Painting & Drawing
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The concept of “biological reality” is frequently misrepresented in conservative propaganda to delegitimize transgender identities. As a transgender painter with a background in the natural sciences, I am interested in exploring notions of “biological reality” in my work. I paint in layers, letting parts of the underpainting and earlier iterations of my compositions show through. Using this obstruction method, I paint seemingly unremarkable organisms and present them as windows or portals to queer self-realization; Or, more specifically, conduits for epiphanies about the joy, sadness, and laughing-crying absurdity of being transgender in this current political moment.
Over the last two semesters of my undergraduate degree at CCA, I have been exploring digital distortions and multilayered interference through oil painting. In response to the rapidly devolving political situation in the US and world, my paintings have become heavily process-oriented; I will often begin one painting and then start a completely different one on top of it. Though sometimes I completely obscure the previous iterations of a painting, I feel that hidden underlayers imbue my work with the humor of scrapped ideas and creative struggle. My process is impulsive and iterative, and the forgiving nature of oil paint allows me to easily wipe away and paint over select areas.
I am interested in making work that explores the complementary relationship between epiricism and the abstract, imaginative nature of artmaking. In the contemporary moment, where truth itself is being eroded, the empirical world is terrifying, and to escape into an imaginary world is equally as unsettling; in my paintings, I try to bring both concepts together into a cohesive visual composition, gesturing at the utopian idea that a balance of the two can bring a certain enlightenment.
Oarfish/Diva Down, 2026, Oil on Canvas, 20x24 in
Reflections of the sky are portals somewhere else, 2026, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 24x24 in
Banana Plant, 2026, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 24x20 in
Blue Cod, 2026, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 24x20 in
Iron, 2025, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 54x54 in
Cultivar, 2025, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 40x30 in
On display at Mother Call Me!, a group show at Bass and Reiner
Cyborg Anthropology, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 24x20 in