In Fall 2024, I painted this New Yorker-style cover for The Cartagenerian, a project led by Colombian designer Kike Sierra. This collaboration involved artists who have ties to the city of Cartagena.
I lived in a town outside of Cartagena, Colombia for two a half years when I was in the Peace Corps. For this illustration, I wanted to show the vibrant colors of the city, the Caribbean warmth, and bustling life on the street. I’m from a cold weather culture, and while living in Colombia, I was enamored (and slightly intimidated) but the constant interactions between neighbors. I also wanted to show the barriers between the people who work in the picturesque city centro and the workers who live on the outskirts and commute into the city every day. In this painting, I show a coffee vendor, presumably from an Afro-Colombian village, making small talk with a local resident through her grated window.