I painted a disco ball for Pride, and it won
A few months ago I saw a call for entries from Art of Pride, San Diego Pride's program for local LGBTQIA+ artists. They've been running since 2005, giving local queer artists an actual space, not just a mention, to show and sell their work. Since then it's grown into something bigger: commissioning artists, running education, partnering with local organizations, all in service of the same original idea. Make room for the artists who are already here.
This year they opened a sticker design contest tied to the festival theme, Pride Shines On. Whoever won would have their design printed and sold at the Pride Festival, with the proceeds going back into a fund for local queer artists.
I wanted to enter, and I wanted to avoid the obvious route. Rainbows everywhere are lovely, but they've been done. I kept coming back to the word "shine" and thinking about actual sources of light instead. That's how I landed on three: a neon sign, a movie marquee, and a disco ball. Each one holds a different piece of what Pride feels like to me.
The neon is that late night glow you find on an old strip.
The marquee is celebration, the sense that something worth seeing is happening tonight.
The disco ball is just pure joy, the kind that comes from being in a room full of people who get you.
I drew each one the way I draw everything, starting with fountain pen and ink, then layering in watercolor by hand. Once the paintings were done I scanned them and prepared the files for print, but I kept the texture in. The little wobbles in the ink line, the places where the wash bled past the edge. Those are the parts that make it look like something a person made, because a person did.
My design won. The stickers were printed and sold at the San Diego Pride Festival this year, with every dollar going toward Art of Pride's fund for local queer artists. Getting to be part of that, as a small women-owned, queer-owned studio myself, felt like exactly the right kind of full circle.
If you want to see where the money goes and what else Art of Pride is up to, their page is worth a visit.