Archive

We Are Sanctuary Poster

Last Spring I began a collaborative poster to spread awareness about immigrant rights with designer Jules Cowan and Micah Bizant in collaboration with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.

About the organization:

Founded in 1982 in response to civil wars and genocide in Central America, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) provides legal and social services, community organizing, and education to over 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers yearly, helping them achieve legal status, citizenship, and well-being as they overcome extraordinary obstacles. EBSC staff and volunteers offer trauma-informed, culturally competent services, including legal assistance, case management, a multilingual hotline, community forums, radio programs, English classes, citizenship preparation classes, cash assistance, arts-based workshops, organizing for policy change, and educational exhibits featuring stories of asylum seekers. All of these programs work synergistically so that immigrant participants can heal from trauma and gain skills and support to build new lives in the U.S.

About the art: This poster project began in the winter of 2025, was completed in late spring, and has been distributed since then. EBSC has been using the phrase “We Are Sanctuary” and I wanted to illustrate a multi generational, and multiethnic immigrant family based in the Fruitvale of Oakland. Check out some of the process for my piece on the poster. I illustrated the main front image, Micah illustrated the back with know your rights art, and Jules designed the whole thing.

Get the Poster: If you’d like to download a copy of the poster you can do so here. If you’d like to get physical copies in English or Spanish please email me for local Bay Area delivery.

Santa Clara Valley – Open Space Authority

Santa Clara Open Space Authority is an environmental conservation organization in Northern California.

More on their mission: The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority conserves the natural environment, supports agriculture and connects people to nature, by protecting open spaces, natural areas and working farms and ranches for future generations.

We envision the Santa Clara Valley and its surrounding hillsides as a beautiful place where a vibrant network of interconnected open spaces, trails, wildlife habitats and thriving agricultural lands enrich the region’s cities and make it an exceptional and healthy place to live, work, learn and play.

To date, the Open Space Authority has protected approximately 30,000 acres–providing nature-friendly outdoor recreation and preserving the natural beauty and environmental health of the Santa Clara Valley.

Coloring book: I was commissioned by the organization to illustrate a coloring book inviting young people to learn about nature and conservation broadly; and specifically to guide them towards this vast area of land in Santa Clara where they can experience it first hand. I had a blast creating illustrations, typography, and more for the book.

Here’s a bit of the artwork from it! For more information about the organization please visit them here.

Fridays for Falestin – Artists for Radical Imagination

The purpose of this image and the following images are to share a fundraising campaign for a family who fled Gaza. It is organized by a relative of the family based in the US who represents the Alborno family. Please see the link in my bio for the full story and like, comment, share, and contribute if you can.

Image Description:
A set of slides with hand drawn watercolor illustrations of Jamil and Maria, Pal es tinian children around 2 and 5. Both portraits are held within a circle with an earthy green background, reds and auburns in their hair, warm skin tones and purple shirts. Maria has her hair in pigtails, and is smiling softly, while Jamil has lightly tousled hair with smile open and wide. There is a cream hand drawn background with yellow hearts and purple bursts on each slide and the text below Gofundme Link.

Slide 1:
“Help Jamil Maria and Family
Fridays for Fal es tine
gofundme.com/f/support-ezzeddin-family”
Slide 2:
“Jamil, Maria, siblings, and parents fled Gah zah to Turkey and need help recovering
gofundme.com/f/support-ezzeddin-family
Can’t help right now? Please help spread the word, Like, comment, and share”
Slide 3:
“Join Artists for Radical Imagination every Friday as we share a verified fundraiser to directly support a family in Gah zah. Follow and use the hashtag: #FridaysForFalestin

Art by @robert_tres text by Rob + @vulpinicvestements repping #artistsforradicalimagination Fridays for Fal’ es tin

Social Justice Children’s Books Fair

Here is the illustration/design I did for the 7th annual Social Justice Children’s Book Fair, of which I am a cofounder of and one of several organizers. My intent with this image was to show a mixed kid, a tween showing up to the book fair and walking out with a stack of books!

You can read more about the mission, history, and team for this annual event in Oakland here 

But, I’ll just summarize here. This event was started in 2017 in Oakland by independent book publishers, writers, illustrators, etc to make a unique children’s book fair for the greater Bay Area. Our focus is on inviting our community to meet Bipoc, Queer, and Social Justice minded kid lit creators, and publishers under one roof. We also bring in and partner with community based organizations who champion literacy for kids, for example Chapter 510 was the first organization to host the event.

You can see photos from the event here and some press from Oaklandside too.

The Rights of Every Child

Rights of Every Child is a project by author and activist Danielle Davis. Its a project that seeks to highlight the human rights of children all over the world through artwork.

Here’s a word from them:

The Rights of Every Child Initiative is here! It’s time. It’s time to spread the word. It’s time to speak out for children. It’s time to uphold their vital rights. We are inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a document signed by all UN countries and ratified by all but one: the US. This document outlines fundamental rights around how we must protect children. In the coming days, weeks, months, and beyond we will share illustrations by talented, caring artists who are vocal about children’s rights that convey one of rights as only they can. The language is distilled and simplified for our purpose and so that the heart of it that’s close to the artist’s heart comes through. It’s time. Thank you for joining us as this movement grows, blooms into something we can only create and do together on behalf of children—every one.

Here’s what I wrote about the piece:

With this illustration I wanted to focus on the light, innocence, and power that can come from a child. If given the space to speak they can have some pretty powerful observations, ideas, and solutions. The problem is adults who have either forgotten what it means to truly listen and empathize with children; or the adults have lost their own humanity. I wanted the child to have warmth and light and I illustrated the adults holding the microphones more dull as they sometimes feel this way.

I chose this [right] because I do believe we don’t listen to young people enough.

I typically search for several reference pictures, collage them together using photoshop and then make a sketch. After the sketch is done, I redraw it on thicker paper and paint it using watercolor.

Find more information about the project here: Rights of Every Child