Guardians of the Seven Seas

Tracie Ching was born on the island of Oahu in the late 80s. Later moved to the mainland and raised in New Jersey, Ching was dedicated to art from a young age. She earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2009 before pivoting to illustration and portraiture. Largely self-taught, she became a self-employed artist by 2011 known for her highly graphic cross-hatching style.

Ching made her home in pop-culture creating alternative movie posters for cult classics and showing in galleries such as Spoke Art in San Francisco. She has since grown her portfolio to include commercial art for Hasbro and Penguin Randomhouse, covers for TIME and Newsweek and key art for Disney, Netflix, and Marvel Studios.

Ching is also known for her political work such as the official inaugural poster for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, viral KavaNope poster and voting initiatives like Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote.

She is often engaged on social justice and welfare campaigns like PSAs for Smokey the Bear, the Equal Rights Amendment campaign and National Geographic’s Campaign for Nature.

Ching’s work has been shown in the Getty Museum and Design Museum in London and in the permanent collection of The Library of Congress and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. She is founder and principal mentor of the biennial We Create Mentorship & Grant program.

Several issues are at play. The challenges confronting our oceans are intertwined and overlapping, which makes them even more difficult to address and places additional strain on marine species and habitats.