Letter Love is the name of the exhibition, and it features my art along with Mic Boekelmann’s! We’re each presenting work that uses the alphabet to encourage conversations about belonging.

Mic’s art is inspired by woven abacá from the Philippines as well as Manila envelopes that are made from the same fiber. These simple materials are transformed in her quest to unearth and articulate her identity, becoming bold cutout collages that ask us: what would a reimagined world, where we all felt safe and powerful, look like?

My focus for this exhibit is Baby Sees ABCs, an animal alphabet book which is made up of unusual fauna, polka-dot cubist artwork, and a word search of first names embedded directly into the illustrations. This work celebrates the core truth of the alphabet: the fact that it’s a group of symbols whose meaning we agree on. Every time we use letters and language, we are agreeing with each other again. We are saying yes to working together and yes to all the amazing things we can accomplish when we work together.

When you visit the exhibit, you can even get this special edition tiger explorer sticker, made from this brand new painting! All you have to do is peruse the exhibit labels for unusual animal facts and then share your favorite one with the librarian on duty at the second floor desk, and you’ll receive your free sticker.

Princeton Public Library
65 Witherspoon
Princeton, NJ 08542

Open: June 1^st through August 31^st
Hours: open most days, check PPL site for specifics
Pride Artist Talk: online June 23^rd at 7p EDT
Artist Talk with Mic Boekelmann: online July 20^th at 7:30p EDT

In 2019, the Italian street artist Alessia Babrow created this image of Jesus, his supersized heart emblazoned with the words “just use it.” This artwork comes from a series depicting religious figures like the Buddha and Ganesha, all with the same big heart and poignant message—part directive and part plea.

Well, the Vatican took Babrow at her word: they just used it—her image, that is—without asking her permission or making any payment. Gesù Cristo Risorto appears on the Holy See’s 2020 Easter stamps.

A year later, Babrow is suing the Vatican, which made some noise about not being able to find the maker of the image back in 2020 when the stamp came out, but which also ignored Babrow’s initial request that the Holy See negotiate terms of use with her.

While hardly the most unforgivable behavior to come out of a church that has molested children and protected criminals for generations, the Vatican’s copyright carelessness rankles, especially considering how bossy it is when it comes to anything it counts as its intellectual property. The Holy See claims the right to control imagery of everything from the Sistine Chapel ceilings to the person of the Pope himself. If that seems a bit sketchy, that’s because it is. But, when you’re your own tiny country ruled by an infallible religious leader, it’s pretty easy for your version of reality to spin off into nonsense.

Out here in the rest of the world, most of us don’t need a law to spell out just how wrong it is to rip off artists, because anyone with a heart already knows that creatives should be compensated for their labor.