Hi! This is a temporary art exhibition for I-5 Colonnade Park. It’s titled “Charms” and includes seven paintings on seven columns. (Here’s a map.) I made these paintings with duct tape, window film, chocolate bar wrappers, glitter and holographic stickers glued to aluminium foil on top of cardboard. They will be here through November 17th. My name is Matthew Offenbacher and you can learn more about my work here.

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These paintings are protection charms. People have asked if I’m worried about leaving them out in the park where they might get damaged or go missing. I don’t really mind. I mean, I don’t want you to take them, but being vulnerable in public is part of their work.

They might look dull or dazzling depending on the weather, the time of day and how you move around them. Their rainbow effect comes from thin embossed sheets reflecting light at different angles to create interference patterns. The desire for shiny, glittery things seems to be a core human desire, and it often conflicts with other desires such as the desire to treat others justly.

Under the I-5 freeway, it’s hard to not think about the displacement of people and dispossession of land that Seattle was founded on and continues today. Many of our structures protect some people by making other people less safe. May we have the strength and wisdom to reject our investments in harmful structures that provide an illusion of safety and build new forms of safety for and with each other.

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Here are some groups that help to make Seattle safer:

• Mutual Aid Groups: a directory of some of the many neighborhood groups who have taken responsibility for caring for one another.
• Seattle Solidarity Budget: a coalition working towards a city budget that prioritizes collective care and liberation.
• Services Not Sweeps: a coalition advocating for a people-focused, humane response to homelessness.
• 350 Seattle: a grassroots organization confronting the root causes of the climate crisis.
• Tenants Union of WA State: building power for tenants’ rights and housing justice.
• Transit Riders Union: a member-run union of transit riders for better public transit.
• People Power WA: advocating for divestment from police and reinvestment in community safety.
• Creative Justice: providing a healing-centered space for youth impacted by unjust systems.
• House Our Neighbors: social housing, climate action, connected communities.
• Collective Justice: restorative and transformative justice that gets at the root causes of violence.

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If you need immediate help with housing, food or health, here is a crisis line where you can talk to someone about what you need, and they will give you advice on where to find help:

Call Crisis Connections: 2-1-1 Monday-Fridays between 10am-4pm to talk with someone about health, housing, food and other services. Or text with them at 898211.

24-Hour Crisis Line: 866-427-4747

Search the Crisis Connections directory

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Email comments or questions to me at