Suffolk University wanted an infographic about where their students are from and how they commute. I delivered ✨

I call this sketch "The Originalists". Nine very unlucky individuals are going to be bending into pretzels very soon. #scotus

Thought exercise: what would the tiniest subway map of the tiniest subway system (Baltimore) look like?

Call this my ode to Picasso's "Guernica" in subway form. Putin's Russia is a monster who claims their destruction of Ukraine came out of love, and that it's Ukraine who forced their hand. This is a toxic narrative all too familiar to domestic violence survivors and sadly, certain circles in America are happy to spread it. #slavaukraini

20 years before the Spotlight Team did, Sinead confronted the Church about its abuses. There was no stopping this wonder 🙇🏾‍♂️

"Get Off My Train"

It's May! Who else feels alive? 🙋🏾‍♂️ Open Studios are in the air!

Earlier this past year, I was working out in the yard, looked up and saw a wonderful sight: The mangled light-pole outside our place. There was something beautiful about it against the setting sun. It's obviously been there forever, so I think this newfound beauty had more to do with how our lives changed in 2022 than anything else. We're coming out of a pandemic. There's a sense of hope. 2023 looks brighter. So I decided to choose this as an inspiration for my annual holiday piece. In Somerville, these light-poles litter the landscape. You could say that they're our version of holiday trees, decorated in tinsel by Eversource, Comcast, RCN, and the like :) In the right light though, they can still be beautiful. Here's to a brighter 2023 for all of you!

Please get out there and... #vote

10 years ago, I created a piece called "2 Americas" about income inequality. This is a redux of it, but on a different topic: family planning. In gray, 26 states that banned or are likely to ban abortion. In pink, 12 states that guarantee paid family leave. No transfers.

Death Dance

These kids deserve to have their names remembered. And so so much more. #Uvalde #GunControlNow

When I was a kid and we went to certain people's homes, I had to eat with my non-dominant hand. See, I'm a lefty and that's considered "unclean" to superstitious Indians. I absolutely hated having to slowly fumble through a meal, trying my best not to spill on myself. But that's utter peanuts compared to what LGBTQ kids go through today. No kid should be made to feel like they were "born wrong" and when you have laws in places like Florida basically telling them that, it fired me up. So to those kids out there going through this, I'm passing on a virtual rainbow high-five! (Left-handed of course.) Happy Pride Month!

There are thirteen states with trigger laws banning abortion that would go into effect immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned. #SaveRoe

What day is it? #420

The Russian Army paints the letter "Z" on their vehicles to symbolize victory. But there are no winners in war. And when peace finally returns, we must hold them accountable for Bucha and the horrors yet to be found #SlavaUkraini

It's been one month since this war started. There've been many dark days, but Ukraine's flag still waves :) #SlavaUkraini

When we come together for Ukraine, we shine brighter.

Lately I've been hearing this phrase a lot: "Return To Normal". Quite honestly, it irks me. What does that phrase even mean? Is what we've been doing as a country really working for us? What does a "post-truth" world look like? Here's an idea: Leave the "new normal" behind and let's reach for something better than ever :)

This is what NC's 12th District looked like in 2017. It was arguably the most gerrymandered district in the most gerrymandered state, intended to weaken the political power of minority communities within it. Luckily, the feds stepped in and forced the state to remap it. But in recent weeks, NC has backpedaled and remapped their state again to give even more power to the GOP, even though it overall has a (slight) Democratic plurality. Gerrymandering can happen anywhere, but it's most heavily used today to disenfranchise minority voters. This is part of a long history of poll taxes and broken promises dating back to emancipation that needs to be fixed now.

In summary, if a district's boundaries can only create a nonsensical subway map, they're probably corrupt :)

MA just passed its highest COVID rate since January. For those of you who've been watching this pandemic like a hawk, as it flails like a den of wild snakes, you remember that feeling of hope back in late June. Cases had dropped to an all-time low and we thought they were firmly under our boot. But the virus had other plans and so here we are: watching, waiting, hoping. (And vax'ing, boosting, masking, I hope.)

I always wrap up my year with a sketch. This year's is simply titled "Falling". I'm sure I'm not the only person who'd say that at times, 2021 has felt precarious. Would you agree? Let me know if you can relate with your own story.

I was late on this sketch for one independence day, but just in time for another...

Those long 10 weeks between Appomattox (April 1865) and Galveston (June 19th) were a small link in that journey towards reaching a goal set forth so long ago: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Happy 4th!

I started this sketch after the Atlanta attacks. I got to thinking after the authorities dismissed it as merely a "sex addiction" that we as Asians really have no voice. Take any topic that the media is polling about and it's often an afterthought to take input from minorities. And even when they do, Asian-Americans (all 20 million of us) are often left out. That is what it's like to look toward the West, speak, and have your voice go up in smoke. These voices are rooted in a continent of 4.5 billion people, all of whom could fall under this catch-all term, whether you're Arab, South-Asian, East-Asian or a Pacific-Islander. Layer on top of that the misogyny in our own society and abroad, and you have yet another layer of silence: the silence of women.

To: Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Yong Ae Yue, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, and Hyun Jung Grant

The photo upon which this is based is found in many history books and it's not one you'll soon forget. Known as either "Whipped Peter" or "Gordon," it shows the mutilated back of a slave who escaped from a Louisiana plantation in 1863. When he reached a Union camp in Baton Rouge, a military surgeon wrote, "If you know of any one who talks about the humane manner in which the slaves are treated, please show them this picture. It is a lecture in itself." That pronouncement has stuck with me. It reminds me of what has been happening in our country these past few years: All of the videographic evidence of racial injustice has created a moment of reckoning for many Americans, just as this photo did so long ago.

(Gordon enlisted in the Union army and fought some of the bloodiest battles of the late Civil War.)

We passed a somber threshold this week in Massachusetts: 10,000 fatalities from COVID. For a while now, I've been thinking about this famous quote by a well-known Bay-Stater: John Kerry. As a young man back from Vietnam, he said before Congress, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Every scientist readily admits that we will never get our numbers down to zero, but as long as we don't all take the most basic measures to get this pandemic under control, that is essentially what we are saying to every victim of it.

Kerry's speech is worth a listen.

A sketch dedicated to the one and only Notorious RBG. "Not Fragile Like a Flower, Fragile Like a Bomb" is a fitting line often used to honor her. She was a pillar of women's rights and passed in a year that was also significant for women's history. Do you know why? (See the answer here; the 36 rays of light have significance.)

Rest in Power.

This one's for you, John Lewis. And for the countless others beyond these 17 high-profile cases. #BlackLivesMatter 100% of the net proceeds from the shirt will benefit the ACLU. NOTE: This design works best on dark colors (black, navy, etc.)

Something a little different: Playing with a dataviz of our 351 cities and towns. Felt the colors were an appropriate wrapup to Pride Month. Onward to the 4th of July! While everyone will be celebrating America's birthday this week, Bay Staters will be celebrating our birthday all year long. 400 years young! Let us find strength in our diversity...

Hover over the image (or click into it on your mobile) to dive into the (watermarked) detail.

"Last Words": Dedicated to George Floyd in his final moments.

Now in March, we're wrapping up Women's History Month. Did you catch that earlier this year, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment? Even if largely symbolic, that is a huge! Here's my celebration of the band of states that have inched that accomplishment forward over the past 40+ years.

February was Black History Month. At home, we read a number of children's books about the civil rights movement, including Through My Eyes, an autobiography by Ruby Bridges. No one can forget the image of her marching into her New Orleans elementary school, forever immortalized in Norman Rockwell's painting The Problem We All Live With. Here's my take on it.

"Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."

"Believe Women"

I had a great time designing this map for our city's annual Earth Day celebration, the "Starting Over" Festival. The event was held in one of our "urban wilds", the site of a house that burned down and was later turned into a neighborhood park.

I was inspired on MLK Day to create this map dedicated to places significant to the Civil Rights Movement. Need a hint as to why? (I sure did!)

I created a piece titled "Breathe" for a group art installation at the Cyclorama here in Boston. Every fall, a local arts organization called Medicine Wheel holds a vigil titled "Day With(Out) Art". The theme of this year's show is "Air".

God Bless Charlottesville.

Deepest sympathies from New England. Manchester Strong.

Discography of Chris Cornell. RIP, a true original.

A subway map of Trump's business failures.

RIP Philando Castile, Alston Sterling.

Sending love from "The Paris of New England" to Paris!

So proud to be a Masshole today! Marriage Equality!