Left Stage, Exit Right: Free from ARTifICE: Launched March 20, 2026 — Spring Equinox, End of Ramadan, International Happiness Day. After thirteen years of outdoor community painting in Edmonton’s public squares, I’m stepping into a new chapter. Photo: Next to Hope City Church, Pastor Paul—before I handed over the painting I’m holding, titled Faith—I gave it to a young Gen Z woman who worked the cafeteria counter where I’d enjoyed pizza and a latte every Sunday for a year. Last Sunday, security banned me from the church and returned my 2026 art‑project manifesto, Left Stage, Exit Right: Free From ARTifICE, after I gave my drawings as a gift with another Gen Z woman working in the same café. Later, I entrusted that manifesto to my Palestinian friend—a security guard and Islamic teacher—who now keeps it safe. My 2025 project, Birds of a Feather, drew from the good I’ve witnessed in Edmonton’s Faith communities. Democracy, and Nature. Eid Mubarak.
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Faith , Democracy and Nature
Art is Freedom
Left Stage, Exit Right, Free from ARTifICE
XYZ
Left Stage, Exit Right: Free from ARTifICE marks the beginning of that shift. A lighter practice. A clearer voice. A return to the essentials: Faith. Democracy. Nature. I’ll continue sketching and posting political cartoons on X— the raw, portable free press of the hand — and I’ll keep listening, observing, and documenting the civic life of this city. The outdoor painting chapter may be closing, but art show of democratic storytelling continues. Thank you to everyone who has picked up a brush with me, stopped to talk, shared a story, or added a stroke to a canvas over the past thirteen years. Listen label wear: I wear my HeART because its me.
XLife
Thank You, Virgil Abloh, 2019, Chicago,
Figures of Speech.
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