Marin Horikawa, founder of Burlington’s Safe and Sound Gallery, envisioned something different for his third exhibition: Rather than another show of prints or paintings, the walls of his modest, white-painted space are lined with T-shirts on hangers. Horikawa handpicked a dozen local and nationally known artists (including himself), all of whom have current or past relationships with Vermont. Considering the T-shirt as a canvas, the artists produced designs ranging from a fierce-looking wolf head by Tyler Stout to a sleek bird-like graphic by Byron O’Neill to a line drawing of hands holding a flower by Sarah Letteney. Horikawa then printed the shirts in limited quantities — short-sleeved or long-sleeved, black or white. Proceeds from sales of the tees, he says, will fund children’s art classes he is planning for the spring.
