Purple Gate Design

[enicebk]

It doesn’t need to be VD to send someone a lil’ 💛. My new diminutive gold foil cards are available @winglukemuseum or if you see me! Shibori by @zalutsky Printing by @moo Flowers by awesome🎄cactus on its second bloom and free daffodils from Garden Show! #ilavayou 🌋 #best 🏆 #ipickyou 🍎 #yourule ✏️ #purplegatedesign #makersgonnamake

[enicebk]

Our glorious garden paired with my submission for What Would Betsy Ross Do? art show opening July 6 at @artxchangegallery Thanks to @margaretci for her vision and organizing!!#whatwouldbetsyrossdo #newusflag #reenvision #wishicouldsew #purplegatedesign #seattlelife (at ArtXchange Gallery)

[enicebk]

Happy Girls' Day! My Auntie made my dolls in the 70s, and they sit beside the set her parents gave to her in 1940. They survived storage while the family was incarcerated for 4 years. So much love for my family and my people. ❤🌸✊🏽#standup #🎎 #おひな祭り #ohinasama #JAlife #nikkei

[maeril]

Hi everyone! This is an illustrated guide I made as part of my co-admining work at The Middle Eastern Feminist on Facebook! It will be published there shortly.  The technique that is displayed here is a genuine one used in psychology - I forgot the name and couldn’t find it again so if you know about it, feel free to tell me! Some could say: “Yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!”, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other “types” of harassment of a lone person in a public space!! However I’m focusing on protecting Muslims here, as they have been very specific targets lately, and as a French Middle Eastern woman, I wanted to try and do something to raise awareness on how to help when such things happen before our eyes - that way one cannot say they “didn’t know what to do”!  I’d like to insist on two things: 1) Do not, in any way, interact with the attacker. You must absolutely ignore them and focus entirely on the person being attacked! 2) Please make sure to always respect the wishes of the person you’re helping: whether they want you to leave quickly afterwards, or not! If you’re in a hurry escort them to a place where someone else can take over - call one of their friends, or one of yours, of if they want to, the police. It all depends on how they feel! For my fellow French-speakers: I will translate it in French and post it on my page as soon as I can :) Please don’t hesitate to share this guide as it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome!! Lots of love and stay safe!

[pocsolidarity-blog]

Images of Solidarity- Early Asian American activism:

The Oriental Student Union (OSU) at Seattle Central Community College (SCCC) was founded in 1970. It modeled itself after the campus Black Student Union (BSU), which during the 1968-9 school year had used direct action protests to demand black studies and the hiring of black administrators and faculty. When the OSU– led by Alan Sugiyama and former Black Panther Mike Tagawa– decided that the SCCC administration was not moving quickly enough on the its demands that the school hire five Asian administrators, the OSU staged a sit-in on February 9, 1971, and took over SCCC offices more forcefully on March 2, 1971.

[enicebk]

Rest In Peace, Al.

[enicebk]

February 19 is the Japanese American community's Day of Remembrance. It was 75 years ago today that E.O. 9066 was signed *allowing* the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans on the west coast. That time, no other courts challenged the E.O., and some--but not enough--friends and neighbors stood up for us. 

This is a 1944 photo of my Grandma Yasu holding my father in her arms (he was born there, delivered by a horse veterinarian), my auntie and uncle. They are posing in front of their neighbor's tar paper barrack in the Minidoka concentration camp. I love this photo not only because I love my family deeply, but because of its vibe of normalcy. They had already been imprisoned (first in horse stalls at the Puyallup fairgrounds) for two solid years yet they persisted and resisted. This morning, instead of getting sucked into the vortex of atrocities they faced (as I admittedly sometimes do), I have been meditating on the ways my family and my community resisted from behind the barbed wire. 

Here are some of them: raising children, birthing children, smiling and being happy, beautifying barracks, making art and furniture, planting gardens, joining clubs, taking jobs, making friends, forming sports teams, continuing studies, writing to friends back in Seattle, supporting the war effort, throwing dances, leaving camp early to join the workforce in random Midwest cities like Cleveland and Kansas City, dreaming of returning to Seattle. Not giving up on America's promises. Not turning their backs on their Japanese heritage. Not losing themselves. And once the war was over, and the camps were shut down, not being afraid to tell me and my sisters the whole truth.

In case you were wondering why I stand up for all marginalized and disempowered groups, now you know.

[enicebk]

Tomorrow 2/19 our annual fundraiser to benefit Minidoka Pilgrimage elder and youth scholarships! Seattle U 1:00 for taiko, speakers, exhibits and more! #neveragain #remembrance #dayofremembrance #resistance #standup #jaincarceration #americanhistory (at Seattle U. Pigott Auditorium)

[enicebk]

Pink sashes for Satty!! #resister #womensmarch #mybodymychoice

[enicebk]

Feeling that Alice Coltrane "Journey Into Satchidananda" ... 1.8.17 #drawingaday #makersgonnamake

[enicebk]

So happy to be making pots again (especially ones with anthropomorphic features)! 💪🏽👟 Thank you @sayamoriyasu for your open-hearted generosity!! ❤ #purplegatedesign #makersgonnamake #potsofjoy #glazedandinfused #seattlelife

[enicebk]

Drawing a Day... let's go! Thanks @sayamoriyasu @mcgrathjeffrey for the nudge and company! #drawingaday

[enicebk]

C finished his portal mural and will soon depart for space. Bonus 🦄points if you know which film this was inspired by... #makersgonnamake #makesomething #seattlelife #rennaisanceman

[enicebk]

May you make some magic in 2017! 🦄⭐️🌈 (vintage dress by my mom! 👗)

[enicebk]

Yes, my partner @susshi7 and I did a coordinated jump... and the mighty Chicas out of Amy Yee Tennis Center in Seattle are NATIONAL CHAMPS!! 🏆🙌🏽🎾💪🏽🌟🍾 What a teeeeeaaaam! #ustanationals #tennislife #imwithher #🎾 #ustatennis #ustapnw #tennislife @_ellenjane_ @ewhoops @happilywanderingandeating @tobyamiller @learn.some (at La Quinta Spa & Resort, Palm Springs, CA)

[enicebk]

My diminutive kamaboko 🍥 board paintings are in a group show opening tonight! #Firstshow #PGD #startsomewhere #makersgonnamake

[enicebk]

Love me some 🌶 but let's go #ReRe! #🎾 #💪🏽 #usopen #prettyprettynewyorkcity

[enicebk]

Finished #illustration for @winglukemuseum #community #roots #seattlelife #smithsonian #cac #purplegatedesign #pigmamicron #watercolor