Pride | Trace Element, a Dallas advertising agency, reached out and hired me to create the June artwork for their clients’ Community Canvas program. All year long, Coca-Cola Southwest Beverage celebrates diverse people and communities because they are at the heart of everything they do, and they are committed to building a more sustainable and inclusive future for all.

My piece was a collage that spells PRIDE in a rainbow colored abstract, hand-lettered composition. Like a quilt made of memories, this collage is built from individual pieces glued together, representing the vast LGBTQIA+ community coming together to commemorate our history.

The individual pieces compiled in this piece are from my own work and historical images from the first Pride march in 1970, as well as images of famous LGBTQIA+ icons Edith Windsor and Harvey Milk. Up close, the artwork is many pieces of paper put together imperfectly, but from afar the piece clearly and boldly reads "PRIDE." While it's not possible for me to create an image that celebrates every aspect of the LGBTQIA+ community, my hope is that I have created an image that shows that we are strongest together and that we will persist openly, loudly, and colorfully.

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ART DIRECTOR:
Katie Kitchens, Creative Director at *TraceElement