Downtown Kenosha, WI
August 2020- Kenosha, WI
2020 was a year that asked hard questions of every community in this country. Kenosha got asked louder than most.
When the protests and civil unrest hit downtown, businesses did what they had to do. Boards went up over windows and storefronts up and down the block. Within days, a living, breathing downtown had gone silent. Plywood everywhere. Streets empty. The kind of stillness that doesn't feel like peace.
But then something happened that doesn't always make the headlines.
The community showed up.
Business owners, artists, neighbors, people who loved this city and refused to let plywood be the last word. Over that weekend, those boards became something else entirely. Meaningful images, powerful messages, color where there had only been blank wood. Block by block, downtown Kenosha started to say something.
I donated my piece to be part of that.
The subject was a panther. Bold, grounded, unflinching. The panther doesn't flinch and it doesn't retreat. It stands its ground with a quiet kind of power that doesn't need to announce itself. That felt right for what Kenosha was going through. The city wasn't broken. It was absorbing something difficult and choosing to respond with strength and dignity.
That weekend reminded me why public art exists. Not just to decorate spaces, but to speak when words aren't enough. To hold something for a community that needs to see its own strength reflected back at it.
Kenosha is strong. That panther knew it before any of us had to say it out loud.
