“seen + known”

as a submission for the side effects poster show on oct 2026 with @plastic_salad, an illustration group for sask artists, i wrote and [digitally] drew this to be printed as an 12×18 inch poster.

this was an adaptation from something i wrote earlier this year that ended up as an 8×10 inch collage [sold] and as a digital submission for a ‘zine that westgate books was putting together this summer. see gallery below.

in both, the run-on sentence/lack of any grammar was an intentional decision to portray excitedness.

the words:

dear artist tell a story write the long caption if you want to make it messy flawed & real make it happy maybe sad maybe just whatever the hell you want it to be as long as it speaks your truth then go out & live that truth til you die & hey artist? don’t do it for fame or fortune instead do it to say something that matters disrupt what needs disrupting & break a rule or three or ten? everything is made up anyway so go ahead & put your weird wild self all the way into it feel it in your bones let yourself be seen & known in my opinion there is nothing worse than being perceived incorrectly simply because i’m unknown & unseen & also i long to see & know everyone this clearly too & perhaps this is just a silly letter to myself?

mal cloke, 2026.