ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE_old

Danny Denial

Filmmaker / Musician

Danny Denial, also known for his work in Seattle band Dark Smith, is a solo artist and filmmaker listed in Status Magazine as the “POC of the Queer Punk & Alternative Scene to Watch” and in Afropunk as one of the “8 Punkest Bands on the Planet Right Now”. His work in Dark Smith has been highlighted in NPR and The Seattle Times, and his first feature film Kill me to death has screened in various film festivals such as the 43rd Portland International Film Festival.

E.T. Russian

Artist / Author

E.T. RUSSIAN is a multi-sensory artist, maker of zines and comics, disability justice advocate, healer and educator. Russian is the author of The Ring of Fire Anthology and has been published in a number of publications including Disability in American Life: An Encyclopedia of Concepts, Politics, and Controversies,When Language Runs Dry, The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly and Gay Genius. Russian is a 2020 Arc Artist Fellow; their graphic journalism is currently in the international exhibition “Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well Drawn” hosted by the National Library of Medicine. Russian Co-Directed and produced the documentary Third Antenna, and has received support from Art Matters, 4Culture, Seattle Office of Art & Culture, Jack Straw Foundation, Short Run and the University of Washington.

Jasmyne Keimig

Writer

Jasmyne Keimig is a staff writer at The Stranger, an alt-weekly in Seattle, where she covers visual art, film, stickers, queer stuff, and culture. She’s also one half of Unstreamable, a column about movies that you can’t stream. 

Kelly Bjork

Visual Artist

Kelly Bjork grew up in Tacoma, Washington and graduated with a B.F.A. from Western Washington University in 2009. Bjork’s work focuses on portraiture and intimacy between loved ones and objects; she wants to show the tenderness that can be experienced in this world through selective simplicity and tiny details.

Gigi Grinstad

Visual Artist

Gigi Grinstad is a naturalist. Her work is guided by organic forms and recurring patterns, which she entwines in uncommon ways.

Elaine Lin 

Visual Artist

Elaine Lin is a designer, comics artist, and illustrator living in Seattle. She is currently working on the second volume of her comic ‘I Still Love You Los Angeles’, while occasionally poking her head out her tiny hermit crab shell.

Vivian Hau 華婷婷

Writer / Filmmaker

Vivian Hua (華婷婷) is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer. As the Executive Director of Northwest Film Forum in Seattle and Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publication, REDEFINE, much of her work unifies her metaphysical interests with her belief that art can positively transform the self and society. She regularly shares stories of observations through her storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE! and is a Co-Founder of the civil rights film series, The Seventh Art Stand. In 2018, she released her narrative short film, Searching Skies — which touches on the controversial topic of Syrian refugee resettlement in the United States — and plans to soon begin production on Reckless Spirits, a comedic Asian American series. She is passionate about researching efforts to preserve cultural space and finding ways to covertly and overtly disrupt oppressive structures.

Nic Masangkay

Musician / Poet

If you are not ready to know yourself, you are not ready to know me. I’m Nic Masangkay and for the past year, I have been studying desire —why is this energy overlooked? Shamed? Why, personally, do I struggle with undesirability to the point of self-hate? After I finished my last music EP and multimedia live show, DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide, with the support of Seattle organizations Jack Straw Cultural Center, 4Culture, Gay City, and ENBY PARTY; I began immersing myself in what happens post-survival. I made it out alive: now what? For me, a Filipinx, queer and trans, sick and disabled survivor, the approach involves my gifts in music and poetry, as well as the new fields I am pursuing in multimedia and sex work. Using these mediums, I recall lessons from my lineage of powerful healers and the dreams of my Babaylan ancestors. I see everything I have access to and know abundance —I transform limitations into gifts for myself and my people. Know me, witness my art, and you’ll discover your own ways to deeply love yourself. It’s scary, I know —but I’m here to help you enjoy your fears. Are you ready?