Category: Uncategorized

 

DETAINED, part 1

Story by ————-
Illustrated by Michael Hoyt
2026

This is a story that was shared with me by a member of my immediate community in the Spring of 2026. It is a painful and detailed account of their experience, in their own words. I was asked by this courageous individual to create this graphic medicine, for it to be shared and become part of our public record.

In the past year, the powerful stories of resistance and collective care by people across Minnesota in response to Operation Metro Surge spread globally. This story is one of thousands of other stories that represent why our resistance matters to this day.

My ask is that you please share this with others, and please don’t turn away.

 

If you wish to donate to support individuals that remain in a state of increased vigilance and fear, and who continue to cope with the day to day terror unleashed across our country, you may do so with this qr code.

 

 

 

 

 

Click on image to download the graphic medicine.

SSRI Illustrations

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I was comissioned to create a series of illustrations for Stanford Social Innovations Reviews series of articles about Minnesota’s response to Operation Metro Surge in partnership with the McKnight Foundation. The articles can be found on the SSRI website.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CPED VINYL MURAL, 2025

The vinyl mural is a two sided visual representation of the complexity of what Minneapolis “used to be” juxtaposed by an imagined version of what Minneapolis is “going to be” in 2075 (50 years into the future).

My approach and creative inquiry has focused on the following key factors/components which include; the specific spatial considerations and the inside/out the location of the mural, and the translucent qualities of the printed vinyl murals throughout the building.

It is installed on the third floor of the Minneapolis Public Service Building on a glass wall that separates public space and nonpublic office space. The glass wall is both a physical divide and an opportunity to be a visual bridge between a city department and the public whom the city is accountable to serving.

 

“Used to be/going to be” ink on vinyl, 156″ x 117″ 2025

 

As government, we have a responsibility to undo and repair the harms done in the past (and not so past). – Ibtisam Brown (CPED Staff)

During my initial inquiry into the complex and layered work of CPED, I found this quote from a staff member to be compelling and significant. It assumes accountability on behalf of the government, and the people with positional power to carry out its core services, to reckon with our past and build towards a more just and equitable future for all. 

It runs counter to what we are as citizens are experiencing today; surging authoritarianism, systematic erasure (scientific, historical, and cultural), and a unilateral return to policies that created the conditions of generational inequity that we witness and experience in our city and across the nation. 

Depending on the day and whom you ask, the Government is “…doing too much” or “…not doing nearly enough.” And on some days or in certain situations, both might be true in the minds of the public. To me, this represents a unique contemporary challenge; how we develop alignment of shared goals that benefit all, and create a plan for achieving them, particularly in such radically changing and uncertain times?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Returning the River, Illuminate the Lock, 2017

Perfromance Installation, hand rendered animation projection. Van Avery, Strange, Hoyt.

 

 

Plunge. 2017

Hand rendered animation

 

Imagining Equity, Our Past

140 ft hand painted cranky about the history of the development of Minneapolis. Poetry and Narration by Diver Van Avery. 2017

 

   

 

Imagining Equity, Our Future

90 ft hand painted cranky.

Poetry and Narration by Diver Van Avery, 2017

 

Imagining Equity Summary

2016

 

 

National Museum of the Soul’s Vanities

2014

 

 

Poho Posit – Artist(s) on the Verge 3

2012

 

 

Hope Silent

2006

 

Poho Posit, a neighborhood based online platform and public installation investigating and reimagining daily posts on an online community forum. Hand rendered animations, hand rendered interactive online map of Powderhorn Park Neighborhood, topographic rendering of Powderhorn Park Neighborhood as projection map, and an interactive website archive of community dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Norae Shanty was developed as part of the 2005 Art Shanty Projects as a space to explore intimate connection through song. There have been multiple iterations of the Norae Shanty including; the original on-ice installation (2005-2008), a mobile version based on Oahu and the University of Hawai’i Manoa (2008), and a semi-permenant version based in South Minneapolis (2008-2015).