
Paintings + Prints for Body Liberation: Participant Spotlight on Grace Athena Flott
Today we’re sitting down with Grace Athena Flott to talk about her art and her experience with Seattle Restored! Grace is a painter fascinated by the myth of normalcy and social constructions of health, beauty, and gender. Remixing Italian Renaissance iconography and surrealistic narratives, Flott’s lifelike figurative paintings and portraiture speak to the dynamics of representation through a feminist disability justice lens.
Q: Hi Grace! Tell us about your artistic focus.
A: My painting practice is the core of my artistic focus. That includes making original paintings, mainly figurative or portrait, creating custom works of art for clients, and being a teaching artist at various art schools around Seattle. I also do limited edition print releases and have begun working in printmaking and installation.

Q: What’s a current project you’re working on, and how can your Seattle Restored participation help you with it?
A: My current project is called New Icons, it’s a community portrait project of folks with visible scarring from burn injuries that celebrates the lived experience of disfigurement. I created collaborative portrait paintings, scar prints on paper, abstract paintings inspired by scar patterns, and interviewed 11 people who participated. I also hosted a healing arts scar print workshop for everyone involved. Seattle Restored has helped to increase the exposure of the project, especially by having a window activation in a high foot traffic area. A window downtown is visible to a lot of people and is more approachable than a museum or gallery which suits my goal of bringing this conversation to the public.
Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your artistic pursuits?
A: Working with my community to change the narrative of what it means to live with visible difference and disfigurement, and to do this with play, experimentation, and lots of color!
Q: What are you looking forward to this year?
A: More time with friends, more rest, and more time collaborating with other artists.
Q: What brings you most alive about working or living in Seattle?
A: I live for swimming in the lake in summertime. Open water swimming is transcendental. Also, the activist spirit of the artistic community here. Coming from a long ago background as a labor organizer I find many folks here aligned with my values.

Q: If you could give any one piece of advice to locals, what would it be?
A: Don’t be the Seattle Freeze: look people in the eyes, smile, and say hello. It makes all the difference.
Q: What’s your favorite Seattle Restored pop-up or art installation and why?
A: I love Mariposa Migrantes by Nico Inzerella. Just so colorful and the portraits are so emotionally present.
Q: What’s your favorite Seattle memory?
A: Getting a late night Seattle dog from the hot dog guy in front of Chop Suey.
Q: Where would you spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in Seattle?
A: Wandering Volunteer Park with a friend and a good strong coffee. I love to see how the colors of the trees and flowers change season to season.
VISIT GRACE ATHENA FLOTT

Address:
1501 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
Open hours: Anytime Window Art Display
Dates: August 24, 2023 – December 31, 2023