I was commissioned by the City of Tukwila to paint a utility box on local, immigrant-led food entrepreneurship.
The box features the home-cooked dishes of businesses at Spice Bridge Food Hall, a food incubator in Tukwila that helps immigrant and refugee women start businesses. The box includes 7 food illustrations of the women-owned businesses, story testimonials from the entrepreneurs, and the message “Our Future Is Immigrant-Led.” It was installed as a vinyl wrap on the utility box at the intersection of 42nd Ave S & S 144th St by Foster High School and will be a community fixture for the next 5-7 years.
The box represents businesses across Asian and African food diasporas: Afella Jolof Catering (Senegalese/Gambian), Jazze’s (Afghan), Moyo Kitchen (Somali-Kenyan-Tanzanian), Taste of Congo (Congolese), Theary Cambodian Foods (Cambodian/Khmer), Wengay’s Kitchen (Filipino), and WUHA Ethiopian-American Cuisine (Ethiopian). I interviewed each owner about their relationship with food, entrepreneurial journey, and family & cultural stories and wove their quotes into the final artwork.
