2025
With Adria Garcia
For Walk Dont Run

Downtown Seattle, WA

Thanks to:
Phillipe Hyojung Kim, WDR visual arts curator; 
Castle Cooke, Robert Zverina, and Zaedra Herrmann for their assistance and support

Photos
Zaedra Herrmann, Sarah Kavage

Adria Garcia and I joined forces creatively for the first time in 10 years for Walk Don’t Run, a 5K “art walk” featuring dozens of art and performance projects through downtown Seattle. I carved a fingernail dining room set based on Adria’s dream. We asked participants to tell us about their labors of love, and and we gave them a manicure to commemorate the conversation. 

I pondered the titular phrase a lot as I worked away on sunny summer mornings, seemingly endless hours making wood chips and shavings, putting on layer after layer of finishes, and all the aches, splinters, and cuts along the way. Artists are not known for doing things the easy way, knowingly putting in far too many hours than something “is worth” in order to achieve what’s in one’s head. And then there are the ordinary day to day labors - the beautiful dinner plate arrangement, offering an arm to an elder. Because you love someone and want them to feel cared for. At the same time, this caring can be taken advantage of financially, ignored, unseen, or taken for granted. What is fair compensation for labors of love? What systems and ideals do they uphold?