Studio Pookie is a collaboration between artists Kate Tatsumi and Luis Zepeda. Both artists make work that revolves around exploring the stereotypes around historically marginalized domestic arts and utilizing feminist language and irony to question western ideals of whiteness, straightness, and the aesthetic of beauty. Zepeda is a second generation Mexican/Nicaraguan-American and Tatsumi is a 5th generation Hapa/Japanese-American. Both artists work in tandem to unpack their identities around their heritage and to make work that pushes against the heterosexual male gaze so omnipresent in this current political climate.

For OPAF 2020 Studio Pookie created a plant connection village where all are welcome. Climate change is affecting all of us and the air we breathe is forged in fire and gas. We create a moment in this village to come together and breath deeply as one. In the garden are ceramic vessels, hand painted, dripping with glass with plants pouring out. We can listen to the plants and speak kind words of encouragement to them. Gardeners write down poems/ messages and stick them under the vessels for the plants to absorb and collect positive vibes from.