Crush/Repeat is an annual art event for queer community and friends, and in 2020 featured the work of 52 artists. While originally scheduled to open at Vermillion for April Art Walk on Capitol Hill, the opening party was shifted to a live streamed virtual event which took place on Saturday, April 11th, 2020.

Participants of all ages and experience level chose a small project to repeat every day during the month of March. Mediums include photography, painting, sewing, sculpture, music, writing, video, and more. Topics range from lighthearted to deeply personal, with some artists using the project to process the impact of the public health crisis that unfolded over the month. Borrowing inspiration from a national project called Fun-a-day, established artists and first-time creators alike emerged from winter together using art as an act of resistance, resilience and growth.

Below you will find the full recording of our live streamed show, and all of the 2020 participating artists’ work in alphabetical order by first name. 🌷

Crush/Repeat 2020 was sponsored by:

2020 Live Streamed Show Opening

Due to the rise of COVID-19 right as art was being made for the show, we had to cancel our physical show in 2020. We quickly pivoted to produce a live stream opening on YouTube where our artists presented their work. If you missed it live, or just really want to watch it again, please check out this beautiful gift of community coming together and doing our best in those unprecedented and uncertain times.

Enjoy! 💐

Anonymous

Inspired by International Women’s Month in March, I decided to celebrate brave, strong women. I wanted to share their brilliant thoughts with others and also comfort folks in this time of uncertainty and fear. I’ve been following telephone pole art and street art in Seattle for a while now and was inspired to share my images in the streets. My forte is portrait paintings but I had to come up with something simple that could weather the outdoor elements like rain and wind and sun. I’m using all recycled materials and decided to add a little shiny fringe at the bottom so that they would catch a passerby’s attention. I came up with 31 daring individuals to highlight and it was really fun to pick the perfect quote for each woman. All of these pieces reside in and around Columbia City neighborhood in South Seattle. It’s been fun to hear feedback from residents in Columbia city through social media neighborhood sites. The response has been positive and seems to be creating joy which makes the artist very pleased!!

The artist remains anonymous as street artists do.

Write up in the Seattle Emerald:

“Street artist uplifts Columbia City with Feminist installation, “That’s What She Said 206””

Alice Dinter Manos

is a self-described “scrap artist” (crap artist?) who usually spends too much of her time working in the hospital as an internal medicine resident. She made her first cathedral window quilt out of scraps of fabric-- thanks to her mother, Ingrid, who learned to make this quilt in 1972 from a woman she met on the Appalachian Trail. Alice appreciated the daily meditative task of quilting during such an unpredictable/ scary time and looks forward to being inspired to keep making art by her Crush-Repeat co-creators.

Alix Perry

is a white non-binary and trans writer who also enjoys listening to music on the radio, being trapped inside with their seven housemates, and spending time in the mountains (when it is safe to do so again). Alix wrote a series of poems meant to replace their burgeoning habit of venting their every thought to their Instagram story. Unsurprisingly, detaching themself from social media took on a new meaning amid covid-19, and Alix found that reflecting through poetry helped them keep some distance away from the collective stress and anxiety that emerges from engaging with the 24/7 news cycle.

Amanda Farman

Originally from Boston, Amanda Farman (she/her) is a 24-year-old queer artist based in the U district. For the past seven years she has kept journals of coincidences that happen in her life. She illustrated these coincidences using archival ink pens and paper, drawing from both recent moments and past moments found in old journals.

This project played a grounding role in Amanda’s past month, bringing her back each evening to two places where she finds meaning: in art-making and drawing attention to patterns. She also learned that she felt able to be most creative when she didn’t already have an image in mind before starting to draw. 

Bear Finkelstein

is a Genderqueer poor fat disabled jewish self taught artist who adores color. Materials: Copper sheets. Patina solutions

This was a hard month to do this. Getting materials was difficult.  I usually use a communal studio and had to order tools which still have yet to arrive. But figuring out what to do with what i had on hand was very fun.  I spent everyday experimenting and learn how to patina until i came out with a piece i liked. It was a slow process but occupied me instead of allowing me endless time to worry over what i could not control.

If interested in earrings or pendants made from these materials please email scorpiosipstpah@gmail.com"

Becka Tilsen

is an organizer, a movement baby, a somatics practitioner, a facilitator and a mother. She created a Podcast called “Dispatches: Conversations about getting through the COVID crisis with community care, mutual aid and personal and collective resilience.” 

My goal for Crush/Repeat was to engage creatively everyday. When COVID struck I felt completely called up to action and creation. In the tumble of news and stress horrible predictions I felt compelled to put together this podcast where we can capture what people are figuring out in real time, what folks are doing when they put their values in action, what organizers are dreaming and building. A record of the perspective this vantage point provides and the brilliance that is emerging now so we can bottle for our future. Find Dispatches Podcast anywhere you find your podcasts or here: Dispatchespodcast.com  

Find the Community Care Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/communitycareinthetimeofcovid/ Fill out the question and tell us that you heard of the page through crush repeat and we will approve you.

Bernadette Wright

is a queer femme fiber artist who makes playful, experimental pieces with no rules or templates, only the joy of spontaneous unplanned creation. For Crush/Repeat 2020, they made six embroidery pieces on linen and silk using metallic paints, tulle, and lots of imperfect french knots. They started off the project excited to try out a number of new-to-them techniques but their time and capacity dwindled throughout the month. COVID-19 resulted in another aspect of life in which accepting slowing down, resting, changed plans, and imperfections was necessary. They would like to rehome these pieces for no cost or by donation, preferably to folks who are essential service workers, in recognition and thanks. Please contact them via jbernadettewright@gmail.com or instagram @femme5ever to arrange a piece of joyful imperfection landing in your home.

Carolyn Shasha

is a scientist at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center who completed her PhD in physics last year. She made a series of moon illustrations using watercolor and black and metallic pens. This project allowed her to practice abstract watercolor techniques, and provided a grounding sense of consistency during this otherwise unpredictable month. Prints of some of these works are available here.

Christine Federhart

works at Harborview Medical Center but is now working at home during COVID days.  Being removed but trying to find ways to contribute more directly and show large amounts of gratitude to all health care staff, at all levels, she designed a thank you postcard (2-sided) and is putting them up in various locations around UW Medicine hospitals. The image on one side (the bird - I love you) is a paper collage she created, the other side is designed by Vintage Book Art Company. She started the CRUSH project with drawings of crazy low tide creatures found in the Puget Sound, until COVID came.

claire barrera

is an artist, activist and educator based in Portland, OR. Their project, titled "el lenguaje nos gusta y nos confunde" is a visual Spanish/English dictionary. Throughout March, the read the novel "Formas de volver a casa" by Chilean author Alejandro Zamba, each day picking a word they didn't know, looking it up and illustrating it. Their goal was to increase knowledge of their father tongue while getting more confident at their drawing skills.

Craig Willse

is a writer, editor, and teacher who recently moved from New York to Los Angeles. Using a vintage Polaroid 600 camera (circa 1994), Craig took one photograph every day in March.

While I usually work with words, this project was inspired by a visit to a chakra healer who told me I needed to be thinking and making in terms of lines and light; it was interesting to notice how quickly I turned this project into "work" (i.e. something to dread and avoid) and what happened for me (and the photographs) when I loosened up and let myself play, experiment, and let go of the outcome.  If you are interested in purchasing any of Craig's work, please inquire at cwillse@gmail.com.

Danielle Morgan-Scharhon

is a queer filmmaker from Bellingham living in Brooklyn, NY with her spouse and their tiny dog. She made a “motion picture” every day mostly using her iphone camera and a simple editing app, Premiere Rush. (Two of videos were shot on a Red camera and edited in Premiere Pro.)

I wanted to explore “what is a motion picture?” I expected to play more with form. But as I found my routine altered and concern for the world growing, I turned toward more meditative, soothing images. Partly because that is what was available but also because that was what I was drawn toward. It became a bit more about documenting, more like a daily journal and less of a deconstruction of form. I intended to use different cameras and different editing techniques, but instead I found a way to simplify. By using my phone film and edit, it felt more like sketching, which was freeing. Since filmmaking is such an expensive, complicated and time consuming art form, it was exciting to strip it back to the simplest possible expression.

Darius X

is a doodler, dabbler, and dapper resident of South Beacon Hill. Darius is passionate about visual arts, whether he is working in his printmaking studio or playing with other forms of mixed media. A lifelong lover of the culinary arts, Darius shares his obsession with soothing step-by-step ASMR videos by crafting his own cooking and baking video series. Tonight he is dedicating his first video “Dream Cake for my Maple Bear” to his Canadian sweetheart, with whom virtual date nights couldn’t be any sweeter. While the video is playing Darius will share his thoughts and inspirations behind the making of the video.

devon de Leña

is a mixed-race womxn of color, filmmaker, and visual artist that grew up in Duwamish Territory.  devon made a series of small watercolor paintings that represented an under-ocean adventure she took while in her family's ancestral homelands in Siquijor Philippines in February 2020. Water is medicine for devon, and returning to the practice of placing water and color to paper offered her and easeful, grounded and peaceful moment each day throughout this very tumultuous month.

Ele Watts

is a Seattle queer who identifies as not-very-creative, and is therefore especially grateful for Crush Repeat for the annual encouragement to take on an artistic project. This year, they set out to make silhouette portraits of their friends, in a homemade shadowbox studio in their bathroom (inspiration came from a favorite elementary school assignment one million years ago). The Corona virus quarantine put an abrupt end to this, and Ele switched to tracing inanimate objects, but eventually lost steam on this project towards the end of the month.

Emilie Bess

is a scientist, teacher, and graphic artist living in Seattle. They made an accordion-fold book titled The Longest Month, constructed of craft paper, cardboard, water color, and graphite. The book is 6 feet in length and folds to 4.5x7 inches.

At the beginning of March, my project focussed on the pleasurable experience of learning new things. But by the end of the month, nearly everything I learned was unwelcome and threatening. This piece juxtaposes these difficult facts, presented in the form of a graph depicting the spread of covid19, with simple events of daily life.

Emily Stern

is a human counting her blessings & navigating uncertainty with her badass kid and beloved housemate and evolving as a now-full-blown-virtual professor in English, Creative Writing, and Humanities at The Santa Fe Community College. Photo Albums from the Future is a continuation of my post TBI collection entitled Reinvented, a of multimedia pieces on/with wood dumpstered from our Fine Woodworking Department (Shout out SFCC FIneWordworking ♥️) and employed collage, wood burning, painting, wood carving, carbon and tracing papers, and photography, from the beginning to the end of March. This art was my respite from migraines and where my wonder, terror, visions, truths, revelations, and gratitude were seen and sown, I imagine.

Emma Shorr

is a farmer who loves art, and is starting her own farm this year. Emma made water color paintings of the veggies she's growing to be used as signs at the farmers market this season. This project brought joy and was also a necessary part of preparing the farm for market - it got interrupted with the sudden closure of farmers markets. Making these paintings was an act of love for the farm, and it felt hard to continue not knowing if they would be shared in the way originally imagined. You can find more art, and buy real veggies, at risingsignfarm.com. Emma would love to feed you this season!

Emmett Stanfield

is a queer, trans nanny and therapist in Seattle who loves to build loving friendships with people of all ages. They made a project out of photographing some of the babies and toddlers they nanny, live with, and are friends with. While their intention was to get to spend time with and photograph LOTS of their young friends, given the unprecedented global pandemic the emerged in March, their photography subjects became mainly the two toddlers they live with. Luckily these kids are very adorable and fun!

Evan Boyd

is a Seattle-via-Midwest queer who has 34 years and loves the plant world. Evan made a series of collages based on dark surrealism, erotica and lots of humor. 

Wow um what would I have done if I didn't have this insane art project to work on!? Waiting for work to end so I could get back to my collages showed me the powerful presence art should have in my life. My process centered around trying to create outrageous scenes that one can't unsee.

If you are interested in purchasing any of Evan's work, please inquire at evboyd@gmail.com.

Hannah Chapin

is a teacher, scientist and outdoor enthusiast who enjoys the process of creation in many different media.  She made a series of daily watercolor sketches of buildings in the city, focusing on the Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods.  This theme gave her a chance to pay attention to architecture and her surroundings while out and about, and provided a much-appreciated reminder of the outside world while sketching from the reference photos in the evenings (an escape which became even more valuable as the month wore on!). If you are interested in purchasing any of her work, please contact her at hcchapin@gmail.com.

Heather Posten

took digital photos throughout the month of March, with the aim of skewing light to reveal abstracted views of her everyday life.

Initially, I planned to use the project to help reestablish a regular photography practice, choosing to focus on the most basic fundamental of the medium, light. My goal was simply to shoot light and/or reflection, in some compelling way everyday. Very quickly though, the project became an outlet for chasing dreamlike images, reminding me of “mistakes” common to old film photography: light flares, silhouettes against backlit skies, blurred motion, etc. The mistakes were often my favorite pictures growing up, and I continue to collect unusual photos like this from antique and thrift stores. Creating intentional mistakes became a kind of therapy, during this strange, sad month, a way to recreate something from my past, in my current life. A different point of view.

ilvs strauss

is an almost 41 year old graduate student living and working on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations, aka Vancouver, BC. 

She wrote 31 Short Stories for Crush/Repeat. 

At times she belabored the process, at times she allowed herself to be a hollow bone. Some stories are based on real events, others properly pulled from parallel universes. Feel free to ask her about the book she is currently scheming on.

Wylie Villarreal &
Janet Nechama Miller

Wylie Villarreal is a 7.5 year old artist and 1st grader who specializes in LEGO art. Janet Nechama Miller is his parent, an artist and an art teacher. They worked together to create this collaborative sculpture. Wylie built a LEGO city, adding new elements throughout the month.  Janet painted the city using nail polish and acrylic paint, doodling her thoughts and feelings about this strange month. Wylie had the idea to add the words "Art is ________" to the base of the sculpture.  The original plan was to have a selection of LEGO pieces available for visitors to complete the sentence using LEGO bricks. The artists hope that someday this interactive component can still happen. 

Kaden Kai

is a queer, trans non-binary, mixed race (Japanese/white), multidisciplinary Seattle based artist, and body worker. They made weird garments out of pre-existing standard garments. Participating in Crush Repeat for the second time was hugely rewarding because it gave them an opportunity to un-censor the creative design and build process. So things they'd only daydreamed about for a long time actually got made! Without drowning in as much perfectionism! And it was really nice to have something to focus on while alone in the house. While also practicing gentleness about how much or how little art got done in between all the gut wrenching feelings about losing the lives we all live. If you are interested in purchasing any of Kaden's work, please email them at kadenkaibodywork@gmail.com.

Keia Kato-Berndt

Duality is an exploration of the experience of living with dual identities in multiple aspects as someone who identifies as biracial and bisexual. Keia made watercolor images depicting the feeling of being simultaneously torn between yet made up of two complimentary identities, using plants, dna sequencing, and human forms to represent how it is innately a part of her make up yet also a learned and created experience through living in this world and society. The process was very meditative, allowing the images to come unconsciously with the emotions that came up on reflecting moments in my life where it was very clear that I didn't quite 'fit' into any one race or sexual preference as well as the struggle of coming to terms with that as I grew up in a religious cult primarily in the midwest and southern United States.

Kelley Kavanaugh

is a 31-year-old non-binary visual artist born in Denver, CO living in Seattle, WA. They made digital paintings & illustrations depicting their original characters inserted into the art pieces they have presently in their home, with permission from the original artists. This project focused on practicing new-to-them techniques (digital oil painting, screen print replication, chalk illustration) while spending time appreciating beloved pieces in their home that inspire them regularly. Follow them on instagram @kelleykavanaughdraws

Kylina, or Kylie, Rench

is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator with a strong interest in environmental conservation and education. A Cornish Graduate, Kylie works at a plant nursery and garden store and recently became a Wildlife Habitat Steward through the National Wildlife Federation. This organization focuses mainly on the use of native plants for habitat restorations and gardening in a sustainable way for wildlife. 

This project during this past month has been an exploration of plants, and how they appear in their natural settings and how we bring more plants into our lives when we add houseplants to our space. It is also a visual investigation of native plants juxtaposing imported plants. I was able to improve my field sketching and still life skills.

If you are interested in purchasing any of Kylie's work, please inquire at kylina.rench@arts.cornish.edu.

Laura Friedman

is a person who likes to make the things from the heart that they see when they dream, or when they stop trying and just listen. Laura (they/them) planned on making pony sculptures, but instead made some letters, and paper-chain dolls using recycled cardboard and paint/markers/pencil. Making things this past month has felt like my only connection to a trustworthy guiding force. 

When i sat down and got in my flow, i was reminded of the improvisational principles for navigating all sorts of novel situations. like how to create balance in composition through patience and emergence. sitting down and engaging my intuition has felt like a connective thread anchoring me to the future during a time when all other “plans” are no longer “in place” for me to live in relation to. I’m grateful for the experience of staying open to creative encounter and the fruitfulness of this embodiment, for all the lucky happy surprises, during this month when my nervous system has wanted to remain tensed. Hope to continue this work, and continue sharing in community as a way of taking care of ourselves and one another. Connect with me @larsmakeart on instagram, or if you'd rather share via email or letter writing, I'd love that, too.

Email at laura.friedman64@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing any work.

Lauren Dawson

is a 28 year old artist who is new here in Seattle, all the way from Florida. Lauren made a series of small illustrations featuring diversity of people, patterns and color for her project, where she hand drew the line art and used Photoshop to color and finish each piece. For this project, Lauren challenged herself to step outside her comfort zone of black and white work, to go full color, inspired by the lively, vibrant, people she’s seen all over Seattle. She loved the daily challenge and by the end of this project, had a great appreciation for the variety of creativity she’s seen. If you are interested in purchasing any of Lauren's work, please email laurendawson@gmail.com.

Lauren Engel

is a ceramic artist born and raised in Seattle, WA. They made a series of pinch pots, using a variety of clays and surface decorations. 

This project gave me the space to get familiar with different clays through the intimate process of making pinch pots, a technique that leaves the finished piece with imprints of every touch. I explored different forms and  joining techniques, and played with surfaces and colors in ways that i hadn't before. I had started my project in february, due to the time it takes to fire, glaze, and re-fire ceramics, so much of the building happened before the covid situation was effecting my life. However, for the last two weeks of my pottery class, the studio was noticeably quiet in a time that is usually frantic with people trying to finish projects. I picked up the final finished pieces  on the last day the studio was open before it's indefinite closure.

Email at laurenengelwilder@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing any work.

Leah Montange

is a geographer and a homo who lives in Seattle. She made watercolor postcards, experimenting with color and layering. It was a peaceful, meditative way to spend this time in quarantine, and also worked as a way to keep Leah’s hands occupied and mind focused while she was on her many zoom calls and online meetings this month.

Maddie Romansic

is a lifelong Seattle resident who spends her time making big messy art projects, working in a library, teaching math to kids, hanging out with friends and family, petting cats, consuming delicious foods— mostly, while in a constant state of overwhelm and varying levels of anxiety. This month she decided to try her hand at watercolor, a medium which has always eluded but intrigued her. It was a sometimes soothing and sometimes frustrating practice over the course of a harrowing month where the world seemed to be falling apart even worse than usual.

Maisha Banks Manson

is a Queer, gender non-conforming, Black identified artist, activist, teacher and writer. They made a poetry tribute to daily tarot card pulls. Calling for the magic and reflection of tarot, Maisha's tribute to the cards caused for times of introspection and furthering mystic practice. 

Makenna O'Keeffe
Crush/Repeat Co-organizer

is a femme queer, jewish artist, designer and community arts organizer living in Seattle, Washington.

Makenna has loved and been fascinated by miniatures for as long as she can remember. She constructed her first dollhouse as a practice in building "home" for her chosen family. In light of all that has happened over the past month, the process of having a project that was a practice in following rules, like a magical 3D puzzle, and gave her some sense of structure, (pun intended) became very soothing and cathartic. She didn’t get as far as she’d like to, as she’s deeply looking forward to the more creative aspects of the project such as the decorating and designing of it. She looks forward to continuing this project throughout quarantine while she is able to be enveloped in the practice of envisioning her miniature dream home for chosen family as a way to find hope in building queer futures when the future is feeling all the more impossible to picture.

Makenna also hand painted and embroidered this years’ Crush/Repeat poster. She’s considering this her other Crush/Repeat project this year, beyond just co-organizing and putting on the show with Sarah.

Murphy Mitchel

is a lover of low tech and lightly magical art forms, including but not limited to paper cut outs, 2-dimensional puppets, scribbles, doodles, and sketches.   They worked on a collection of paper cut outs of some of the deep sea creatures that are part of the unique ecosystems that live in the bodies of dead whales that have fallen to the ocean floor, also known as whale falls.  Over the course of this month, this project was sweet anchor point for deepening their appreciation for all the amazing and strange life forms living deep on the ocean floor, learning about the hagfish and its ability to protect itself from shark bites by producing massive amounts of slime was one of the many highlights from this project.

NEVE

is a Disabled Queer Witch of Color making art, home, bedlam at the end of this world. NEVE wrote the equivalent of one poem a day for this year's Crush Repeat. They started a profile on Writers Work, which keeps track of the number of words you have written per day, and where you can keep your writings much like google drive or another live editor. They had a dope time and were very surprised with how much writing a poem a day based on nothing more than what was on their mind or what they dreamed the night before could positively impact their other creations and creating in the world during this pandemic and social distance.

Paula Lavalle

is a thirty-one year old human female. She wrote down two affirming sentences she did not quite believe in blue ink, and she used a toxic marker to display the negative thoughts that automatically appeared in response. She thinks this project is sad, and she does not recommend reading the negative thoughts.

Peta Pottinger

is a queer, black, nuerodiverse nonbinary immigrant who is a lover of spicy foods and the sound of black people laughing. Over the course of the month, ze took pictures of hir elderly one-eyed pirate dog Wiley during their daily adventures around South Seattle. This practice was one of the only constants during a tumultuous March.

Peter Van Eenoo

is a grad student at UW Bothell in cyber security engineering. He’s 33 and enjoys biking around the Puget Sound, endless schooling and his wife and two house rabbits: Frank and Fawn. He wrote short, inspirational posts about self-love and self-value, then posted them to an Instagram account.

I went into this month with the idea that any effort on my part was going to be enough and worth submitting. I wanted to challenge myself to express self-positivity that centered around honoring one’s own innate value. My goal was to search myself every day and express words of self-love to myself and others that would be counter to thoughts of self-hate.

Pua Owan

is a Japanese, Mexican, Filipinx, Okinawan, queer, trans, full-time care attendant for my girlfriend, part-time elementary school garden teacher, herbal medicine student, and aspiring artist. He/they made works on Shizen postcard size watercolor paper with watercolor, color pencil, graphite, collage, glitter, permanent inks and plant inks that they made. 

Ramona Parker

is a 29 yr old Black, queer Southern comic and multimedia artist currently residing in Seattle. He made a short series of character illustrations based on his comic series still in development, Whole Squad Amphibian, mainly working from sketches in Procreate on ipad. This body of work is about escapism, and invites the viewer to take a break from the exhausting things going on and chill with these cool frogs for a while. 

The process of making the work was just pulling myself out of a negative head space- I chose mostly bright, vivid color palettes, which were fun and also challenging to manage- but I've learned to be much quicker in my work and I feel more confident because of this project.

Robin Hunt

is a multimedia illustrator who is working on starting their freelance career. For Crush/Repeat, they've created a wordless, illustrated zine using colored pencil, ink and watercolor. For Robin, this project was about pushing their abilities in visual communication of emotion and tone. As they worked, they learned more about the character and his world through the unfolding of each illustration. If you are interested in purchasing any of Robin's work, please contact them at rehunt22@msn.com.

Ruby Byrne

My name is Ruby Byrne and I’m a Seattlite, scientist, and part-time art dabbler. I identify as a white, Jewish, cis, queer, bisexual, and pansexual woman and use she/her pronouns. For Crush/Repeat 2020 I made drawings and paintings based on the “clothes pile” on my bedroom floor. In the past year or so I’ve been thinking a lot about growing older and reflecting on what that means for me. Part of that entails sitting with paradoxes like, I kind of like having my shit together and yet I couldn’t keep my bedroom clean if my life depended on it. I conceived this project as somewhat self-deprecating: highlighting my bad habits and also elevating them - as art! As the month of May wore on and the Coronavirus pandemic evolved, my attitude about this project shifted. Social distancing has required me to live with myself in new ways. I’ve had to be gentler with myself and accepting of my limitations while at the same time my faults feel much more present. I’m extremely privileged to have kept my job through this crisis and I’m now working from home amidst my clothes pile.

Sam Friedman

is a 32 year old queer person who spends most of their time teaching a 5th grade class in Seattle. They have created two sets of stamps: one of Greek zodiac symbols, the other of queer love and revolution.

During the month of March I learned how to make a stamp, and explored the medium of linoleum and ink. The small size of the zodiac symbols demanded focus and great attention to detail, which can be a challenge for me outside of work hours. The queer love and revolution set is an expression of the things I desire most right now. Developing an art separate from work during this quarantine has given outlet to a lot of anxious energy, I am thankful.

Sam Smith

is a hella gay social butterfly, jock, film photographer, and South Seattle kid. He made a black & white photography series from his [sorta] socially distant hikes around the city. The exercise and fresh air, combined with the opportunity to observe and document the rapidly changing cultural landscape amidst a banal apocalypse, helped Sam emotionally and intellectually comprehend the incomprehensible.

Sarah Alper

is a queer Jewish 27 year old who can often be found looking closely at plants, talking about core values, and/or wearing more colors than the occasion requires. Sarah made tiny zines for Crush/Repeat, loosely focused on themes of food and nourishment, attention to smallness, and self/community care. This project began as an effort to return to creative practice after years of sporadic attempts, and turned out to be a tool for presence and connection in a strange and scary time. Please email Sarah at sialper870@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing any work.

Sarah Brown
Crush/Repeat Co-organizer

is a queer math teacher and nature appreciator who was born and raised in Seattle. She imperfectly strives to work for peace, love, power, joy, and justice for all people every day. She made a bowtie every day in March until one day she just stopped.

Victoria Cushing

is a queer, trans/non-binary artist, engineer, and designer who spends their time with their amazing pup and friends along with devouring science fiction novels. They’re originally from the east coast, but left the sunshine for Seattle summers and haven't looked back.

Victoria made a compilation of watercolor and ink sketches in their home with book quotes from their favorite authors they’ve read in the past two years. This happens to be a collection of incredible writings that spoke to Victoria as they created each drawing/depiction.

Originally, this work was set in their home, which ended up being a wild ride as social distancing and shelter in place settled in to be the new reality over the course of the month. Victoria’s favorite quote in the project was from Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. An overwhelmingly timely read for this time. If you are interested in purchasing any of Victoria's work, please contact them at victoriaccushing@gmail.com.

Wendy Elisheva Somerson

is a somatic healer, writer, and activist in Seattle. They painted a bird every day on round pieces of wood using wax. It ended up being a sweet way to connect with the natural world in a time when so much of our human world is in upheaval. The birds are still here, still doing their thing, still living their amazing feathered lives. If you are interested in purchasing any of Wendy's work, please contact them at wsomerson@gmail.com.