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Join us at @grey.architectural.studio for their fi

Join us at @grey.architectural.studio for their first ever @belltownartwalk this Friday, June 13th at 6-9pm. Grey will be featuring queer artist @kevin_hallagan_art and his site specific installation "Reflections" in honor of Pride Month.Kevin explores identity and our fragmented perception of the people and places that influence us. Kevin has long-been captivated by the sense that every whole is a collection of composite parts, and that every moment and experience we each have is the confluence of every moment and experience that has ever influenced us, the people around us, the people who developed the materials we interact with, and the architects who design our physical landscape.Visit us at 1423 Western Ave. We are on the same street as @uglybabyshop and @olfactory_house, along with @magpie_mouse_studios and @brookewestlund who are also participating nearby.Our friend @rya.wu.art will be @olfactory_house a few doors down so come say hi!#belltownartwalk

Thanks to funding from @kc4culture, my next projec

Thanks to funding from @kc4culture, my next project will be Embodied Rebirth, which I'll start working on and exhibiting in 2027.Embodied Rebirth is a multidisciplinary, community centered project that explores the experience of living in marginalized female and nonbinary bodies. The project aims to take the audience on a journey from empathizing with the individual-level pain of living in marginalized bodies and the ways we contribute to harm, to a proposed collective path to healing.

*NEW* Belltown Art Walk is this Friday and we're e

The last time I was in a community of Korean Ameri

The last time I was in a community of Korean American women was in high school through church. It's something I've distanced myself from for a variety of reasons whether that was Korean culture's patriarchal oppressive and hierarchical culture, perfectionism, secret keeping, or internalized racism that told me being part of an immigrant community was something to be ashamed of.

It's so healing to my teenage self to start stepping back into community and to find others who value authentic, vulnerable connection and a strong spirit of supporting each other.

I'm excited to be exploring this side of myself that I left behind so many decades ago and am so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful women who genuinely appreciate each other.

Special thanks to my friend @pb_angelie for bringing me into this circle of powerful women and for all the women for welcoming me with such grace and open arms.

Join me today on May 16th for My Name Story Exhibi

Join me today on May 16th for My Name Story Exhibition 2.0 at @luckyenvbrewing at 6-8pm We will be raising money for @n.w.i.r.p!DO YOU BELONG TO YOUR NAME?I immigrated to the U.S. when I was six years old and started 1st grade in Queens, NY. Along with my brother, three cousins, and parents who didn’t speak English, I went to P.S. 70 to register for school. Our parents gave the White woman registering us our Korean names but rather than listing them as is, she took the sounds from our names and assigned each of us “American” names. “Eun Shil” became “Jill,” “Chan Ik” became “Charles,” etc. My name, “Yon Joo” became Judy. These became our unofficial “go by” names, which eventually became our legal names when we obtained U.S. citizenship.Experiences like mine are common among Asian Americans (AANHPIs). Whether we were assigned new names from outsiders, our parents, or chose to change them ourselves, our names represent the tension we feel living in a country that sees us as perpetual foreigners and fails to make room for our complex identities. Changing our names came with the promise of belonging but no matter what “American” name we took on, how perfect our English was, or how we threw away the ethnic lunches our parents lovingly packed for us, belonging eluded us. While times are changing, Asian Americans continue to be asked, “Where are you from? No, where are you really from?”―a seemingly innocuous question that assumes we are always from elsewhere, never here.My Name Story project tells the stories of our experiences through our names. They reflect the complex journeys of our intersectional identities, to belonging, and, for some, reclamation. While these stories focus on individual experiences, the threads that weave our name journeys point to broader questions about race. As you explore these stories, I invite you to ask yourself, Who gets to be “American” in our country? What does being an “American” look like? and Who gets to belong?

The GAP grant by @artisttrust is now available! On

The GAP grant by @artisttrust is now available! One of last year's recipients, @rya.wu.art was at our Artist Roundtable at @thefishbowlseattle last year to provide tips on how to apply. She shared:-Have a clear purpose and defined project, with samples of work.
-Show how you’ve been growing and evolving as an artist.
-Set a realistic budget and have tangible things you will spend the money on.
-Have a realistic timeline about what you can accomplish.How these tips applied to Rya's application:
-She has been creating glass sculptures from her 2D painting.
-Glass making is part of Rya’s growth and evolution as an artist.
-She planned to spend the money on a glass class to advance her skills and buying glass.
-Glass class was in September and the awards were dispersed in August.Consider applying, being sure to have a tangible project to talk about! Good luck.#artistgrants #seattleartists

Art + Social Justice
Judy Lee, Portrait Artist & Storyteller

webelongseattle@gmail.com

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