Click on image for details
Pencil portrait of Nakoa Wolf, Jason Mamoa’s son inspired by the original photograph taken by Sydney Lyons (with permission) during the fight to save Mauna Kea from yet another telescope project going up against the consent of the Kanaka Maoli, the Native Community there. Read more about it here: https://www.protectmaunakea.net/
This mural is located inside Taco Fresco, a new restaurant located in downtown Rutland City, Vermont.
This mural is located inside the Lincoln Place project a new residential facility created by the Housing Trust of Rutland County.
The kids in the mural are from left to right Knox Sirjane, Will Place, Edie Place and Inza Sirjane. They are local Vermont kids who I know and love.
The topographicals are from local areas. The flower of life connects them to the non physical world, the source of all life.
This mural is dedicated to uplifting the memory of Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot licensed to fly in 1911. She was the first woman to fly across the English Channel in 1912.
The mural is located on Mountain Girl Cannabis in Rutland, Vermont.
As we all make our way through this pandemic by sheltering in place, after a few weeks of scrambling in survival mode, I have begun to create work which will hopefully be compiled into a print set by the end of the year.
The Frontline workers are being deemed “heroes” on social media and in the news, yet they are not being compensated properly for their continued risks. Postal Workers, Migrant Farmworkers, Healthcare workers, Amazon workers and Grocery clerks are all being deemed as “essential” in these times, yet where is their hazard pay? Where is their protective gear? Where is their option for paid sick leave should they become ill? Many do not have these luxuries, yet are expected to continue serving the general public regardless. Organizers like former Amazon worker Chris Smalls have been publicly slandered and fired because they spoke up about the health and safety of the workers.
If they are heroes, treat them as such.
Thank you postal workers!
The so called president of the united states is threatening to block emergency aid for the US Postal Service unless the USPS raises their cost of shipping. He called the USPS “a joke” because they didn’t show enough profit. Little does he seem to comprehend how profit is not the only way to measure success.
https://www.savethepostoffice.com/
Our tax dollars should go to support essential public services. The United States Post Office is older than the country by one year. It is not supposed to be a business. It's like the Public Library! please call your reps & senators today and urge them to include relief to the USPS in the next stimulus bill.
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact
This is a portrait of nurse Mary Briggs, from San Antonio Texas. She stands in front of a partial list of healthcare workers names whom we have lost in this pandemic. *Source photo: Ray Briggs / Okushi Photography (used with permission)
This design has been included on the webpage “Dear Frontline” please go there and check out their project!
This drawing of a meditating child is a reminder for people to take time for self care every day and to travel on inward journeys during this time when our ability to travel to outer realms is limited. Tuning in while turning off computer screens and smart phones is very important for mental health! Spending time in nature, if possible is also a healing balm.
Farmers are essential workers! Also, everyone ought to be growing food for themselves and their family, in the spirit of the Victory Gardens during the Great Depression. We must not return to normal if normal is not a return to sustainable living. Teach your kids, if you got them.
You may not live in a rural area, but even in urban environments, especially in urban environments, you can grow your own food. There are community gardens everywhere. If there isn't one close to you, start one. If you have access to a rooftop, turn that into a garden! A fire escape can suffice or even a windowsill.
Food is freedom, all ways. .
Stay tuned for more coming soon.
This mural was created in November of 2020 to help launch a drug recovery fitness program for local CrossFit gym RisingStar which is located directly across from the West Ridge Center where hundreds of people go daily to receive treatment.
They hope to launch their program in summer of 2021. You can support it by donating any amount of money at the go fund me page here: https://gofund.me/96ee4304
“We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest until it Comes.”
The title is a quote from a song composed by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon* using the words spoken by the civil rights leader and SNCC mentor Ella Josephine Baker.
The first verse strikes to the heart of the issue facing us during what is the largest mass uprising for civil rights this country has ever known.
“Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons.
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes”
The way I read it; the use of the word rest in this case is akin to the word “wait”. Waiting will not bring about change, we’ve already seen that. Who has the luxury of waiting for freedom to come of its own accord?
“I was born here almost 60 years ago. I’m not going to live another 60 years. You always told me it takes time. It’s taken my father’s time, my mother’s time, my uncle’s time; my brother’s and my sister’s time; my nieces and my nephew’s time. How much time do you want for your progress?” –James Baldwin (from the 1989 documentary “The Price of a Ticket”)
This mural is an act of love. Let it serve as a rallying cry for those of us who believe in freedom.
JULY 20th, 2020
I have a daily studio practice of drawing, painting and screen printing.
Some of the work is destined for the street and some for private collections & gallery shows.
click through each painting to learn more about it's content.
Stairway mural depicting a modern interpretation of the Greek Goddess of Home and Hearth; Hestia. This is located in the Lincoln Place Housing in Rutland, Vermont. It was created for the residents to be welcomed home after experiencing houselessness.
As we straddle the end of Black History Month and beginning of Women's History Month I present Lmnopi's newest painting, a portrait of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.
Her Poem, "The Hill We Climb" marks our place in history as we negotiate an epic battle against the rise of fascism, authoritarianism and the tenacious hold white supremacy has had on this country since it's birth.
She is an incredible and powerful woman, a voice we need to heed.
Greta Thunberg has inspired millions of children and grown ups world wide to take action against governmental inaction on the climate crisis.
This is a mural I donated to the Rutland Food Center in southern vermont. I support local farmers and love the way this place supports the community by providing a place for the winter farmer’s market can thrive. They also give away wholesome food to people who need it every wednesday.
This painting is a song for the forests of northern California, my old home state. It is a way to process the anger, sorrow and grief I am feeling over the devastation of our ancient forest groves. This started long ago when the colonizers first stepped foot in these territories. Those men managed to decimate the old growth forests without chainsaws. They gave not a care for the future generations or the people and animals who had made them their home for thousands of years. Now the few groves that remain are burning. The intensity of the fires is not a natural phenomenon. Fire is part of the forest ecosystem, but not on this level. These fires are human caused through climate chaos.
The lines of topography merge with her face as a way to show our interdependence with the earth.
Portrait of Berta Caceres was made using a 1941 Royal Aristocrat Manual Typewriter.
The Portraits of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were both created using rubber stamps.
portrait of Princess Daazrhaii Johnson.
this is a quote from Princess, who works for the Gwich'in steering committee as she describes the importance of preserving the ANWR:
"I am Neets’aii Gwich’in from Alaska, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is our ancestral land. Our communities still rely heavily on the Porcupine caribou herd for sustenance, as well as our culture and spiritual wellbeing. Our elders have taught us that our connection is sacred. Long ago, they predicted these changes in weather, and that one day we would need to return to simpler ways of living and being. They told us we would not be able to survive if we do not protect the birthing grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd from oil development. They told us that we need to do this not just for Gwich’in, but for all of humanity. Protection of the refuge is a human rights issue."
Protect the Sacred. No Drilling in the Arctic.
please visit the Gwich'in Steering Committee for ways you can get involved to help protect the wild
In 2018 I was blessed to spend time in Arizona on the Navajo Reservation with the Painted Desert Project.
The Painted Desert Project is the creation of Chip Thomas also known as Jetsonorama, who is an artist/activist and medical doctor who has dedicated his personal resources to bring beauty and inspiration into the community which he has made his home for the past 22 years. In 2009, he began drawing from his archive of photographs, choosing images of local people and enlarging them and pasting them up on buildings on the Rez. This practice evolved into the Painted Desert Project. His mission is to connect public artists with communities through mural opportunities on the Navajo Reservation.
His commitment and generosity of spirit is truly inspiring and my time there was deeply profound. The kids in the mural are both local Dine kids and the image was sourced from one of Jetsonorama's photos. The river on the front of the mural represents the confluence of the Colorado RIver with the Little Colorado River which is a sacred site for the Dine People.
Currently, this Sacred Site is being threatened by developers who want to destroy the place in the interests of profit; for their capitalist agenda. There is a movement to protect this place please read more about it here and make sure to sign their petition: Save the Confluence
I was given a phrase by one of the leaders of Save the Confluence; Renae Yellowhorse; to paint on the sign above the mural. The phrase is “Sa’ah Naaghaii Bik’eh Hozhoon” which represents the central theme of Dine philosophy. It’s not easy to condense the meaning into a readily digestible translation in english and I should not even try for fear of doing it an injustice. There is much written about this phrase by Navajo Scholars. This particular spelling of it was given to Renae by one of those scholars. The essence of the concept deals with balance between all things which give life; a blessing way, a respect and restoration of balance. There is an interesting essay written about it here. Much more can be found online if one were to seek it out or better yet, find a person Native to that Nation and ask them to speak to you about it. Navajo is a spoken language, so even attempting to write about it is insufficient to comprehend the fullness.
Much gratitude to Chip for inviting and hosting me.
This is a portrait of a young Zapotec woman from Tehuantepec Isthmus in Mexico. Her garments are emblematic of the Tehuanas, women who dominate their market places to the extent that in 1970, men were completely banned from selling there. The ban has since been lifted but men are still a tiny minority in their markets. I chose to hold this Tehuana maiden up because in her anonymity she represents her culture more accurately than Frida Kahlo, who was not raised in this indigenous culture yet is an international icon and adopted their traditional garments under the auspices of solidarity with these strong women role models. I am interested in examining the inherent privilege of a woman from the upper class of Mexican society, essentially appropriating their cultural identity as a fashion statement.
Frida’s father was German and her mother was a devout Catholic of mixed heritage; Spanish and Indigenous. No source that I can find specifies what Indigenous tribe her Mother’s Mother is from and so therefore one might safely assume Frida was not raised within an Indigenous community, yet she easily adopted and made her own the cultural dress of the Tehuanas from Tehuantepec Isthmus. This has become her signature look and interestingly, her image has been commodified to such an extent that one might wonder how she would view this considering her own Marxist values. This is not in anyway to discredit Frida Kahlo’s important contributions but moreover to attempt to dissect the commodification of an artist’s self image which was based on someone else’s culture.
Tehuana Maiden
acrylic on archival paper
30” x 42”
Oct 2018
The Welling Court Mural Project began in 2009 after members of the Welling Court community met at Ad Hoc Art’s Bushwick gallery, and invited Ad Hoc Art to come up with a vision to beautify their neighborhood.
Lmnopi started participating in the project in 2010 and has painted every year since then.
This is a selection of her most recent contributions to the project. Click through each photo to learn more about the content and to see work in progress shots of each mural.
(check back soon; website currently in progress!)
This mural was painted as part of the Not A Crime Campaign in Harlem at PS92 which is located at 222 W 134th St. It is dedicated to the literary activist, Marley Diaz, who at 11 years old created a campaign to increase access to literature featuring african american girls as the protagonist. Her campaign is called #1000BlackGirlBooks
Painted for Street Wise at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder Colorado in October of 2019. Featuring Arapaho Shoshone artist, actor and activist Sarah Ortegon over a topographical map of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, this mural was created as a way to amplify the epidemic of violence against contemporary Native Women and Girls.
The fossil fuel industry is directly implicated in this epidemic of violence. When they build pipelines in close proximity to Indigenous communities they put Native women and girls at risk of being raped, abducted and murdered by the pipeline workers who are imported and housed in man camps. A critical look at rape culture must include the larger picture of the treatment of the planet herself. Extractive industries treat the planet as something to exploit. Similarly, women are seen as objects to extract pleasure from. Desecrating the earth leads to desecrating women. We are one and the same. Elements of topographical maps highlight the interconnectedness of the human body with the planet. The elevation lines used in cartography echo the mark making used to describe the human body in two dimensional form. One could perceive maps as mankind’s attempt to subjugate the land and as such it provides a curious juxtaposition with activists breaking free from the confines of borders and colonization. Much as the topographical lines in this mural are breaking free from the confines of the boundaries of the pictorial plane. The figure herself refuses to be contained by the rectangular frame of the mural. She is bigger than that. Like a mountain she rises above.
When I began researching this issue in order to inform my creative process, I tried to look up the statistics on the epidemic of violence being perpetrated against native women and girls. I was shocked and dismayed to discover that there are no accurate statistics because of the simple fact that the police and government agencies responsible for solving these cases don't keep track. They don't count them. One can easily conclude that it follows that they don't feel that these women count or matter enough to keep track of. I decided to include hash marks used for counting in the mural. If you look closely, you will see them covering much of the mural. Some are being obscured and some are disappearing altogether behind the map. This is a literal metaphor. I have left some empty spaces as well. These empty spaces are asking the question: how many more? How many more will go missing and be lost to the world; to their children; their partners; their parents and brothers and sisters and friends. How many voices will be silenced; how many more gifts will be lost.
To donate to a non profit that works with women who have been harmed through human trafficking, sexual assault and/or domestic violence please look up
I painted this mural in 2014 in honor of Ta'kaiya Blaney who is an Indigenous Youth activist. She is also a talented singer songwriter and actor as well as a scholar and an advocate for protecting land, water and cultural practices. She is from the Tla’Amin First Nation.
Click through the evolve photo for more information about the history of the mural and the way she has evolved over the years.
Lmnopi has been making her appearance on the streets of NYC since 2009. Please be patient while we work to organize the chaos of documentation into something coherent for the viewer. Currently, this is in no particular chronological order. Check back soon as we develop this new website!
If you are a street art photographer and have any great photos of my work, please feel free to email me at artist.proof@gmail.com to share the images. I will give you photo credit.
*Lmnopi - Dec 18th 2017
This page is a work in progress.... Please check back soon as I gather images and write about each mural. thanks for visiting!
In 2014 I was invited to participate in the O + Festival in Kingston, NY by painting a mural on Keegan Ales.
Pretty Nose was a Cheyenne Woman who lived near Fort Keogh in 1878. How she ended up there is unclear, but by piecing together historical accounts, we can sketch out a likely route.
In 1876, the Battle of Greasy Grass, otherwise known as the Battle of Little Big Horn took place very close to Fort Keogh in what is present day Montana. In that battle, the Cheyenne joined the Lakota and Arapaho to defeat Custer. After this defeat, the various groups disbanded as there was not enough grass to sustain their collective horses.
What transpired following this dispersal was years of battling attempts to forcibly relocate the tribes to reservations. It is unclear which band Pretty Nose was part of, but judging by her location in the year 1878 at Fort Keogh, it seems likely that she was with the group led by Little Wolf. However, she could also have been among the group that was imprisoned for a time at Fort Robinson with Red Cloud, who was released and allowed to go join the other Cheyenne at Fort Keogh in that same year.
The figures to the right and left of Pretty Nose in the mural are inspired by the Unity Riders, a contemporary group of Dakota people who make pilgrimages across the US & Canada on horse back as a prayer of Peace and Unity. Each winter, they travel 300 miles to the site of the largest mass execution in US History, which took place in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota warriors be simultaneously hung in Davenport, Iowa, for war crimes.
Learn more about this yearly pilgrimage here: Dakota 38 + 3
This mural was conceived of and inspired by the stories and journeys of these people and in remembrance of the history of First Nation people which is not taught in American or Canadian schools.
Further impetus for painting this mural was derived by the desire to give respect to Indigenous Women from the past and up into the present day and onwards into the 7th generation because they often go unrecognized in favor of their male counterparts. Major love and respect to the Women.