In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Clarence Gideon, a Florida man who had been convicted of felony theft after he could not afford legal counsel for his defense. The landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright mandated that any criminal defendant who could not afford to hire an attorney must be provided one at no cost.

Gideon’s Call, Tatiana Garmendia’s mural in the mezzanine of Seattle’s historic Dexter Horton Building, celebrates the work of King County’s Department of Public Defense (DPD), which provides free legal representation to people who cannot afford it and works to reform the criminal legal system. Every day DPD staff maneuver complex challenges on behalf of their clients; to Garmendia, their constant choreography recalled parkour and freerunning, an acrobatic and athletic form of creative movement in which people navigate physical obstacles.

I envisioned [the DPD staff] pivoting, vaulting, and leaping over columns and a stylized cityscape. In Gideon’s Call, figures move across both a skyline and a series of columns that recall the iconic structures that decorate the Dexter Horton Building. –Tatiana Garmendia

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Based in Seattle and born in Cuba at the height of the Cold War, Garmendia is an interdisciplinary artist who uses figures to explore myths, archetypes, and histories. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, and is held in public collections in New York, Miami, Illinois, California, Ohio, and the Dominican Republic.