Acrylic painting through transness and disability

Influenced by how people perceive their own and others’ experiences, my work uses a/typical surfaces and bright, colorful paint to emphasize the subjectivity of perspectives. With my experiences as a nonbinary, Black, neurodivergent lesbian in the United States, my experiences place me outside of all of the “normal” constructions of western social categories. Through my own filter, I use textured paint and embodied surfaces to draw in my audiences formally with shape, color, and layering to give them access to complex issues of gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and race. Emphasizing experience, my work demonstrates a need for compassion and nuance to generate a better future.

Although we all have our own perspectives, they are undeniably influenced by social forces around us. My work conveys how everyday objects, phrases, and experiences that are seemingly innocuous—such as bathroom signs and toilets—are framed by different lenses of being. By using layering, visible brushstroke, and shifting colors, I am not only enlarging or reframing an image or scene, I am also reminding the viewer that an object is changed when it is viewed as worth recreation by a person.

Process

After creating my surface (via canvas stretching, woodworking, or fiber work), I apply a flat, typically bright, color to my surface; I consider what the painting is going to be and how the colors will function together. Once I have done this, I sketch in an underpainting with watered-down acrylics very loosely and gesturally with the colors I intend to use or colors that have some functional or conceptual significance to me. I do this so that I know where things go, but also because I want my viewer to be able to see the brightness underneath.

Maybe I have blocked out text in a color that doesn’t exist in my reference, or I give someone with black hair a blue blob for a head. From here, I go on with my rendering, trying not to adhere too closely to the colors in my reference. This, along with strategic placement, or lack thereof, of paint creates an interplay of layers that I use to show my process, but also to confuse the reality of the object or scene that I am recreating.

All of these things combine to remind the viewer that I am not just showing them an image of a sign or a protest, but a painting with considered choices.

Acrylic painting through transness and disability

Process

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