This mural is located in Montpelier, Vermont on the corner of Elm Street. The title is Morning Star and it is a portrait of Ella Courcelle of Shrewsbury, VT.
Special thanks to Jesse Jacobs and the Montpelier Public Arts Commission.
Completed in October of 2024
Quietness
Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
You are covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.
Your old life was a frantic running from silence.
The speechless full moon comes out now.
(abridged poem by Rumi)
This mural features a portrait by Berlin Box who lives in Rutland, Vermont with her Mom, Dad and two brothers.
It is located on the back of the Bent Nail Bistro on Elm Street in Montpelier, VT. Completed in November of 2024.
dedicated to the sanctity of childhood.
special thanks to Jesse Jacobs and the Montpelier Public Arts Commission.
This mural is located in downtown Rutland, Vermont on City Hall and features a local kid, Edie Place. I was thinking about how much more open to the world people are when their minds are not full of knowing this and that. When we can get into the Beginner’s Mind we can open up to the wonder in the world. Books are one gateway and sacred geometry is another.
I painted this in October of 2022. Supported by a crowd sourced and matching grant from the Better Places Grant from the Vermont State Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
“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
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
This mural is located inside Taco Fresco, a new restaurant located in downtown Rutland City, Vermont.
Just unbearable to not be able to stop the ongoing genocide.
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.
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 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
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
LMNOPI embarked on her exploration of creating work in the public domain in 2009 in the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The freedom provided by not seeking permission was unparalleled in allowing full artistic expression. For almost nearly a decade, LMNOPI could be seen, by those who were paying attention, riding her bike around the city towing a ladder in a bike cart and freely curating and lending her voice into the wonderful mix the city provides. She only got busted once and talked her way out of it on at least 3 other occasions.
This is a small sample of the volume of original paintings on paper she put out into the wild streets.
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!)
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.
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
