INTERNATIONAL FEATURE SPRING WISH LIST DENVERVOICE.ORG/VENDOR-NEEDS ARTIST IZZIE CHEUNG IS A RESPIRATORY THERAPIST AT VGH AND PAINTED THIS MEDICAL TRIBUTE TO CO-WORKERS. The city already had a graffiti management program in place with resources, including vouchers for paint, to support mural activities on private properties, Parker explains. Schulz says it would have been difficult for the project to be as successful without outside help. “The city has been truly amazing to work with. We’re all quick to talk about how slow (a bureaucracy) can be. Not in this case.” Fresh, creative artists kept coming. Tattoo artist @iamextinkt, 24, a part-time Shaolin monk with 18,400 Instagram followers, brought a decidedly theological angle to the north side of the triangular building. “I haven’t painted in a long time, so this is good practice” she says from a ladder while working on detailed images of Buddha, Jesus and Shiva, the third god in the Hindu triumvirate—the deity tasked with destroying the universe in order to re-create it. @iamextinkt specializes in single-needle tattoos and focuses on religious and animal images. For the Islamic elements to complete her four-religion mural, she used a crescent moon and wrote poetry in Arabic and Farsi calligraphy. Second-year Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) student and North Vancouver resident Emerald RepardDenniston, 20, painted a light-blue mural with 40 faces, nearly half with masks on, adding short phrases from her mother’s poetry. “I’ve been doing a lot of abstract faces this year,” she says. “I was (thinking) this was the perfect opportunity to put what I had in my sketch book on a larger scale.” For her third and final year at OCAD, Repard-Denniston had planned on joining an exchange program in Italy for the fall semester. “I don’t think that’s happening anymore,” she says. ■ Courtesy of Megaphone / INSP.ngo JAMES “SMOKEY D” HARDY, KNOWN LOCALLY FOR HIS VISUAL MESSAGES ABOUT DRUG OVERDOSES, TARGETED THE MARGINALIZED POPULATION OF THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE USING A COVID-19 MURAL WITH WARNINGS ABOUT FLATTENING THE CURVE, KEEPING DISTANCE FROM OTHERS, WASHING HANDS, AND NOT TOUCHING ONE’S FACE. HEARTS FOR HEROES Some of the hand-written thank you messages for heroes on a board put up by Sydney Alleyne include these: “Julien Lacroix for driving Whole Foods truck” “Everyone who keeps their masks on” “My mom” “Heather Clark for managing and cooking for the food programs that feed hundreds in DTES daily” “Gregg and Lori” “People staying home” “Wal-Mart for letting me steal all sorts of stuff” In light of current events, instead of providing a list of items for our vendor wish list, we encourage you to contribute financially at DENVERVOICE.ORG/DONATE. This will allow us to direct funds to the most immediate needs at the VOICE during an unpredictable and challenging time for us all. If you are not able to make a financial contribution and would like to donate hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, bottled water, snacks, or gently used clothing and backpacks, please email us to coordinate – at program@denvervoice.org. P.S. Social distancing does not mean social isolation. Be aware, be safe, and remember that we’re all in this together! June 2020 DENVER VOICE 9
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