The Fabric of Community: Pride, Reflection, and Gratitude
Celebrating the Voices who have enriched my artistic journey
Looking back at the trail of my journey as a textile upcycling artist, I'm really grateful to receive loving support from the community. As this is a Pride Month, I'd like to acknowledge three people - Sierra, VV, and Anjel - whom I have the fortune to cross paths with in this lifetime.
I asked them to share a little bit about who they are and how diverse representation and equity is important more than ever in their works. Here they are in their own words, accompanied with pictures of when our paths crossed. Enjoy!
We live at a pace that’s becoming too fast for us to digest our experience in contemplative, meaningful ways, and that pace is only getting faster as we age.
So I’d like to take a breather.
During this Pride Month, I want to celebrate three people who've enriched my journey as a textile upcycling artist - Sierra, VV, and Anjel.
I met Sierra Downey during the first meeting for the Fibershed’s Borrowed from the Soil Design Challenge in spring 2023. We immediately hit it off, and a few months later, she volunteered to be one of my fashion live drawing models for my Hem & Jaleo showcase. We’ve kept in touch since, and I cannot wait to work with Sierra again once the opportunity arises.
VV also volunteered to be one of my Hem & Jaleo models, however our encounter happened much earlier in spring 2021. Since the Gathered Cloths project was born out of Climate Creative cohort that both VV and I were a part of, they have known about it from the very beginning. VV is the face of Gathered Cloths and I’m happy that we’ve been able to collaborate in various projects.
Last but not least, Anjel. VV got me in touch with Anjel when I was looking for a model for Rethink the Runway’s Fashion Drawing workshop with Zoe Hong during SF Climate Week in April 2025. Anjel is really sweet and eager to get involved, and we ended up doing two events that day!
It is my pleasure to feature these three wonderful souls in their own words. As we all move onward in our respective journeys, I’m honored to share space and celebrate Pride Month!
Sierra Downey
I grew up a settler in the Coast Miwok land of oak trees, of briny water connecting us to the ocean, and of a history of badass labour organising: Petaluma, California. But my roots stretch over an entire continent, where my mother’s parents grew up in occupied Canada and the occupied United States and over an entire ocean where my father’s parents grew up in occupied north of Ireland.
My relationship with belonging is a series of question marks that have eased into gentle lifelong undulations of unlearning and reparenting. As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent artist and community organiser, life has so far been a bizarre, whimsical, sometimes thrilling, and sometimes mundane journey.
In the years since graduating with a journalism degree (after no fewer than six changes to my degree path; that should have been a sign), I’ve delved into art history, sustainable fashion design and fashion history, comics and illustration, climate justice organising, photography, videography, theatre, zine-making, voice acting, early childhood education, and more. But I’ve come to appreciate that connecting all these disparate experiences is a profound desire to connect with others through the sharing of stories.
Moving through the world in a way that honours the diversity of my communities and prioritises equity in the spaces I have access to is a fundamental part of my worldview. Just as biomes truly thrive through the plethora of different creatures taking up their space in the web of life, we, too, are only as strong as the diversity of our collective lived experiences, the resources we share with one another, the unique way each one of us shows love.
My liberation is inextricably, intimately woven together with the liberation of others and the liberation of the land. My thriving depends on whether or not everyone in my community can thrive, too. This is a lesson I have lived again and again these past four years as as a volunteer organiser with North Bay Jobs with Justice, supporting farmworkers in my community who are fighting the exploitation of winery and vineyard owners to not just gain dignified working conditions and pay, but to eventually build climate and community resilience where we can all thrive in relationship with this land here in occupied Sonoma County.
At the moment, I sell my labour as a figure model for artists, a theatre teacher, a substitute teacher, and a care worker. But I give my labour and time to my community as an organiser and as an artist because the flowers and fruits of this labour have grown the most vibrant garden I’ve been honoured to call home yet. Lately I’ve found joy in sewing my own wardrobe from second-hand fabric and natural fibres, naturally dyeing my garments, the spontaneity of instant photo art, and the dedicated focus of printmaking.
The combination of these experiences — playing and creating on the stage and in the studio, learning and teaching in community with others, experimenting in the natural world, experiencing the enormous benefits of sharing laughter and stories especially through care work — has led me recently to commit with more conviction than ever to my place in the revolution: I believe deeply that the liberation work of my life is conspiring with others to grow love and radical joy wherever I can.
To that end, I’m excited to share a bit with you about my next project in the works: This summer and fall I’m building a mobile zine library and maker space to co-create easier access to play and community education. As an enthusiastic zine-collector and zine-maker, I know the transformative experience of publishing your own thoughts and putting them in the hands of a stranger or a friend. I’ve seen the confidence of self-proclaimed “not an artist” folks bloom when simply provided the materials, time, and “permission” of being reminded that to simply be a human is to already be both art and artist in this world.
This is also a way to keep alive the wisdom in the zines I’ve accrued over the years and connect friends with more reading material on anarchism, anti-fascism, Black joy and rest, how to get into birding, communism, undermining state violence, writers’ favourite K-pop groups, Indigenous-led land-defender movements, trans love stories, the wisdom of plant relatives, queer ecologies, and even the path of an accidentally-swallowed loose tooth from mouth to toilet (yes, that one was written by a six-year-old, and it’s absolutely brilliant). I’m excited to see what I learn in this artivist (thank you, Mira, for introducing that word to me!) experiment. I don’t have a name for this next seed in my garden of life yet, so ideas and conversation are most welcome!
In gratitude,
Sierra (they/she)
You can follow my modelling work and art projects here: https://www.instagram.com/carnmeencalling/
You can find (sporadic) updates on my work here:
https://www.sierradowney.comYou can support North Bay Jobs with Justice’s work here: https://www.northbayjobswithjustice.org
And you can always send me a note here: sierraddowney@gmail.com
Links for the mobile zine library to come soon!
VV Evasco
vv (she/her) is an organizer and artist. her focus in her personal and creative pursuits is on community empowerment through de-stigmatizing people and ideas on the fringes of acceptability.
as a trans person who leans into high visibility, she is pursuing modeling as a political and creative act. she seeks to use her body as a tool. a tool that can be used to fight for trans rights, environmental justice and decolonization.
as a social outlier, vv recognizes that it is often up to the freaks to create their own spaces. to be seen in our own light in our own way gives life to authentic joy.
vv is available for nude and outfitted modeling opportunities, photography sessions, runways or as a general muse 💋
Follow VV’s model account:
https://www.instagram.com/blas_phemmeCheck out her art collective:
https://www.instagram.com/aggrofemme/profilecard/
Anjel Pangelina
Anjel was born and raised in east side san jose, all though his heart belonged in the precious city of San Francisco. In 2020 he moved to San Francisco and has been cultivating the life he’s always wanted in the city since. Anjel puts his heart and soul into his fashion sense, placing great attention to detail and a lot of intention in the pieces and accessories he wears.
He dreams of breaking gender stereotypes by showcasing men’s fashion in his modeling career. He also hopes to work with other POC designers and activists who use their platform and voice to represent those that society often silences, have been faced with many disadvantages, and have struggled to get where they are.
Anjel believes that fashion is more than the clothes you wear but using it as an opportunity to reclaim spaces, proclaim beliefs, and shed light on what’s been left in the dark. As an indigenous queer person who’s faced many adversities, he hopes queer children who see him in clothes that society teaches you don’t align with your gender, will take away the loneliness they feel in their heart and inspire them to be themselves.
To him, that is what makes fashion and art so important. To be able to touch the hearts of those alike is all he dreams of.
Follow Anjel’s model account:
https://www.instagram.com/lil.anjelPre-order 1st season of aggrofemme magazine, which Anjel is the cover model for:
https://chuffed.org/project/aggrofemme
Thank you for reading; until next time,
Mira Musank
I truly enjoyed reading this newsletter and learning about the artists VV, Anjel, and Sierra. Their journeys and visions are so inspiring and deep. Thank you for sharing!