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It’s been lovely to see so many portraits of Renee Good from artists in the last weeks, and I can’t help but feel that all those killed by ICE deserve the same kind of acknowledgement. I will be drawing every one we know of from the last year, Renee Good included.

It’s a challenging project for a few reasons. There’s limited information available about many of the individuals who were killed, and if photos are available they’re often not of ideal quality. I'd like to represent each person as free, so I will be avoiding the use of booking photos as reference. For those with no photos publicly available at all, I will letter their names composed within a silhouette, to give them as much weight and consideration as the rest.

Most of these deaths happened in hidden places, where ICE can attempt to control the narrative with abhorrent rationalizations and obfuscations. Every death in ICE custody is a murder, as far as I’m concerned. I do not accept the dehumanization of any of these people.

This page will be updated as I add new portraits.

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It’s not nearly a complete collection of everything I’ve drawn. Between pieces I create for work, that I can’t share for privacy and security reasons, or that feel too vulnerable to share for whatever reason, it’s missing a lot.

But I hope it will provide a greater insight into my perspective as an artist, how I’ve grown and improved, and how my focus has shifted over time. Sometimes I create a piece that appears like a sudden departure from my recent works, but anchored in the context of my sketchbook, it makes sense. Many of these drawings are bridges between seemingly disparate endeavors.

I believe firmly in showing the messy parts of artistic development. A culture that rewards presenting only your most polished self to the world does a disservice to artists developing their skills, myself included. I’ve benefitted greatly from artists who have had the generosity to share their processes, mistakes, and history of incremental improvements that paved the way to their current capabilities— so I’d like to pay it forward.

Maybe with time I’ll build up the courage to share some drawings dating back more than a few years, but in the meantime I hope others find some value in a more in-depth view of what I’m up to in between the finished pieces.

PS: I’ve been really enjoying doing these portrait sketches lately. I have time for quite a few in the next week if you need a last minute gift. Reserve yours.

In April I painted a series of small impressionistic landscapes featuring different parts of my garden. Each was painted en plein air and then finished with a more critical eye, independent of reference.

My intent was to allow myself more loose experimentation with color and brush strokes— equal parts artistic study and art therapy. I feel very grateful to have so many opportunities to paint nature from life in my own backyard.

Each are freshly varnished and listed for sale on my new oil painting shop.

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Preparing for the event was a ton of work— mostly ordering or printing art that was already finished. But it also prompted the creation of a few new things.

I designed and lettered these business cards for the Free Things tray. The pattern used on the back already existed, but the front is all new.

My lettering has improved a lot since I first drew my personal wordmark, so I updated it up and used a projector to paint it on gessoed plywood with house paint, to be used as my shop sign.

I wanted to sell postcards, so I designed postcard backs with custom lettering and embellishments to complement my illustrations. There are three color variants to match the art on the front.

I designed these display stands, cut out the pieces with my laser cutter, and assembled them with tension. Each are sized perfectly for the dimensions of my prints.

It all came together beautifully, and the outpouring of support completely exceeded my expectations. Next time I will be sure to:

• Bring “Sold Out” signs so I’m not scrambling to draw them on the fly.
• Arrive mentally and physically prepared to sign prints.
• Clear the following 48 hours of my calendar to accommodate social burnout.

If you have an art market or craft fair opportunity for me, I’d love to hear about it.

The Community Jail Support PDX 2025 Guide was the first thing that put my new color printer to work. I’ve distributed hundreds of these myself, and even better, I’ve seen many in circulation that were printed or photocopied by others.

When Community Jail Support decided to organize an onboarding event, the color palette, imagery, and style were already established. I handed out a bunch of the low-ink colorway in quarter sheets while tabling for CJS, but printed out the full color version to display.

In July, I was asked to create a flyer promoting Mass Defense Hotline, to be posted and handed out at protest locations. Shortly after, Defense Fund PDX needed a flyer soliciting donations. These were designed to be printed on yellow paper for visibility, though the digital color version benefits from the use of a purple that’s impossible to achieve through process printing on yellow. They share a color palette since these groups are associated and work closely together.

Later on, Defense Fund PDX put together a fundraiser street fair. Once again, the color palette, imagery, and style were already established, so I just had to use them to compose something new.

Then there was a need to widely distribute the Mass Defense Hotline number, with information about what kinds of services it provides. I printed off tons of these little info cards. They, of course, family nicely with the rest of the Mass Defense Hotline/Defense Fund PDX flyers.

I also had the honor of designing the flyer for this year’s local Running Down the Walls, a long-established annual 5K to benefit anarchist prisoners through the Anarchist Black Cross Federation Warchest.

When a need arose for a zine with information about the recipients of the funds, I jumped at the opportunity to create one to match.

Overall I'm really proud of the visual language developed throughout this set. I've grown a lot more comfortable with lettering in the process— and with drawing hands!

Though I love working in color and feel these flyers really benefit from it, I’ve also created a grayscale-optimized version of every single one of them, for easy reproduction. They look great together in their own right!

If you’d like me to design a flyer for your event or resource, talk to me! I do movement design work selectively, but for free.

“My Kink is Karma” by Chappell Roan came into my life at the exact right moment.

I had been struggling to free myself from an onslaught of post-separation abuse and stalking for over a year at that point, and my abuser had just begun to experience consequences for it as a result of my persistence. That song dispelled the habit of fearful rumination I was caught in and replaced it with visions of triumphant vindication. It instantly became my anthem of the season.

Then I saw the music video, wherein Chappell emerges from scenes of cruel betrayal and emotional violence at the end of a relationship, transformed through fantasy into a figure of gorgeous power, enacting revenge and unabashedly delighting in her ex’s demise. I wanted to embody that. Though I had never even considered doing drag before, suddenly I was completely fixated on the idea of recreating those extravagant scenes myself.

So I got to work scrubbing through each frame with special attention to the makeup and costuming, taking screenshots and making notes. I studied Chappell’s behind-the-scenes TikToks and the several reproductions that came before mine. I watched eyebrow concealment tutorials, scoured vintage blazer listings, and dug through endless pages of Temu tights until I found the collection of items that would make up my version of the look. The end result is a good mix of exact matches and approximations, vintage and new, found and DIY.

This necessitated some exploration into the gender implications of it all. I joked at the time about being “finally trans enough to do drag”– by which I meant, it was gratifying to finally embrace femininity on my own terms, because I felt like it, and separate from the pressure to satisfy societal expectations. For the most part, I found that I felt comfortable wearing things as a costume that I would have resented wearing in any other context, though I couldn’t bring myself to wear the earrings for whatever reason. And I didn’t have to! How wonderful.

Recognizing the many skills that go into creating a drag look that I did not yet have, I did several test runs. I tried layering eyeshadow pigments in different ways, practiced applying rhinestones to my face, and overlined my lips for the first time ever. I spent a frustrating afternoon trying to get water-based face paint to blend and then discovered the magic of the oil stick. Lots of trial and error.

I applied artificial nails with little adhesive tabs, wore them around the house, and ensured that I could remove them easily. I opted for a lesbian manicure because I lacked the bravery and fortitude to do almost any task with those things on every finger. I picked up my guitar to try to understand how Dolly Parton does it, and I couldn’t figure it out.

A few pieces needed some customization. I glued rhinestones to the false nails and gave them a clear coat. My old pleaser heels also got the rhinestone treatment, though I made no attempt at accuracy and chose to add circle-As instead of hearts. Because they’re mine and I can!

I laser cut a cardboard template that I used to symmetrically mark all the places I intended to add gold dome studs of various sizes to a vintage peplum leopard print blazer. Many hours spent with the needle-nose pliers.

I found what I believed was the exact necklace Chappell wears, without the hearts– verified by spotting the necklace sans-hearts in an earlier video of hers. So I modified it in the way I’m assuming she also did, with charms and jewelry wire.

The horns were designed and 3D printed by ChaosCostumes on Etsy. Super lightweight and secured by a translucent elastic string instead of a headband, so they were a good option for my hairstyle.

I found a bra that fit me well in the correct shade of red, stitched on some little bows I made out of satin ribbon, and stuck on what I believe are the exact sequin tassel pasties Chappell used. I found a match for the red satin opera gloves and hemmed them. I got sheets of adhesive rhinestones to stick all over my body that I will continue to find scattered around my home for years to come.

No wig or hair changes, and I still wore my glasses, because I wanted this to be me in sexy devil clown drag, not me in Chappell Roan drag, y’know?

Knowing that I ultimately wanted to recreate and record scenes from the music video, I also designed and lettered this backdrop on my chalkboard featuring lyrics from the song.

The day when it all finally came together, I spent about 4 and a half hours on my makeup! A truly inconceivable amount of time, and over an hour longer than Chappell said it took her. Big trust-the-process moment for me, as just about every unfinished step looked terrifying in a new way.

When all that was done, I got to spend the rest of the day playing the song on repeat, recreating choreography from the music video and singing at the top of my lungs, which felt as cathartic and celebratory as I hoped it would. So much so that I created the ensemble a second time to fill in a few clips I missed and then head out for a Halloween party.

There exists a full length version featuring a gratuitous three minutes and fifty-one seconds of me looking hot, but I’ll leave you with the highlights. I learned Adobe Premiere Pro for this!

When it came time to celebrate my abuser getting fully run out of town a couple months later, I knew exactly which cake I had to make.

I’ve had conflicted feelings about exploring my experience of abuse publicly. A lot of the common advice about coping with post-separation stalking encourages feigning an unbothered attitude and emotionally distancing yourself however you can, lest you allow your stalker the satisfaction of dominating your attention. Doing so can feel invalidating of the actual lived experience of being stalked, and contribute to an air of secrecy and stigma around these things. Openly reveling in the joy of surviving meant acknowledging that it felt like I might not for a very long time, that I nearly didn’t, and that I will never know if it’s permanently over. And despite that, or perhaps because of that, it’s worth embracing the victory.

Contribute to the fundraiser to benefit political prisoners

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This guide was originally designed for print. Download the zine and propagate it. ↓

• CJS — PDX 2025 Guide (Color)
  PDF 27 MB
• CJS — PDX 2025 Guide (Grayscale)
  PDF 12 MB
• CJS — PDX 2025 Guide (Color Print Layout)
  ZIP 24 MB
• CJS — PDX 2025 Guide (Grayscale Print Layout)
  ZIP 15 MB

Table of Contents

• What Is This Guide?
• Why Jail Support?
• Where Should I Be?
• What Should I Bring?
• How Should I Show Up?
• What About Protests?
• Quick Reference

What Is This Guide?

This is a guide for providing jail support that contains information specific to the context of Portland, Oregon in June 2025. Though some of this information may quickly become outdated, we hope it will remain useful as a starting point from which you can adapt your strategies. We also hope that readers in other cities will find the content helpful as a framework.

Who Are the Authors?

We’re a small informal collective of anarchists who have organized jail support efforts since 2020, during protest movements and beyond, fine-tuning our practices along the way.

There is no one correct way to do jail support– the guidance contained within is based on what has worked best for us. Deviate as you see fit!

To ask questions, coordinate shifts, or get hands-on help, contact:

• ContactPDX_JailSupport@proton.me
• PDX_JailSupport
• PDX-JailSupport

Or donate to support our efforts at:

• StayOnTheLawn

Why Jail Support?

As abolitionists working toward the end of policing and prisons, we’re up against systems of oppression that can feel immovable at times. Jail support is one direct way that we can challenge the utility of these systems, and provide critical relief to those affected by them.

Have you ever been arrested and released from jail? If nobody was around to help, you likely understand why jail support is a pressing need. Treatment inside the jail is abysmal, and police do nothing to ensure the safety and wellbeing of a person after their incarceration. It falls on us as community members to oppose the mistreatment of our neighbors, and part of that is being there when they come back to us.

Arrestees can be released at any time of day, in any weather, with or without personal belongings or suitable clothing. They may be injured, traumatized, disoriented, or denied their basic needs. They may be a great distance from their home or other safe place, without resources to navigate or means to travel. Being a kind person present to listen and offer solutions to these problems makes all the difference to somebody who has been treated with cruelty and contempt by the state.

If you’re looking for an accessible way to maximize your impact as an unaffiliated individual, jail support is a great option. All you need to get started is a buddy and some basic supplies. Set up a display of offerings, prepare to be compassionate and receptive, and start greeting people!

Where Should I Be?

Jail Support typically takes place at the Multnomah County Justice Center (★), on the city block framed by SW Main St & SW Madison St, between 2nd & 3rd Ave.

In addition to people leaving the jail, you will encounter people going in and out of the building for court appearances. Federal court takes place at Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse (▲) to the North, and immigration hearings take place at the Edith Green Federal Building (⬛) to the South, so setting up at the Justice Center (the JC) gives us a central position to help anyone dealing with the legal system.

The exit where people are released has changed several times over the years. At the time of publishing, releases leave through the temporary ramp near 3rd & Main, on the north side of the building (D).

Previous to the recent hostile architecture construction project, the side door on the south end of the building (B) was used as the main exit.

At other times, releases have exited through the front door (A) facing Chapman Square, or the back door (C), where it’s best to set up across the street, away from PPB parking.

If in doubt, spend time around the JC and pay attention to where releases are happening. Look for individuals exiting the building with a small stack of paperwork, often carrying a plastic bag of their belongings, and ask them where they exited.

What Should I Bring?

If all you’re able to bring is yourself, that has the potential to make a huge impact on someone who has just experienced the dehumanization of incarceration. However, the supplies we consider the basics are:

Snacks

We stock a variety of easy-to-eat, individually wrapped snacks. The food provided at MCDC is pretty bad, and you’ll encounter people who haven’t eaten anything decent in a long time. Consider allergens, dietary restrictions, and safe food storage in your choices.

Water

The environment inside MCDC doesn’t exactly encourage good hydration, and many people released from jail will have a long walk or transit ride ahead of them. Consider chilling or freezing water bottles when the weather is hot.

Cigarettes

Many people leave the jail craving nicotine, and a cigarette can provide much-needed regulation during a crisis. We offer a choice between regular and menthol when possible. Keep them in your pocket to hand out a few at a time— a full pack left on a table of free items will sometimes disappear.

Consider packing a variety of other items to assist with common needs and issues:

Power Bank	Hats	Gloves	Socks
Shoelaces	Drink Mix	Lighters	Transit Fare
Hand Sanitizer	First Aid	Hygiene Kits	Hand Warmers
Ponchos	Mylar Blankets	Narcan	Sunscreen

With experience, you’ll notice which items are typically needed in which quantities, and how that fluctuates seasonally. Make note any time someone asks about an item you don’t have, and tailor your supplies accordingly.

Think about your display— Depending on where you’re set up, there may not be a good place to lay out your offerings, so consider packing a table, and some trays for organization. Make preparations to keep yourself and your supplies dry if there’s rain in the forecast. We find that a sign with the word “Free” featured prominently helps put people at ease. A trash bag and sanitizing wipes are useful to keep the space tidy and welcoming.

Supplies are made available to everyone (except cops), whether they’re transitioning out of jail, passing through court, experiencing homelessness, or simply passing by. We don’t restrict the amount of items any one person can take— We trust them to determine their own needs, and encourage taking extra for others. Part of our purpose is to restore autonomy to those deprived of it, and that means keeping any impulses to manage how people interact with the supplies in check.

We do set out a limited collection of items to encourage selectiveness and limit decision fatigue, but engage with each person and try to anticipate any needs they might have that aren’t met by the supplies on the table. For example:

If someone offers to pay, we generally reassure them that they don’t need to, but will accept a donation toward future supplies if they insist.

How Should I Show Up?

The Justice Center is heavily surveilled, with high resolution security cameras mounted all over the building. Dress to your own risk tolerance. You may prefer to wear something inconspicuous or cover your tattoos. If you drive, you may prefer to park some distance away from the building. Or, you may choose to accept being identifiable and forgo the opsec measures. In any case, dress comfortably for the weather, and wear a mask for the protection of the community.

Yours may be the first face someone sees when they get out, after being surrounded by cops for who knows how long. Meet them with kindness!

Some people will want to celebrate their freedom with you. Some will want you to validate and reflect their anger. Some will want to recount the violence and injustice of their arrest. If you’re able to stay receptive and practice empathy, it can provide a powerful counter to the hostility of the carceral system. This can be taxing work— seek out support to process any resulting strong feelings or vicarious trauma, and set boundaries as needed.

Make sure you’re eating and drinking enough, decompressing between interactions, and taking the occasional break to walk around the block. Be realistic about your capacity and do what you need to do to avoid burnout— even if you’re only able to show up for a couple of hours, it means the world to anyone released during that time.

Many people will talk about the circumstances of their arrest on their way out of jail, but this information doesn’t affect our choice to offer assistance. Maybe the person you’re helping did something genuinely harmful, maybe not. Regardless, we operate on the principle that everyone deserves to have their basic needs met.

Jail support requires management of your own discomfort, and ideally an expansion of your comfort zone. You’ll interact with a wide range of people, some of whom are in heightened emotional states, ungrounded from consensus reality, or behaving in socially stigmatized ways. This calls for flexibility and openness, as well as skillfully deployed boundaries.

You may occasionally encounter people who create unsafe situations for you and others. Deescalation techniques and a calm, level demeanor can go a long way. Manage your own reactivity, and consider whether someone else’s behavior is actually threatening, or if it’s just unexpected or unfamiliar to you. Check in with your buddy and assess the situation together. It’s okay to disengage from a dangerous interaction, and as a last resort, it’s okay to pack up for the day. We have found such interactions to be exceedingly rare.

Be prepared to answer questions from curious community members about what you’re doing out there. We find that if we explain the basic principles behind our motivation to offer jail support, most people are onboard! Exercise risk-awareness when discussing political or otherwise contentious topics, and meet people where they’re at.

The occasional annoyance of some passerby sussing out your political leanings, blaming you for the riots, and wrecking your little stack of granola bars comes with the territory, and usually doesn’t amount to anything more. Passing appreciative comments and friendly car horns are far more common than anything confrontational.

What About Cops?

Being right outside the cop shop, you’ll naturally see a lot of cops and police vehicles going in and out of the building, and they may occasionally try to establish rapport. How you choose to engage or not is up to you. There’s value in making their jobs unpleasant by expressing your disapproval, though this increases the risk that you’ll experience retaliation. We find that ignoring them saves our energy and attention for our community, and creates an environment that’s more inclusive to those who may feel uncomfortable antagonizing cops.

What About Protests?

Jail support plays a crucial role in sustaining protest movements. Protesters who know they can count on the community to have their back through the system and be present when they get out of jail may be more willing to show up and risk arrest. Through offering care at the critical moments after arrest, we can also help minimize the trauma that might prevent them from continuing to participate in the ways they want to. In any case, “we keep us safe” means showing up for our comrades.

How people move through the system depends on the location of their arrest, and the arresting agency. Portland Police or Multnomah County Sheriffs may temporarily detain someone at a regional precinct, but we can generally expect anyone who is not released with a citation to be transported to the jail at the Justice Center, appearing in the MCSO database within hours.

To access the database, go to mcso.us/paid

Federal agencies such as DHS give far less insight into what is happening to our comrades after their arrests, complicating jail support efforts. Those arrested by DHS near the ICE facility on Macadam may be cited and released from that location after a few hours, or they may be transferred to MCDC and processed there.

In such cases, the arrestee will eventually appear in the MCSO database with “US Marshals” or “Other Agency” as the arresting agency, and “USM Hold” as the charge on their booking page.

If you know a comrade’s legal name, you can search it. Otherwise, filter according to the time range shortly after arrests took place.

On individual listings, we can glean some information that aids in organizing jail support.

We may see the severity of the charges and determine the likelihood that they may be released after a recognizance interview or held pending an arraignment. Arraignments, where a plea is entered in court and a judge sets conditions for release, generally take place in the morning or afternoon on the next business day following the arrest, so we can expect to wait longer on weekends or holidays.

We may see if bail is set and coordinate to have it paid, in accordance with our comrade’s preferences.

We may see that the status of the charges changes from “Unsentenced” to “Released”, and prepare for them to be let out of the building soon, usually between 30–120 minutes. Federal arrestees may be marked as “Released” to US Marshals, indicating that they are likely attending their preliminary hearing at Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, just north of the JC.

Calling the jail and inquiring about your comrade’s place in the release queue may yield more specific information. Importantly, it also communicates to the jailers that the community is paying attention and looking after the person they’ve incarcerated.

To contact jail staff, call (503) 988-3689

If you are a support person for someone who was arrested, contact Mass Defense Hotline PDX. If you know they require a certain medication, have pets who need care, would like their loved ones or workplace informed, or have any other specific needs and requests, coordinate to solve these problems, and be present as a familiar face at jail support when they get out.

To contact Mass Defense, call (971) 247-1072

Beyond jail support, it is our responsibility as a community to ensure the longterm wellbeing of our arrested comrades.

Ensuring that our comrades are supported in the long term doesn’t just improve their mental health as they recover— It also reduces the likelihood that the state will be able to exploit their isolation and pressure them to accept a plea deal that involves snitching, against their own interests and the movement’s.

Networks of mutual aid are suited to provide care packages, meal trains, therapeutic services, or help with other practical and material concerns. If you’re connected to such networks, consider offering to exchange contact information with arrestees at jail support, and putting them in touch if desired.

It’s prudent to do so in a way that doesn’t put arrestees in direct contact with each other, as this may jeopardize their legal cases in the event that they are asked to testify against one another. Consider asking arrestees to designate an advocate of their choice to coordinate care on their behalf, in a group with other advocates, or forming a group dedicated to their individual care.

Navigating charges can be overwhelming, especially shortly after experiencing trauma. Legal assistance and referrals are available to protesters from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).

To contact the NLG, email pdxlegalobservers@nlg.org

What About Court Support?

Arraignments and other court appearances can be stressful, and though some comrades may prefer to keep it low-key, others may appreciate supportive community presence in the courtroom. Always ask, and respect their preferences.

If court support is desired, those attending arraignments in the JC should be prepared to go through a metal detector, and avoid bringing weapons or items you wouldn’t want a cop to see. At the federal courthouse, dress nicely (think button-down shirt) and be prepared to show ID. Avoid phone use in the courtroom, and show your solidarity without disrupting proceedings.

Quick Reference for Common Needs

Read the guide on my blog, or download the zine for print.

↑ Download the full-res art for free.

I created this piece out of sheer necessity. May 2020-2021 following the murder of George Floyd was a whirlwind that left me with a disorganized pile of intense and significant memories unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and lessons to go along with them. I knew if I didn’t reflect and record them somehow, they’d begin to fade.

These memories are not mine alone. I could think of no better way to express my gratitude to every person who I struggled alongside, and who shared their own impactful stories with me, than to create a tribute to our shared experiences through art. I still stop and gaze at it from time to time with astonishment that it all happened.

As our current protest season ramps up, I hope it helps you reflect on your own your own lessons from those days, and your role in the continuing fight.

Scenes from the Map

The following highlights were later featured in Willamette Week 47/35 for the week of June 30, 2021, along with a statement from me and a centerfold print of the full illustration.

Throughout June, marches originating at Revolution Hall drew crowds of thousands, who traveled along various routes holding signs, chanting, and drumming. Though the marches occasionally concluded downtown where police clashes took place, they more often ended with speeches in parks. On the edges of many marches, teams of bike corkers protected protesters from vehicles at intersections.

Starting in July, federal agencies began to make appearances downtown near Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. Though the first groups of protesters to face off against them were small crowds of dedicated nightly protesters, increasing public awareness of the violence and abductions by federal agents resulted in a massive wave of renewed engagement.

Tensions between antifascist protesters and various white supremacist groups escalated to a brawl in front of the Justice Center on August 22nd. Hours of intermittent fighting, which involved paintballs, smoke bombs, fireworks, and copious amounts of pepper spray, came to an end when antifascists advanced victoriously to push the disjointed adversaries out of the area.

On September 5th, to celebrate the 100th consecutive night of protest in Portland, protesters gathered for speeches in Ventura Park. When they left to march toward the East Precinct, police quickly intervened with tear gas, impact munitions, and violent bull rushes. Protesters responded with fireworks and misthrown Molotov cocktails. By the end of the night, 59 protesters had been arrested.

Occasional protests at the ICE facility in South Waterfront usually lead to battles with federal agents, who would emerge from inside the building with a volley of impact munitions and tear gas against protesters with umbrellas and plastic shields. However, despite claims to the contrary by mayor Ted Wheeler, attacks by Portland Police often appeared to be coordinated with those of federal agencies. On one such occasion on September 18th, Portland Police charged the back of the crowd and made several vicious arrests under the cover of smoke deployed by the feds.

Mutual aid networks have been essential to sustaining the protests and beginning to build the kind of world that many protesters are fighting for. Community members came to depend on these groups for food, protective gear, mechanic work, firewood, clothing, prescription eyewear, and many others specialities. The mutual aid groups that arose in response to the protests eventually provided necessary support to those displaced by unprecedented wildfires in September 2020.

As crowd numbers began to dwindle and the remaining community became more connected, there were opportunities for new protest tactics. On October 10th, a group coordinated through secret channels to silently march to the North Precinct. Information about the plan was leaked publicly, and police were ready to attack protesters immediately upon their arrival. The group struggled to hold onto each other as they were pepper sprayed, violently pried apart, and arrested.

The ongoing protests necessitated many different specialized support roles. Community members performing jail support have been continuously posted outside of the Justice Center, providing aid to anyone being released from the jail, as well as the nearby homeless community and anyone else in need of assistance. Medics have also been present throughout the protests, providing everything from ear protection, to eye wash, to treatments for critical injuries inflicted by police.

On the night of October 11th, an indigenous-lead march from Waterfront Park to South Park Blocks culminated in the toppling of two statues. The first, a statue of Theodore Roosevelt, an expansionist who sought to erase Native Americans from their ancestral lands, and the second, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, who ordered the mass execution of 38 Dakota men.

On the night of October 27th, protesters marched to Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan’s home to urge him to vote in favor of a 18 million dollar police budget cut. Despite the heartfelt stories protesters shared with him in support of their pleas for defunding, and a prior stated interest in reallocating police funding to other programs, Commissioner Ryan cast his tie-breaking vote against the cut, prompting subsequent protests at his home.

As increasing numbers of Portlanders were affected by homelessness throughout the year, a disproportionate amount of them being non-white, many people involved in racial justice protests also directed their efforts toward preventing homeless encampments from being destroyed by city contractors. The protest in response to the sweep of Laurelhurst Park on November 19th was one notable effort among many similar ones at various other camps.

Early in the morning on December 8th, after months of community gatherings facilitated by the Kinney family to resist their eviction from the Red House, police initiated a long-anticipated raid. Despite several arrests, and efforts to render the Red House uninhabitable, the community responded by constructing their own barricades to defend the home and the surrounding encampment. Protesters occupied the fortified area for multiple days until a tentative agreement was reached that would allow the Kinney family to keep their home.

On March 12th, a group of over 100 protesters moving through the Pearl District were indiscriminately detained in a kettle by Portland Police. Press and legal observers were asked to leave before protesters were singled out to be photographed and identified as a condition of their release from the area. Many resisted, and several were ultimately arrested.

Process

Artistically, this was the most intensive project I’ve ever taken on. Planning the layout, developing the style, sketching and positioning each individual element, carefully inking, systematically coloring, and accounting for a standard allowance of time spent staring at my own drawing immersed in vivid warzone flashbacks, this single piece took me approximately 350 active hours to complete. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started it.

Given that I intended this piece to be printed at 18”×24”, and I was working almost entirely in Procreate, I was constrained to 6 layers to render the entire illustration up until the final stages. Thoughtful planning went into layering the detailed sketches of each different object category over the rough composition.

For efficient coloring, I broke the illustration up into an ink layer and four brightly colored masking shapes, painting alpha locked, layer-by-layer. The final color palette came together cohesively through a series of adjustment layers and blend modes, with texture applied throughout.

The title was lettered based on warped type set in Ohno’s ‘Obviously’.

Variants

I’ve made a few alternate colorways for various occasions and purposes over the years. The line art version was made available to download as a coloring page.

You can still buy a print of the classic variant, if you like.

I painted this piece in 2022 and it remains one of my personal favorites. It was featured in the t4t Art Collective :Symbiosis: art show last year, along with this artist statement:

After returning to daily life following a year or more dedicated to protest, I found myself searching for continued community and purpose. The garden became a place to heal and rebuild connection with myself, and with anyone who shared in the labor and bounty of it. Slowly, I strengthened my relationships with the living beings around me, found new aspirations to nurture, and learned to feel safe and held in my environment again after the tear gas cleared. This piece honors the supportive interdependence between resistance and rest, solidarity and solitude, trauma and recovery.

Summertime Advice

If you’re joining a protest movement, it’s crucially important to integrate supportive practices along the way. Lean on your people, honor your emotions, take breaks, be in nature. Connect with the world, so you never lose touch with what you’re fighting for.

Psychological trauma is inevitable when you're showing up to a war zone, and it’s not something to power through. Treat it like a wound, tend to it intentionally, and recognize when you’re critically injured. Your hypervigilance can be an advantage, but it’s a liability in roles that require calm awareness. Adapt to your changing capabilities and don’t get attached to the frontlines.

It’s not a mark of dedication to sacrifice yourself. Find the things that sustain you and seek them out with the same principled militancy that you apply to the struggle. Not just to maintain yourself as an asset to the cause– you’re more than a resource. You are a precious person worth protecting, same as the comrades you’re standing with.

Downloads and prints are available.

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Some of the absolute highlights of my life have been moments of mutual appreciation with artists I admire. Nothing better than finding out that someone who inspires me is also a fan of my work.

So when I stopped by the merch table for my favorite folk punk band Rent Strike after their Portland show last year and John said “Wait, you’re an artist right? I love your art!”, I was elated. And I had to follow up to see if they were interested in collaborating.

When we started talking specifics, it was immediately clear what I should draw for them. I asked if they had any ideas in mind, and they started describing something that was already in my sketchbook as a concept. My propaganda poster style was an ideal match for the aggressively abolitionist and anti-capitalist lyrics of Escape from Möbius Strip Mall, Pt. 2.

Inked in Rent Strike’s signature color palette with a great deal of reverence for the existing visual language of the band, I set out to create a composition that bridged the gap between my style and theirs. I ended up making a few versions of varying complexity to be used in different scales and contexts, and they all turned out very cool in their own ways.

They’re on t-shirts and patches! Get ‘em on the May/June tour! If Rent Strike is playing your city, you're very lucky.

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In celebration of May Day, this lettering composition is an homage to Adolph Fischer’s Haymarket handbills.

A typesetter, Fischer was indicted mainly on the basis of his involvement in producing the print material calling for the mass meeting of workers that would become the Haymarket Affair in 1886.

Iconically, his last words before being executed were, “Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life!”

The typography of the original flyer had such incredible style.

This piece is free to download, print and propagate as you please, with giclée prints available from buyolympia.

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I love the way brassicas transform as they generate new growth year over year. This red cabbage that I got from a mutual aid plant swap made a beautiful head of cabbage in the fall, and now it’s putting out new leaves and flower buds from side shoots. My garden just does things!

This piece, like many of my recent digital works, was painted from photo reference with modified MaxPacks brushes in Procreate.

This is far from the first time I've painted brassicas and their garden plots. In fact, my first oil painting of all time was a tiny impressionist portrait of a kale seedling from my grow room.

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I created this piece a year ago, as a way of processing the constant horror and grief that results from staying engaged in the time of multiple concurrent genocides.

Animation was the ideal medium to capture the jarring uneasiness of being jolted from one atrocity to the next each moment on a social media feed.

See the audiovisual version with sound clips borrowed from Motaz Azaiza, Sergio Olmos, Akilimali Chomachoma for the full effect.

↑ There's a corresponding giclée print for each scene, or you can download all three to print and propagate.

If you can’t get the images out of your head, you aren’t meant to. May the atrocities we see documented each day inspire a lifetime of action.

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I haven’t created any finished art depicting the 2020 protests since the map, so it was rewarding to revisit the subject as an oil painter.

If there’s a call to action associated with these, it’s not to repeat past tactics. It’s to remember how brave we were together, how we carved out little pockets of freedom and power out of reach of the state, and how relentlessly we fought to protect them.

↑ Prints & downloads are available!

See also: Anarchy Earth and We Will

Usually, when I start an oil painting, toning my canvas with a saturated, solid color is the first and most important step. Whichever color I choose will influence the entire palette as it peeks through the edges between brush strokes and provides a baseline against which all other colors “compete”, driving up the saturation of the painting as a whole.

When I paint on copper, the base is predetermined, but it’s also dynamic. The color peeking through the edges has a warm metallic shimmer that appears darker or lighter depending on the surrounding environment. This forces me to be very mindful of where I leave negative space, and discourages me from overworking the painting.

This is my third copper panel painting (see: Cherry Tree Autumn and Tide Pool) and my first figure painting on copper. Planning to hang it in my bedroom next to the giant self portrait above my headboard, and across from a couple of treasured Ale Casanova originals, one of my biggest inspirations in figure painting.

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Another experiment in my quest to integrate my various art styles comes in the form of this trio of oil paintings layered with digital hand lettering.

Each background was painted from simple textural reference, with an intentionally dark and limited range of tones so that the white lettering would contrast well. I also used a lot more wet-on-wet painting than usual, to give them a soft blended quality that recedes behind the words.

These phrases were born out of appreciation for my own resilience as I freed myself from my abuser– and the resilience of everyone who supported me with beautiful acts of survivor solidarity and community care. Here’s hoping they will apply to the larger systems of oppression we’re all facing.

I created these posters one year ago. Pleased to present them exactly how I like on my blog for the first time.

Surrounding myself with beautiful anarchist art is an important supporting element of my activism and organizing life, and my main goal with these was to create something worthy of hanging among the artists who inspire me, on my own walls.

feat. N.O. Bonzo, Krime, Black Lodge Press, Roger Peet, & Tender-Heart Press

Each piece was composed as a sketch and hand lettered, with special care taken to keep them balanced as a set, while still dynamic and varied.

They’re available for free to download, print, and propagate, including modified versions for low ink or grayscale printing.

Or you can buy a giclée print and hang them on your own walls, for when you need a little extra inspiration:

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These traveled through so many different processes:

• Sketched the symbol in Procreate
• Drew the vector shape and masked photographs in Photoshop to create the reference compositions
• Added the stencil bridges in Illustrator
• Laser cut the stencil in cardboard with a Glowforge
• Used the stencil and a paintbrush to transfer the symbol onto linen panels
• Painted according to the reference with oil paint

There’s something very digital about them conceptually, but with an analogue application that introduces organic imperfections.

Prints & downloads are available!

Anarchy Lake

Anarchy Forest

Anarchy Garden

And so, the scope of my audience has fluctuated. Everyone likes a zoetrope animation of a baby raccoon. Not everyone likes propaganda celebrating politically-motivated arson. One direct reference to “Palestinian resistance solidarity” and I watched the reach I built on Instagram get throttled into nonexistence. A common story, likely to become more common as Meta continues to codify the abusive and genocidal policies it has held for years.

I’ve become increasingly angry at the prospect of compromising in any way to maintain the privilege of having my work exploited for the ad machine. And very importantly, I’ve become angry at how my own attention is exploited. I hate the way Instagram turns my ambition as an artist into a slot machine game, erupting with ringing bells and flashing lights every time I win the algorithm jackpot, and immediately inviting me to play again. I hate the way it draws me into an endless stream of content consumption as an inevitable detour on my way to upload any new piece. It is directly at odds with my intrinsic motivation and it hurts my ability to create and be well.

I’ve also experienced an absurd amount of stalking and doxxing over the years. Throughout my online existence, there has always been at least one person from my past asserting their unwanted presence in my life, popping up in ominous and threatening ways in any inbox, comment section or reply thread I might be paying attention to. Most recently, an abusive ex carried out an intricate years-long smear campaign against me, directing a wave of public vitriol toward me that forced me to lock down my accounts and retreat temporarily. Every time I post, I’m overcoming trauma. Luckily, I’m excellent at that.

If there’s one thing that surviving that experience has taught me, it’s that I don’t actually have any control over how I’m perceived. If it’s taught me a second thing, it’s that staying small doesn’t keep me safe. So here I am, trying to find peace and freedom in that. I hope this will be a place where I can share my art without as much concern over censorship and public reception– but I also hope to grow into my voice here, about more than just art and design.

I may never have the reach I had again, and that’s okay. I was never meant to be in relationship with tens of thousands of people. I’d much prefer to connect with a few, with whom I share actual affinity, from a space that is truly my own.

Are you also divesting from evil social media platforms in favor of your own website? Email me! We can visit each others’ blogs and build curated online community like the old times, back when we all liked the internet.

New art to come very soon. You can still follow me on RSS, Mastodon, or Bluesky.

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