Famous 'Wash Your Hands' poster turned into coloring book

SILVER LAKE (KABC) -- "Wash your hands," is a statement echoed consistently throughout the coronavirus outbreak.

But local Silver Lake artist Eric Junker has been reminding people to wash their hands for years with his art.

Junker originally created the "Lavez Les Mains" poster about four years ago to remind restaurant employees to wash their hands before returning to work.

"It really seemed to resonate with people and then I created a series of limited-edition screen-printed posters of the handwashing poster which we started buying and putting in other restaurants," said Junker. "It was just by serendipity of the times that it was suddenly - it became a PSA with the onset of the urgency to watch hands during the COVID quarantine."

The poster was first displayed in the New York City restaurant Lafayette and has since been placed in restaurant bathrooms in Silver Lake and Highland Park.

But now Junker's work has taken on a new urgency.

"I want people to wash their hands. It's much more urgent. The original one was for the restaurant was for the employees to wash their hands before returning to work," said Junker.

People who want to get their hands on the poster can buy one on his website or at Silverlake Wine.

But Junker decided to make his work even more accessible with a downloadable coloring book.

"People saw the poster and started asking for other languages and I thought that would be a great coloring book too. So that's being updated ongoing, you can download it now. But as it evolves, there's just more and more languages being asked added as people ask me to do that," Junker said.

"We're just we are all in this together. And it's just a crazy, weird thing that we're all experiencing together," said Junker.