a blast getting to do another steamroller print!

If you’re interested in purchasing one of these prints, get in touch with Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum, they’re available with a minimum donation of $250.00. Huge thanks to the Friends of Sheldon Jackson and the team at Sheldon Jackson Museum for coming on board with this (possibly) wacky idea— steamroller printing was something I don’t think had been done in Sitka before, and I’m grateful they trusted my vision!

If you don’t want one of the prints but still want to donate to the residency program you can do that here! It’s a great program that brings several Alaska Native artists and craftsmen to Sitka to create work for three weeks in the summer. They also do lots of other programming throughout the year focused on Alaska Native culture bearers, researchers, and artists. And if you’re interested in applying for the residency program, the application typically opens up in December!

Tacoma Wayzgoose 2025

This year’s Tacoma Wayzgoose theme was “make some noise.” The email plopped in my inbox sharing the prompt for hopeful steamroller artists sharing, “This year's steamroller print theme celebrates the music of Tacoma. Think of all the great artists who've called Tacoma home, all the great venues, all the great music the city makes (foghorns and seagulls!), the music of languages, the music of everyday life...” I took that last section as my inspiration, ruminating on the music of Tacoma, what it’s like to close your eyes in the middle of the city and listen. What is the song of Tacoma?

“Where’s that confounded bridge?” Led Zeppelin’s The Crunge’s final lyrics ask. What is a song’s bridge? A musical change of pace, intended to provide contrast to the rest of the composition. Here in the Northwest we’re the bridge. We’re not the fancy metropolitan city of Seattle, we’re not a densely wooded small town or coastal hamlet, and we aren’t rolling fields of agricultural land. We’re something different. Something gritty and creative. We’ve got a little bit of funk to us, and I’m not just talking about the aroma. We strut to the beat of our own rhythm. Blue collar, grunge, and art all steeped together under the watchful eye of our namesake peak.

And then there’s the bridge, or should I say bridges. We’re perched on our peninsula jutting out into the Puget sound, anchored on west and east by bridges— Tacoma Narrows, Murray Morgan, and the E 21st St bridge.

In this piece I wanted to share a poem about the music of Tacoma, it’s people, it’s land, the interweaving of everything we hear when we close our eyes in the middle of the city. Tacoma has birthed many amazing artists, some nationally known, like Neko Case, some with cult Tacoma followings, like Girl Trouble— but I like to think we are all a part of the song of Tacoma, being sung throughout the ages as we build our lives between bridges in this little gritty city, “a dusty old jewel on the south Puget Sound.”

I wanted to create something that had a similar visual style to last year’s Wayzgoose print, so they could hang together and be like a sort of diptych. They both have the same black border and if you hang the Home Sweet Tacoma one to the left of this one they’re sort of geographically accurate with the port east of the Murray Morgan Bridge.

The few original steamroller prints I had sold out in ten minutes but I made 20x30 and 16x24 reproduciton giclee prints of this one like I did for last year’s steamroller print so those are in the shop!

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!