Summer 2016, I, along with my assistant Jesse Peterson, finished a 16’ x 81’  Tacoma Murals Project mural on the Cedar River Clinics building, located at 14th and MLK. Cedar River Clinics offer woman-centered health care, along with LGBTQ care, and have a persistent weekly protester presence at their clinic creating neighborhood unease. Grateful for the Hilltop community’s patience, especially with the protesters, and support, the clinic desired to show their appreciation through this mural.

After meeting with Cedar River Clinics, the Hilltop Business Association, the Hilltop Action Coalition, and surrounding businesses, 3 issues stood out: 1) the desire for more color in their community 2) more of the natural world represented and 3) organic shapes to soften the hard edge of urban structure.

Considering their collective thoughts regarding the mural site’s past, present, and future, I designed a mural depicting colorful fabric flowing across the wall, breaking down the rigid lines of urban structure. Its twisting and turning bonds together the different “colors” of the Hilltop neighborhood, representing the LGBTQ community and different religions, ethnicities, and gender, until eventually transforming into big, color-filled flowers.