Setting Our Hearts on Fire

This collection of short essays honors groundbreaking artists who, with a few exceptions, work or exhibit in the Northwest.



They range from world renowned painters like Jacob Lawrence to young artists just beginning their careers. They are African American, Latinx, Asian, Native and White artists working in a wide range of media including installations, paintings, sculpture, and unclassifiable mixed media. These artists create intimate altars and public installations. They address current crisis and historical inequities, spiritual truths and political realities. Taken together they speak to the ability of artists to make visible that which is so often left invisible, to expand our understanding through poetry and humor, they bring us together and give us hope. They demonstrate that creativity is our means of survival on our troubled earth.