Sabo Cat for May Day

A mentor of mine recently commented, after my ICE cube painting, that I should make more activist art. That it would sell well and reflect my values. I'm all in for that. And I had an idea. It was the beginning of April 2026, and I had May Day on my mind. The art studio I work at was having an event on May 1st, and I thought I could make something specifically for May Day. I chose the Sabo Cat, a symbol of the Industrial Workers of the World, an organization that has fought for workers' rights for 120 years. I wanted to make the Cat my own, so I gave them glowing eyes and much more detail than the logo. The three big stars are part of another IWW logo, and the broken chain represents workers having nothing to lose but their chains. I chose many revolutionary words to follow the circle that is traditionally around the Cat. It feels a little bit of a hodge-podge, but the dashes and small stars help pull it all together.

Tragedy struck when I went to varnish this piece. I hadn't waited a full week from spraying with acrylic sealer before painting on the varnish, and the black Posca smeared in many places. I tried my best to clean it up, but there are still unmistakable smears through some of the words and dashes. Swiping the varnish from the red background to the white stars and gray chains also seems to have yellowed the bright white of those elements. The color looks intentional in the final product, but it's not what I wanted. This is a photo of the piece before any sealing, and it represents the original vision. The scan I use for prints will be heavily touched-up to remove the smears, which is what happens to a lot of the scans I make of my pieces.

Acrylic paint and acrylic marker on 11x14" stretched canvas.