Artist Statement
Fear exists in opposition to creativity; it exists in collective trauma. I exist to make art.
My work is about and for queer bodies. It exists for a sensibility of alienness and not assimilating, of refusal to be calmed. It exists for the queer spirit that itches for change. It's work that does not want to be stoic, to both speak to the serious but leave with a bit of mystery, whimsy, and innocence.
The body holds the space between the spirit and the world. It is the place in which all experience and decoding happen. It's where queerness exists and where it hides. It's were harm is done and where agency can be found. The body tenses to the world when it is afraid. Cells shut down, part of the brain turns off. Fear is spread in the current state, pushed by algorithms, TV’s, through trauma, violence, and harm. Fear is spread from body to body, from generation to generation. The collective body tenses turns away, is suspicious of change. The collective body is a traumatized body. It is forced into looking, behaving, and feeling ways that fit the expectations. Tense bodies are afraid of untense bodies. Fear turns off the part of the brain that allows a person to make more creative decisions, and to monitor and manage their behavior. Trauma changes the structure of the brain.
I have been engaging with people in new ways, to turn away from fear as a mode of understanding, towards community, connection and joy as solutions. Community is keeps us above water, and keeps us looking forward. Trusting, and seeing each other leads to health, for the individual and the community.
Art shows us who we are and who we could be. It opens us up to be sensitive and attuned to the world and ourselves.
“Wholehearted living is about engaging with our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion and connection to wake up in the morning and think, ‘No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.’ It’s going to bed at night thinking, ‘Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”
― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection