It’s quite a bit different from the spaces interdisciplinary artist Monyee Chau’s creations have graced in the past. On Saturday, the day before the Chinese New Year starts, Chau’s design will be on the warmup jerseys before the Seattle Kraken host the Colorado Avalanche at Climate Pledge Arena.
Chau, who is Taiwanese and Chinese American, wove together the Kraken’s block “S” logo and a design honoring the Year of the Rabbit. The feedback on social media has been glowing.
“The comments that I’ve been receiving are from a lot of other people who celebrate Lunar New Year, responding about being excited that they see themselves in this work,” Chau said. “And I think that’s all I could ask for.”
Chau graduated from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts and, according to their website, believes “in the power of storytelling and breaking bread as a means of community building for the path to justice and liberation.” They are a part of the art collective at flower flower — “queer, brown folks who all met through the Chinatown International District.”
The Kraken project happened to coincide with an area of interest — history, legends and lore about the animals in the Chinese zodiac. In particular, the story of the Jade Rabbit.
“He’s considered a divine medicine maker because he is working on the potion for immortality,” Chau said. “He’s a companion to Chang’e, the moon goddess.”
Chau immediately saw potential for a curled rabbit in the Kraken logo. The rabbit is surrounded by a red ribbon, a reference to the traditional art of ribbon dancing.
First time’s the charm. There were a few iterations, but they wound up back at the first edit.
“[The Kraken organization] let me just kind of guide the vision. They had a couple of colors to choose from, but otherwise wanted me to have full creative direction with the project,” Chau said.
The jerseys, part of the Hockey is for Everyone series, will be autographed and put up for auction with the proceeds benefiting the One Roof Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena.
Chau is set to be in attendance Saturday, joined by attendees of the art workshop series with artist collective Flower Flower hosted by youthCAN, the Wing Luke Museum’s after-school arts program for high-school students.
There they’ll get to see the last stop on the journey from iPad to NHL.
“It’s definitely a new surface that I’m really excited to see,” Chau said.
Injury update
Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury collected his first point of the season Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils in his seventh appearance, taking the place of Justin Schultz.
Schultz, who has spent most of the season on Seattle’s second defensive pairing alongside Jamie Oleksiak, missed his third game of the season. He played 10:12 and registered an assist Tuesday in a 5-2 loss to Edmonton. Coach Dave Hakstol suggested he’d have an update on Schultz on Friday.
Fleury, meanwhile, has been a healthy scratch this season except for the rare occasions when the Kraken blue line has suffered an injury or weathered a suspension. His last game was Dec. 15 in Carolina — the last time Schultz was injured.
“He hasn’t played for four or five weeks. That’s a challenge, stepping back into the lineup,” Hakstol said. “But he does the work every day. All the work that goes on behind the scenes — you see some of it after morning skates, after practices, things like that. That can be a bit of a lonely world at times, when you’re doing that day after day.
“But it’s extremely important to do it at a high level so that you have an opportunity to come in tonight and be comfortable in game action.
“Cale’s a younger guy coming in, but he’s not a young kid. He’s been around. He knows his job. He knows his role.”
Jaden Schwartz missed his fourth game due to undisclosed reasons. Ryan Donato, playing in Schwartz’s spot, scored in each of the first two periods. After Alex Wennberg’s faceoff win, Fleury sent the puck up the boards to Jared McCann, who went off on a 2-on-1 with Donato. Donato made it 2-0 and Fleury earned the secondary assist.