Ricky Tagaban's Gift Guide for Creative Tastemakers

Our annual gift guides return! Each one is thoughtfully curated by a neighbor near you. We asked local artist Ricky Tagaban to give us a sense of what other creative tastemakers like him might enjoy! Ricky's gift guide is deeply rooted in a sense of place and includes shout outs to many other local artists, so we love how it demonstrates the way our creative community uses their own opportunities to lift up others. Perhaps the trendiest thing to an artist is supporting other artists? The gift that keeps on giving! We buy into this idea for sure.

KP: What do you do by day and what do you do by night?

RT: By day I weave with Lily Hope and by night I tiptoe in drag and weave by myself. 

KP: What or who are you feeling most connected to lately?

RT: Probably Clarissa Rizal. Her legacy has been a driving force in my life for several years, but more and more I've been kind of dissecting or trying to dissect just how she did everything so boldly. I'm trying to figure out what my version of that will be. But she's the prototype for sure.

KP: What are you most looking forward to in 2020?

RT: Turning 30. Not being in my twenties anymore. I've made a loose list of goals for what I want to be habitual by the time I'm 30 and I'm starting that now. I loved my twenties (I still do), but I'm very much looking forward to my thirties.

"I love these because they come from *you* (Christy NaMee Eriksen). I have to stop myself from just standing at the shelf and reading all of them and wanting to cry. They're easy to share; what's on them are good prompts for what you might write in the card. I need prompts sometimes." - Ricky

Growing Upwords "I Love This Place" Card Set, $20.

"This tie will never go out of style. Also it's topographic so it seems to relate to where we're from in a really beautiful way. The pattern is small enough so it can kind of register as a solid - it's hella neutral and can go with evvvverything." - Ricky

Dazi Topographic Necktie, $39.

"I love these guys; I follow them on the instagram. I also think baseball is the sexiet sport. And recycling baseball gloves is even more sexy than playing baseball. :D" - Ricky

Vintage Baseball Glove Card Holder, $60.

"These particular earrings by Roz and Mary are exciting because they are working on different combinations of this - they're the male and female reproductive parts of salmon and they're making different combos of male and male, female and female, etc. (Also they look like fake nails so we're collaborating on maybe making some formline fake nails)! They're always trying mew designs, they do a really good job of trying to be more thoughtful every time they create new bodies of work." - Ricky

Daaljini & Roz Spawning Salmon Copper Earrings, $70.

"Michaela is probably my favorite artist in southeast. She's so kind and she's so good at what she does, and it has just been really cool to watch her progress. Everything she makes is so relatable. Aside from being incredibly talented, she's a really good person in our community. I adore her." - Ricky

Michaela Goade "Crab Harvest" Print, $35.

"I've always loved this calendar. They do a really good job of being inclusive; there's something for just about everyone. There's a lot of good humor and a lot of meaningful things, and who doesn't want burly mountain people? And not just burly, sometimes they're fragile, sometimes they're musical. There are all kinds of beautiful depictions of Alaskan folks." - Ricky

Mountain Men of Alaska 2020 Calendar, $22.