By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Mar 25, 2020 at 2:50 PM

The coronavirus pandemic has changed our everyday life, but it doesn't need to change who we are. So, in addition to our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus, OnMilwaukee will continue to report on cool, fun, inspiring and strange stories from our city and beyond. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay informed and stay joyful. We're all in this together. #InThisTogetherMKE

Honorary lifelong Milwaukeean Jeremy Novy currently lives in Los Angeles, but continues to contribute greatly to our local public art scene by stenciling hundreds – maybe thousands – of orange-and-white-and-black koi fish around town.

The famous fish refer to anti-authoritarian coded symbols in Chinese art under communism. Much of Novy's art revolves around images of drag queens, physique pictorials and pornography. His mission is, according to his artist page, to "bring to life the multiplicity of modern identity, reminding us that we, each of us, must walk the streets of our cities in collective solidarity."

Novy, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts and earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, isn't creating street art during this period of social distancing so, like most artists, he went online with his goods.

He's selling T-shirts, prints, stickers and more cool stenciled stuff on his Etsy page. Click here to check it out.

"As a traveling artist I’ve greatly been impacted by my ability to travel and keep others safe. Of course we all want to be safe but we really need to look at this as keeping others safe and the counter effect of that is we will be safe," says Novy. "So I’m not traveling, but I’m also not getting paid commissions to stencil stuff for people."

Check out this video of Novy creating koi art on a sidewalk in Walker's Point:


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.