A Creative Community Newsletter for Information and Inspiration
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Each week we will send news you need to know about the COVID crisis that will help put us on the road to recovery. We will also give you a glimpse of how our creative colleagues from across the state are using their talent to bring us all closer together! Read on for more.
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And if you need to get back to basics, we've got a
new one shee
t called
Unemployment 101
with a glossary of terms to help you navigate the system.
If you missed the renter’s rights webinar that we co-hosted with Artist Trust, it's
here
.
In case you want to see all this great info in one place, we've made a
brand new page
on our website with these COVID-19 resources and more! The
page
will be updated as new information becomes available.
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GET BUSY
Unusual art studio alert—the City of Seattle is
seeking
a graphic artist to use Fremont and University Bridge as an art studio. Seattle artists, or artists living within 100 miles of Seattle, are eligible to
apply
and the deadline is May 28.
Three organizations focusing on visual media have come together to launch an
open call
for artworks that can fight against a rising tide of misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic.
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BE INSPIRED
Miguel Gonzalez Finds Strength in His Gente
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Photographer and graphic artist
Miguel Gonzales
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Miguel Gonzalez
is a photographer and graphic artist born in San Antonio, TX and now living in Spokane. He explores Mexican American biculturalism through combining photography and illustration, and also curates
www.ltnxartes.com
—the only online marketplace in Eastern Washington for Latinx arts & culture.
In addition to helping build a creative Latinx community, Gonzales is producing and showing his own works. He recently teamed up with Jeni Hegsted at Coeur d'Alene’s Emerge Gallery to create
Nuestro Esperanza, Nuestro Futura
, a show that explored the hopes and dreams of Latinx artists in the Pacific Northwest.
In response to COVID-19 and the limited social gathering opportunities for artists,
LTNX artes
is opening their online marketplace as a commission-free space to any artist—
email
for more information.
Miguel answered some questions from us about his own artistic journey and growing the Latinx community in the Pacific Northwest with
LTNX artes
. And as a special bonus, Miguel also gave us some of his amazing prints you can download and use as Zoom backgrounds. Find them
here
!
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What inspired you to start LTNX artes?
Being a part of
Chicano arts spaces in San Antonio, TX in the early nineties, like the
Gallista Gallery
, allowed me to develop my style of art, come closer to the Chicano community, and collaborate across the state with other Chicanos by common life experiences.
With
ltnxartes.com,
I wanted to create a space for Latino/a/x creatives to develop their cultural expression, and have a safe space to share what they feel about their Latinidad from the Pacific Northwest. Culture for a Latinx person can be very complicated having a wide diversity among our own community. Being a Mexican, Colombian, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Guatemalan, Honduran, etc. is not all the same! We each have our own Spanish dialects, Indigenous languages, textiles, foods, religious interpretations, and colonized complexities.
Spokane is not ready to accept an openly expressive Latinx culture publicly just yet. Spokane has yet to see and understand the diversity in the community of color that has been hidden in its history.
Moving to the northern border was a culture shock. It took me almost a year to find my gente. I connected with the
Hispanic Business Professionals Association
(HPBA). There I met other Latinx people from all over the world! Spokane has a diverse Latinx community. More so than San Antonio and central Texas. I like the different dialects and various foods I can experience with the community here.
Having an online marketplace like
LTNXartes.com
empowers us to connect and collaborate while not being limited to one city's limits. Our culture is a migratory one, and the internet allows us to migrate across borders seamlessly growing and evolving into the next generation of Latinidad.
How does your cultural background influence your creative practice?
I don’t include a culture to my art because everything I am is a reflection of what I am. I am a brown man with a non-white image of myself. I am not Mexican-American, but Mexican and American. My art is the visual expression of being bicultural.
I draw the bicultural person as a simplified illustration, not perfectly real, because as a people go we are incomplete. Regardless if we are first, second or even fifth generation. Both photography and illustration aren’t mixed media. No, they can both stand apart from each other. I create a single piece from two separate mediums to symbolize how I am one person of two separate cultures.
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Done cabe dos, caben tres
by Miguel Gonzalez
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What three qualities do you need to be a successful visual artist?
My success as a visual artist comes from the animo I feel from my family, and my gente. I feel the success of an artist is not measured by the sales, how many shows, how grand an installation is, how large a piece is, or even if they make a living as an artist. It’s how they shape a creative community. I feel a successful artist is the person that communicates their vision in a manner that cultivates a more connected community. This creative energy, or animo, is what drives me to create the bicultural world I live everyday.
Has being on lockdown changed your creative process at all?
I have access to connect with other Latinx creatives across the world in an online space like Zoom. Which is not much different than having a conversation in Spanish while existing in a white space! Many artists of color can thrive in isolation because we are used to the social isolation in a white-dominated space.
During this COVID-19 lockdown, I have not experienced any change from social connection with creatives in Texas, Washington, Mexico, New York, or California. On Dia de los Niños, April 30th, I co-hosted a
platica
. A "talk" on being bicultural in today’s America. We discussed common issues, hopes for self identity, and food. Lots of talk about food! People of color connecting within our own isolated online space. For us isolation, creating alone, and conversing in a closed space is not a challenge—this is our strength.
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Walla Walla Movie Crush Presents:
I Think We're Alone Now
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Every week he'll bring us a selection of PG-13 rated PNW-focused short films, in less than thirty minutes, all from the comfort of home! Watch
here
and below for this week's installment.
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"Even if surrounded by others, it is easy to feel isolated, insecure, misunderstood. A trucker, a dancer, an IT guy, and an assortment of the quarantined, the cloistered, the depressed and the hopeful try to make peace with the solitude of their individual lives, whether amidst the masses or simply home alone."
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SUPPORT COMMUNITY
Art Walla First Aid Kits to the Rescue
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Providence St. Mary Medical Center has partnered community businesses, and local artists to fund
Arts in Health: First Aid Arts Kit
in response to the COVID -19 pandemic.
The
First Aid Art Kits
are being distributed to patients in home isolation, community shelters, and to the hospital for both patients and caregivers. The First Aid Art Kits are accompanied by a card to say hello, public COVID-19 messaging, and a newsletter filled with artist designed writing prompts, creative process projects, and art projects that can be built upon, like coloring pages.
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CREATIVITY IS EVERYWHERE
Mural Art Is Making Cities Brighter
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"Wish You Were Here" by Leo Shallat and Vk. Photo Credit: Mike Hipple
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Boarded up shops have proven to be a canvas for graffiti artists around the world to showcase their work and give messages of hope in the communities where they live and work. The result? Some not-to-be missed art! Here are some of our favorites:
The city of Vancouver, WA is paying artists to do
informative murals
on the east side of downtown because many people in that area do not have internet access.
Seattle artists create murals on shuttered stores. Check it out
here
.
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Washington Filmworks (WF) is the private 501(c)(6) non-profit organization that manages the Motion Picture Competitiveness program as well as a diversity of resources for the creative industries in Washington State. WF's mission is to create economic development opportunities by building and enhancing the competitiveness, profile and sustainability of Washington State’s film industry.
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At Whipsmart, we are unapologetic advocates for creative people and businesses. We give creative professionals the tools they need to succeed, by meeting them where they’re at—offering intentionally curated mentorships, job opportunities, and business resources scaled to every stage of their career.
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