Godeus Community Quilt

Item details

A powerful and colorful mural painted by Sam McWilliams and Youme Landowne at Godeus St, Bernal Heights features children holding a huge quilt with different designs and symbols. It was designed and painted with community participation to give voice to important concerns of the neighborhood members. The quilt includes a panel to honor Sam’s father, James McWilliams, a wonderful, creative artist who died of AIDS in 1994.

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Meet the Creator

Sam McWilliams is an acclaimed tattoo artist from San Francisco, California, with experience in the industry since 2002. Named to several Best Of Tattoo Artist Lists, Sam excels at botanical and nature-inspired designs, text, precise lines, fine details, and many other styles. Sam lives and works in Vancouver, BC, where she has an art practice with her partner Paige Gratland that includes making films, custom cowboy boots and traveling to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She returns to San Francisco regularly to tattoo clients.

Sam is an ocean-lover, surfer, and outrigger canoe paddler. She has also worked as a blacksmith, community muralist, youth wilderness guide, and organic farmer and gardener. For many years she worked to integrate gardens into public school curriculums and arts programming. She has traveled in Central and South America, Asia and Europe. She is a Zen Buddhist practitioner in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi.