I know I’m not the only one who has marveled at the degree to which Seattle's arts community has embraced the Seahawks' rise to NFL dominance. Several people from the local music world address their perhaps unlikely love of the team in this week’s issue, and next week sees the opening of Stranger Genius of art Rodrigo Valenzuela’s "Future Ruins," a show that deals explicitly with the socioeconomic reality of the workers who clean up after public football celebrations (Valenzuela calls them “the 13th man”), at the Frye. But flying below the rarefied radar of these more established forms, primarily on social media, is fan art. The most striking collection of Seahawks-related fan art I’ve seen is created by a local artist who goes by the name Scrump Schkin, which also happens to be the name of the artist’s pet rabbit, who can occasionally be seen doing card tricks (see video below) at Pike Place Market next to a sign that reads “12th Bunny Rabbit.” As revealed in the large gallery of images below, Scrump Schkin’s work operates on a lot of levels. In fairness, not everyone sees these levels. I do, however, so I wrote and asked her to meet me at a coffee shop in the shadow of CenturyLink Field last week to discuss her work. She brought the rabbit with her.

If you haven’t seen Scrump Schkin on Facebook lately, it might be because, like many artists and performers, she got flagged for using a pseudonym. So she changed the page name to "LaScrump Schkin". She told me she'd prefer not to reveal her real name for publication. “I’ve had a lot of artist friends,” she told me, “but I’ve never called myself an artist. Most artists I know that are really talented—and I’m not saying I am—but most of the ones I really admire are super private. It’s no other reason than that. It’s not like I’m an escapee from Alcatraz.” She moved to Seattle four years ago from Detroit, which she called “a gigantic ghetto, very dangerous. ‘Like a war zone’ is the best way I can describe it. I actually risked my life every time I did everything in Detroit.” She says her Seahawks art project—which consists largely out of digitally superimposing a number 12 on a series of increasingly unlikely creatures—grew out of her adopted city’s infectious enthusiasm for a team and a game that, until recently, hardly anyone in the local arts world seemed to care about at all.

Are you a football fan? Are you making fun of football fans?
I definitely am not making fun of football fans, although I think I could easily get a lot of fans who are making fun of football fans. There’s extremes in so many things out there. I’ve been an artist all my life. I’ve done graphic computer art for Chrysler and Norwegian Cruise Lines. I’ve been a manager for a graphic art company and what not, went to school for it, won contests, and this and that. The software I use is so complicated that it’s a little overwhelming, so I’ve chosen to use software that’s not as complicated and make things that are more simple and humorous to catch people’s eye and make them look at things from a different angle. I’m from Detroit, MI, and I did Detroit Tigers posters when they were in the playoffs. But with all the hype in this area, the fans are just so much more united that I thought it was a great opportunity to throw what I have out there. I had so many ideas floating around in my head with this 12th Man concept, but I just ran out of time. So, I’m not making fun of them, but people tend to get so into certain things… I’m trying to point that out in my art.

A lot of people I’ve shown your stuff to comment on its primitive aesthetic, with the low-resolution scans and sort of crude collage style. Is that an intentional part of the humor?
Exactly. That’s exactly right. I spent so much time working as a manager for a graphic art company and going to school at the same time and trying to win competitions where I had to have the right font. I was like the font queen, you know? And I just stopped. I stopped art altogether, and when I started back again I started doing things more simply so I could get my ideas out there. [Later, in an e-mail, she elaborated on this answer: “i purposely limit myself with not huge amounts of choices for font & other things with software, etc. in order to focus on trying to create something simple, that people are expecting to see & look at BUT then surprise them with something new, unique. Even though I won 1st place in contests among college students, the professor's advice was to leave more empty space & not so crowded. So, that & other various reasons caused me to stop & approach producing from a different perspective.”]

Tell me about your rabbit.
I’ve had this 12th Bunny Rabbit for three years. I have a permit at Pike Place Market. He does card tricks. You can find him on the internet. Last year he actually predicted the Super Bowl with his card tricks. This rabbit was given to me when I was going through a life crisis trial, so I had no choice but to bond with it, and I bonded with it so well I taught it card tricks. It’s been really entertaining to entertain other people.

How do you teach a rabbit to do close-up magic?
There’s a secret I definitely have given out to different people at different times. I’m not sure I should give it out at this point in time. I’ll be glad to, maybe at a later time.

Fair enough.
There’s so many people who are so hyper and crazed about their 12th Pets. I started a Facebook page called the 12th Pet Pep Rally and I got 100-plus members in less than 12 hours. People are just crazy about their pets. One guy has trained his puppy to poop on a San Francisco logo. It just goes on and on, just really funny things. I just have all these ideas that I need to get out there as an artist. I’ve had some really funny reactions. When the cheeseheads were coming to town, somebody put a cheesehead on Jesus Christ, right? I thought “oh, that’s interesting, maybe I’ll put a 12 on Jesus,” right? So I put a 12 on Jesus, and this one lady sends me a message back that says, “That’s blasphemy! You’ve just jinxed our team.” She was really really really really angry. I just ignored it. I mean, I could’ve said 100,000 things, and now I kind of want to respond to her, but like… they had a cheesehead on Jesus, maybe they were jinxed, too.

Maybe they were. Have you heard other objections from sports fans?
I’m a sports person. I’ve been in gymnastics. I was a gymnastics coach, even a judge for a national competition and what not, so I know people might say [my art] is not good sportsmanship, but I look at what else is out there. And I mean, we’re talking about Oscar from Sesame Street—how can he do any wrong? And Godzilla. I didn’t put that out till a certain time. Certain things I’m really careful about when I put it out there. Everyone loved the Godzilla after they won.

Where does the name Scrump Schkin come from?
It comes from bunny boy. He was given to me and his name was, like, Captain Buckmeister and he was only a year old. I’m actually his third parent, so I felt bad. I mean, he’s a purebred champion show rabbit. He has a little tattoo in his ear to prove it and what not. He was sold at nine months old, but he was a champion show rabbit before that. And he has a kind of heavy behind, so he was just kind of scrumping around, you know? I was watching him, observing him, and I just decided to name him after his personality. And I’ve come up with all sorts of clever things like, if he doesn’t do the card trick—which is super rare—I’ll be like “oh, he’s got a scrumpitude.” He’s got lots of nicknames.

It seems like a rabbit doing a card trick that predicts the Super Bowl winner is the whole reason YouTube was invented.
People have been telling me for two years, “you’ve gotta get that on video” because it’s so mesmerizing. People think that the rabbit’s reading their mind, I do the trick so good, or he does.

Have people been responding to the video?
I have about a thousand hits, but I haven’t done a lot of promoting. I mean, I’ve only done the artwork in between being super busy. I mean really busy. But I had to get the ideas out of my head. I’m still in that condition but not as bad cause I’ve put so much stuff out there.

Is he going to make a prediction for this year’s game?
I definitely want to do it, and I’m willing to do it, which is really, like, putting my reputation on the line, obviously, but… we’re willing to do it. Personally I think the Patriots should forfeit the game. I’m really paying close attention to the deflating issue. I don’t know a lot about it, but I’m trying to keep updated because we could just win, you know? And I think that would be neat, but I just don’t know enough about the subject.

What’s your ambition for your art, career-wise?
To reach youth. It’s so sad, all the youth out there on the streets and stuff. I’m a youth magnet. I have a real heart to reach youth. I really love helping people.

Go Hawks!