Each month, Coca-Cola Southwest Beverage’s Community Canvas program celebrates diversity and highlights their commitment to building a more sustainable and inclusive future for all. Their agency, Trace Element, hired me to create a custom piece for the month of June.

Like a quilt that is made of memories, the collage is built from individual pieces glued together to represent the LGBTQIA+ uniting around our shared history. The composition spells PRIDE in abstract, rainbow-colored hand lettering.

The individual images were sourced from my own work, historical photos from the first Pride March in 1970, and portraits of LGBTQIA+ icons Edith Windsor and Harvey Milk. Up close, the artwork reveals its imperfections and idiosyncrasies. Viewed from afar, however, the piece clearly and boldly reads "PRIDE." 

It’s impossible to create an image that shows every facet of the LGBTQIA+ community. So, with this piece, I instead wanted to communicate that we are stronger together and that we will persist openly, unapologetically, and colorfully.

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ART DIRECTOR:
Katie Kitchens, Creative Director at *TraceElement