This week’s Poster Project highlight features Seattle artist William Cumming, a survivor of the 1940s tuberculosis pandemic. Cumming is known for his bright, kinetic paintings of scenes from everyday life. His paintings are at once familiar and strange, portraying figures—often children—engaged in ordinary activities, but rendered abstract through flat planes of color and obscured faces. Our current context only heightens the strangeness as we view this image—and any gathering of people—through the lens of social distancing.
Imagine the story of this picture. Who are the kids? What are they carrying? Where are they going? What happens next? If you write or record your story, we hope you’ll share it with us.
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The Poster Project is supported by the PGE Foundation.