AIGA Portland is currently showing an exhibition of letters inspired by graffiti as part of Design Week Portland. The 26 letters of the alphabet, each interpreted by a different artist, are on display at Ziba HQ in Portland, Oregon, and my letter K is among them. The show is in conjunction with the premiere of GRAFT by director Jared Levy.

I’ve recently been drawing things with a tribal and mitochondrial patterns in them. The style felt appropriate to the theme – interpreted as a sort of original graffiti, a mish mash of elemental inspiration. I also signed off my letter with my personal tag in hieroglyphics: a fossilized leaf from Oregon, a rock with a hole in it found on a Danish beach, a heart shaped rock my mom found and gave me, and a figurine of the Black Stallion.

Drawing patterns in things has become a sort of relaxing meditation time for me – once the basic form and complexity is decided, it’s pure patience and several CDs of Kurt Vile / Carla Bruni / Wilco to reach the end result.

A Flickr set of the entire alphabet can be seen here of the below participating artists.

A – Aaron Rayburn, Portland
B – Jason Bacon, Portland
C – Scrappers, Hawaii
D – Mary Kate McDevit, Portland
E – CERN ONE, NYC
F – Cory Say, Garland, TX
G – Carolyn Sewell, Washington DC
H – Will Miller, Chicago
I – Rachel Caldwell, Philadelphia
J – Taka Sudo, BC, Canada
K – Mette Hornung Rankin, Copenhagen / Portland
L – Christopher Derek Bruno, Seattle
M – Lotta Nieminen, NYC
N – Roxanne Danner, Los Angeles
O – Keegan Onefoot-Wenkman, Portland
P – Bethany Ng, Portland / W+K12
Q – Tom O’Toole, Portland
R – Thomas Bradley, Portland
S – Dana Woulfe, Boston
T – Alanna MacGowan & Cassie Klingler, Seattle / New York
U – Anne Ulku, Minneapolis
V – Dave Foster, The Netherlands
W – Adam Garcia, Portland
X – Zach Johnsen, Portland
Y – Blaine Fontana, Portland
Z – Stephen Holding, Brooklyn