“Beloved Community” is a reimagining of the former Retting gun store in Culver City.   Operating in the city for more than six decades, the store drew objections from local community members, primarily a grassroots group of parents at the elementary school located just down the block.  The parent group called themselves Culver 878 because of the fact that the store was located 878 feet from the school, despite a city ordinance stating that gun stores must be located more than 1000 feet away.  When the owners of the gun store retired in 2023, Culver City bought the building to prevent another gun seller from moving in.  Instead of whitewashing the original signage, I asked for the opportunity to transform the exterior.

The project was executed in two phases— the first one consisting of painted signage and murals that replaced the original gun signage with new words and images. I intentionally kept the scale and font of the designs similar to the original signs to provide a visual link to the past.  To choose the words and phrases, I gathered feedback from families at the school as well as local businesses and members of the nearby mosque and nursing home.  The signs and murals were created in collaboration with muralist Brooklynd Wild Flowers and sign painter Valentina Trentini 

For phase two of the project, I held three tile making workshops for youth and adults in the community and asked participants to reflect on the site of the gun store and consider what they might like to see in its place.  Tiles were fired and glazed and incorporated into five mosaics in the trapezoid shaped niches that line the building.