We are a small multidisciplinary art studio and licensed home kitchen residing on unceded Lisjan Ohlone territory, also known as xučyun (Huichin), also known as Oakland, California.
Shrine is an ever-evolving collaborative effort we began soon after becoming partners 10 years ago; it arose from our desire to explore our creativity and build community. It is our attempt, however imperfect, to do something more in alignment with our values while earning a living as artists and craftspeople.
We express ourselves in a variety of mediums, from visual art, design, and moving images to culinary art and music. We hope this project enables us to explore as many of our multifaceted interests as possible. All the work we produce is labor intensive; we pour time, energy and attention to detail into everything we make and are obsessive about quality. While we each have our specialties, everything you see here is a collaborative effort, borne out of our love for one another and our creative processes.
We recognize that our personal dreams of art making cannot exist in a vacuum of individuality, and so we pray that our work can contribute, in some small way, to our collective liberation as a species. How best to make this contribution is a constant process of discovery for us, but right now, we are choosing to raise money for mutual aid efforts at home and abroad as often as we are able. In this way, we hope our work can be supportive to our family while honoring the wider community. Until such a time when monetizing our passions is no longer necessary, we sincerely hope you find something that inspires your senses in our shop.
- Waleed & Monica
Monica was born and raised in Korea and spent a decade in NY before moving to Oakland. She creates all the visual art and design featured here. She has worked as a motion designer for over a decade, and after leaving her full-time position at Google, she began honing her skills as a tattoo artist. Recently, she has begun working with earth pigments and natural dyes, leading her to explore printmaking. She draws inspiration from the folk arts around the world, the folk wisdom from her homeland, the local plants, birds, and ochers of her current surroundings, and most of all, the daily practices of parenting.
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Waleed Zaiter وليد زعيتر
Waleed was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised on Turtle Island. He hails from a long line of skilled cooks on his mother’s side and wily hustlers on his father’s. He is responsible for producing all the confections in our sweets shop; a side project he began almost 20 years ago that slowly evolved into an obsession. He also documents the production process, edits videos, and assists Monica with print production. In addition to his work in the kitchen and studio, he enjoys practicing Sufi hymns in Arabic and cooking meals for his family and friends.