Island community uses quirky, oversized art to drive COVID awareness

"The eyeballs move!" -- Michelle Bates, co-creator of the van mask

This is the week my daughter and I had expected to be vacationing on Vashon, a lovely island in the southern Puget Sound where a dear friend of mine resides. Our plans were, of course, thwarted by the pandemic. Now, my friend has been assuring me that nothing fun is happening there this summer, that everything is closed and that we won't be "missing anything." But then I saw a post on the VashonBePrepared Facebook page that triggered my FOMO. It shows a minivan that has been anthropomorphized with eyes and an oversized mask. Quirky large-scale art with a message is definitely my thing!

I had to know the story. So I tracked down one of its creators, Michelle Bates. She told me that her partner Stefan Freelan had originally masked the van for a friend's graduation parade. Together they updated it, and later drove it through an island-wide Fourth of July parade representing the Vashon Emergency Operations Center.

Michelle shared that the masked van was inspired by another unusual piece of art. This past Memorial Day, artist Mik Kuhlman welcomed visitors to Vashon from the back of a pickup in a giant red coat.

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber:

The purpose behind the performances was to greet Memorial Day visitors to Vashon at the moment they disembarked from ferries and traveled through town, urging them to wear masks and consider the fate of an island community with limited healthcare resources.